Montana · MCA 1-5-603, 1-5-615, 1-5-618Montana remote online notarization: where the signer can be, the training and the recording

Montana lets a signer appear before a notarial officer physically or by communication technology (MCA 1-5-603(9)). A notarial officer may perform a remote or remote online notarization for a principal located in Montana, elsewhere in the United States, or outside the United States if the officer doesn't know the act is prohibited where the principal is and the record relates to a matter before a U.S. court or government entity, to property in the United States, or to a transaction substantially connected with the United States (1-5-603(10)(a)). The officer must be physically in Montana, identify the principal by personal knowledge or satisfactory evidence, perform the act in a single recorded session, be satisfied that the record signed is the one notarized, and be satisfied that the technology is good enough (1-5-603(10)(b)). Before the first remote act, a notary must notify the secretary of state, identify the system or technology it will use, and complete a course approved by the secretary of state and pass an exam (1-5-615(3)). The notarial officer records the entire communication and keeps the recording for ten years, and the journal entry references where the recording is stored (1-5-618). For recording, a notarial officer may certify a paper copy of an electronic record, and a county clerk must accept that copy with an original notarial certificate as satisfying any requirement that a record be an original (1-5-603(5)).