Remote online notarization · State comparisonRemote online notarization laws by state: where the signer can be, how identity is checked and what the certificate says

None of these statutes requires the signer to be in the state; in Florida, Minnesota, Montana, Alaska, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Delaware, Utah and Washington the notary must be located in the state, and in Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, Kansas, Iowa, North Dakota, Delaware and Washington a signer outside the United States can use remote notarization for a document involving U.S. property or a transaction substantially connected with the United States. Identity is checked by personal knowledge or by an identity process: Florida, Texas and Alaska require a government ID with credential analysis and identity proofing (Fla. Stat. §117.265; Tex. Gov't Code §§406.108, 406.110; AS 44.50.075); Minnesota sets the knowledge-based questions in the statute – five questions, two minutes, 80% correct (Minn. Stat. §358.645); Iowa, North Dakota, Delaware, D.C. and Washington follow the uniform act and accept personal knowledge, a credible witness or two types of identity proofing (Iowa Code §9B.14A; N.D. Cent. Code §44-06.1-13.1; 29 Del. C. §4320; D.C. Code §1-1231.13a; RCW 42.45.280); Utah requires live audio-video meeting the lieutenant governor's rules plus an image of an ID (Utah Code §46-1-3.6). Florida, Utah, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, Delaware and Washington require the session to be recorded – Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, Delaware and Washington set at least ten years of retention – Texas requires an electronic record of each act, and Florida, Texas, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, Delaware and Washington require the certificate to show that the notarization was remote or online. The biggest difference: Connecticut allows remote notarization in general but bars a remote acknowledgment in a real estate closing as defined in §51-88a and for a power of attorney, making it ineffective (Conn. Gen. Stat. §3-95b(i)). Other differences that matter at closing: North Dakota, Delaware and D.C. let a signer sign a paper record and send it to the notary within three days, and Maine within four; D.C.'s Recorder of Deeds, a Kansas register of deeds and a Wyoming recorder may, and a Montana county clerk and a South Dakota register of deeds must, accept a certified paper copy of an electronic record; South Dakota allows a paper document over video only when the notary personally knows the signer; Montana and Kansas also require an approved course and exam before a notary's first remote act; Virginia and Wyoming treat an electronic or remote act as performed in-state and governed by their law wherever the signer is; Wyoming adds remote ink notarization, an acknowledgment of a paper document the signer signs and sends to the notary first; Iowa says a recorded real estate document is effective even if its remote certificate was defective; and Minnesota, Utah, Iowa, North Dakota, Delaware and Washington require the notary to register, be certified or notify the state before the first remote act. Whether a closing can use it still depends on the lender, the title company and the recording county.