Someone who closed on a house in Texas last year over a video call assumes California works the same way, and the assumption is reasonable given how many states now allow it. It does not work that way here yet. The notary desk at Newport Beach Mailboxes & More fields this question weekly, often from people holding a deadline and a document that a lender or title company expects back within days. The short answer is that a California notary still cannot notarize your signature over video, and the longer answer explains what you can do instead.
Can a California notary notarize a document over video right now?
No. A notary public commissioned in California must have the signer physically present, in the same room, at the moment of the notarial act.
Personal appearance is the requirement California has never relaxed, including during the pandemic when dozens of other states issued emergency remote authorizations. A video call, a screen share, or a signer holding an ID up to a camera does not satisfy it. A California notary who completed a notarization that way would be performing an unauthorized act.
Confirm the current status with the California Secretary of State before you rely on this, since the implementation timeline described below has a triggering mechanism that can move the date forward.
What did Senate Bill 696 actually do?
SB 696, signed in October 2023, authorized remote online notarization in California but did not switch it on. Remote online notarization, usually shortened to RON, means a notary and a signer complete the notarial act over live audiovisual technology rather than face to face.
The law directs the Secretary of State to build the supporting infrastructure first, including a registration process for notaries who want to perform RON, technology standards, and identity verification requirements. Its provisions become operative on January 1, 2030, or earlier if the Secretary of State certifies to the Legislature that the required technology is in place. California passed the law and then gave itself several years to implement it, which is why RON exists on the books and not at the counter.
Will California accept a document that was notarized online in another state?
Usually, yes, though the receiving party gets the final say. California Civil Code section 1189 provides that an acknowledgment taken outside California is sufficient if it complies with the laws of the place where it was taken.
More than forty states have permanent RON statutes, so a notary commissioned in Florida, Texas, or Virginia can lawfully notarize remotely, and the resulting document generally travels. Where this breaks down is at the intake desk rather than in the statute. County recorders, title companies, banks and probate courts each set their own acceptance policies, and some still refuse electronically notarized instruments. Ask the specific institution that will receive the document before you pay for a remote session.
What is the difference between RON, IPEN, and remote ink notarization?
Three terms get used interchangeably and mean different things. RON is a remote appearance with an electronic signature and an electronic seal. IPEN, in-person electronic notarization, keeps the signer physically present while the signing and sealing happen digitally. Remote ink-signed notarization, or RIN, has the signer appear by video and then mail a wet-ink document to the notary.
California currently permits none of them for its own notaries. Wet signature, physical presence, physical seal.
What does a California notarization require in person?
Satisfactory evidence of identity, a signature in the notary’s sequential journal, and a fee capped by statute at $15 per signature for acknowledgments and juries.
Acceptable identification includes a current California driver’s license or ID card, a U.S. passport, or another qualifying government-issued document, and it must be current or have been issued within the past five years. A signer without ID can be identified through credible witnesses, either one witness personally known to the notary or two witnesses who present their own qualifying identification.
Real property documents carry an extra step. California requires the signer’s right thumbprint in the notary journal for deeds, quitclaim deeds, deeds of trust and powers of attorney affecting real property. Notaries here are also barred from advising which certificate a document needs, so the wording of the acknowledgment or jurat has to come from you, the drafting attorney, or the receiving institution.
What does Newport Beach Mailboxes & More do when the signer cannot travel?
Mobile notary service solves most of it, because physical presence does not require the notary to stay behind a counter.
A notary can meet a signer at a hospital bedside, an assisted living facility, an office, or a kitchen table anywhere in California, since a commission is valid statewide rather than county by county. For a signer genuinely out of state, the workable path is a notary licensed where that person is standing, then overnight the executed originals back. Newport Beach Mailboxes & More handles the notarization and the return shipping in the same visit, which matters when a title company wants the package by a specific business day.
Online notarization is coming to California, but it is not here, and a deadline this week needs a plan built around the rules in force today. Bring the unsigned document and valid identification to Newport Beach Mailboxes & More, or ask about a mobile appointment if the signer cannot come to you.
