Alabama video notary vs mobile: paper-remote exists under Ala. Code § 36-20-73.1; an Alabama-commissioned notary stays in Alabama, keeps the recording seven years, and still puts wet ink on the original — that is not a Proof-style same-session e-seal

This page is a notary scorecard. It is not a mailbox directory. Form 1583 is the Postal Service form you sign so a mailbox store can receive your mail. It appears here because mailbox signup is a common reason an Alabama owner needs a notary this week. The form is the use-case. The mailbox store is someone else’s product.

This page is not legal advice. An in-state commission is a notary license from Alabama. Do not paste a California “cannot RON” rule onto Alabama. Alabama has a different product. Ala. Code § 36-20-73.1, added by Act 2021-319 / SB 275 and amended by Act 2023-548, lets an Alabama notary take a remote acknowledgment on paper: live two-way video, the notary stays in Alabama, the session is recorded and kept seven years, and documents used on the call are provided to the notary for authentication and original (wet-ink) signature. That is not a same-session electronic RON checkout. A bank, a commercial mailbox (CMRA), or the Postal Service still decides whether this packet may be remote.

The Alabama grade that is not a company letter

We grade the state rule first. Remote online notarization (RON) is a video session with a notary. In Texas or Florida that phrase means a consumer checkout with an electronic stamp. Alabama’s live in-state video path is paper-remote. A company cannot turn an Alabama stamp into a Proof-style e-seal. It also cannot erase the paper-remote statute.

Paper-remote is live. An e-seal checkout is not.

The Secretary of State’s Notaries Public page is blunt about who runs the desk. Alabama Code §§ 36-20-70 to 36-20-75 govern notaries. Probate judges appoint and commission them for four years. The Secretary of State keeps the public list. The same page points to Act 2023-548 as the recent rewrite. Those sentences do not sell a webcam e-seal card.

§ 36-20-73.1 is the statute that runs the in-state video job. Mixing it into one “Alabama RON” checkout is how a Birmingham owner pays $25 and still has to move paper.

• Paper-remote notarization is a notarial act using two-way audio-video communication for a person who is not in the room. The notary and the remotely located signatory communicate at the same time by sight and sound. The notary is physically in Alabama. The session is recorded and kept seven years. § 36-20-73.1(d)(2). The official date and time of the act are the date and time the notary watched the signature, including on video. Documents used during that call shall be provided to the notary for authentication and original signature. § 36-20-73.1(g). Original signature, in that section, is wet ink on the paper. NNA’s 2021 law-update: Alabama requires the remote act on an original paper document with original wet-ink signatures.
• Electronic remote online notarization is a tamper-evident electronic seal on an electronic file, finished in the same session. That is the Proof or NotaryLive consumer product. § 36-20-73.1(c): unless another law says otherwise, the notary’s powers require that original signature. NNA’s overview: Alabama and Connecticut have remote laws for paper documents only. Do not tell an Alabama-commissioned notary to finish a same-session Proof checkout.

Act 2023-548 added a default that people mash into “Alabama banned video.” § 36-20-73.1(a): except as that section otherwise provides, a signature the notary acknowledges shall be executed in Alabama and in the physical presence of the notary, after personal knowledge or a government photo ID. The rest of the section is the otherwise. Video is the exception, not the wipe-out.

The ID check is not a courtesy box. For a remote signer, § 36-20-73.1(e) wants personal knowledge, or two valid government IDs — one with the face and signature — plus a process that checks public or private data sources. NNA’s 2021 note: that data-source process is not spelled out. If the notary is not satisfied, the notary does not have to finish. That is when a mobile notary or a walk-in becomes the product that can finish.

The recording is part of the act. § 36-20-73.1(f): keep the date and time, a description of the papers, an attestation that the notary is in Alabama, a description of how identity was checked, a clear image of any government ID if used, and a clear image of the signing the notary watched. The keep-rule is seven years. That is not the ten-year clock other live-RON states print for an e-seal file.

NNA’s Alabama how-to, last updated April 21, 2022, is a process note, not the statute. It says hold a regular Alabama commission, pick two-way video gear, and that no extra remote class or second remote bond is required for the video job. Digital certificates are not required because the stamp is still wet ink. That page predates Act 2023-548. The Secretary of State’s live page: beginning September 1, 2023, new and renewal applicants complete a pre-commission training program from the Alabama Probate Judges Association and the Alabama Law Institute. That is commission training. It is not a Proof provider registry. We did not retrieve a live e-RON signup on that page.

NNA’s 2022 how-to also says the remote path is for acknowledgments, and that other notarial acts stay in the room. The statute is written as appearance before an acknowledging notary. We will not invent a remote jurat product we did not read.

§ 36-20-74, as amended by Act 2023-548: a reasonable fee, not more than ten dollars, for each notarial act. A state, county, or city employee may not charge for an act done as part of public service, unless another law says so. NNA’s 2026 fee table reprints $10 and labels the remote line “paper documents only.” We use the statute. We will not invent a $25 Alabama paper-remote checkout. Company starting prices we cite on the directory, about $25 a session, are still the official pages retrieved August 2026. Those are company stickers, not an Alabama fee schedule.

The printed remote ban is about voting, not a California wipe-out

§ 36-20-73.1(i) is the hard stop we can quote. Remote notarization may not be used to notarize an absentee ballot application or an absentee ballot affidavit, or for any purpose related to voting. That line was already in Act 2021-319. Act 2023-548 kept it. A remote acknowledgment on those papers is the wrong product. It is not legal advice. Localize the paper before you buy a video session.

We did not read a Connecticut-style list that keeps wills, powers of attorney, or real estate closings off Alabama remote acknowledgment. We will not invent one. The receiving desk still decides. Proof’s July 8, 2026 vendor map, labeled secondary, says signers in Alabama can use out-of-state RON for most document types. That map also lists Alabama among five states without authorizing their notaries for electronic RON. We keep both. We do not flatten them into “Alabama has no remote law.”

What actually needs a notary on an Alabama LLC / bank stack

An Alabama LLC is formed by filing a Certificate of Formation with the Secretary of State. Ala. Code § 10A-5A-2.04: the initial certificate must be signed by at least one organizer. The live SOS LLC page we retrieved: reserve the name, file the original and one copy, pay $200. The Certificate of Formation form we retrieved asks for a signature as required by § 10A-5A-2.04. We did not read a notarization requirement on that statute or those form instructions. People still show up asking for a notary because a bank, a processor, a landlord, or a mailbox asked for a sworn statement on a different piece of paper that sits next to the LLC.

We do not publish a bank-by-bank or county-by-county “accepts video” list we have not read on that desk’s page this month. If you need the operating address so a bank will open the account, that is a different product. It is not this site’s directory.

Open all night versus booked, in this state

If you need a same-session electronic seal tonight, that is an out-of-state video notary, and only if the receiving desk will take that stamp. An Alabama-commissioned notary cannot close that session. Company availability letters live on the directory, once.

If you need an Alabama stamp on paper, you are shopping paper-remote plus delivery, store hours, or a booked house call. Paper-remote is the C on the in-state video path showing up as a mailbox. It is not a failure of the 2021 statute. It is the live rule. Voting papers skip that mailbox and stay in the room.

The ID check on an out-of-state video call is not a courtesy. Companies print an ID scan and a quiz from your credit file. Signers with a thin U.S. credit file, a new tax ID, or a foreign passport fail that quiz more often than ads admit. That is when a mobile notary or a walk-in stops being “old fashioned” and becomes the product that can finish.

The ten dollars in § 36-20-74 is the Alabama notary-act cap we can quote. It is not a promise that a video company’s checkout stops at $10, and it is not a UPS price. The consumer starting prices we cite on company cards, about $25 a session, are still the official pages retrieved August 2026. Counters set their own prices at or below the statute cap.

Company letters live on the directory

Availability, identity check, and session-record letters for Proof/Notarize, NotaryLive, OneNotary, BlueNotary, mobile, and walk-in are on the directory, once. This page keeps the Alabama rule and the document table. Official starting prices we cite: NotaryLive about $25 per session; Proof/Notarize about $25 for the first stamp and $15 for each extra stamp; OneNotary online about $25 and mobile from about $80. We do not invent a session price for BlueNotary. Independent Alabama mobiles are not that OneNotary sticker. Counters set their own prices.

Form 1583 as an Alabama use-case, without becoming a mailbox review

USPS will not let a commercial mailbox (CMRA) hand you mail until PS Form 1583 (June 2024) is complete. Form 1583 is the Postal Service form you sign so that store can receive your mail. You sign in person with the store (or an authorized employee) or with a notary public. The form’s note allows a live video call. An Alabama signer can use an out-of-state remote notary if the store accepts that stamp. An Alabama-commissioned notary cannot finish that video session as a same-session e-seal. Paper-remote delivery is a different Alabama product. That is closer to Connecticut wet-ink video than to Florida or Ohio, and it is not a California “no remote law” story. Other states have their own rules. See Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, or Wisconsin if that is your state.

What we will not do here: grade mailbox brands, pick a Birmingham, Montgomery, or Huntsville storefront, or explain store flags. Those are mailbox questions. The notary question is: did the session match the form (U.S.-licensed notary, two IDs, home address matching the address ID), and will the store accept that session? Details live on Form 1583 notarization.

A sequence that usually wastes less money

1. Read the receiving desk’s current instruction. If they printed “in person,” “wet ink today,” or “Alabama notary in the room,” do not buy a video session to argue with them. If the paper is an absentee ballot or any voting record, § 36-20-73.1(i) already closed the remote path.
2. If they accept a remote electronic act on ordinary paper, you may use a notary licensed in another video-notary state. You may not use an Alabama-commissioned notary on a same-session e-seal checkout. If they will take an Alabama paper-remote stamp, budget the delivery loop. The Secretary of State and the county probate judge are the authority for the in-state commission. NASS and NNA are the country sources. The company’s live notary pool is the day-of fact.
3. Budget the extras from the official page, extra stamp, extra signer, witness, before you upload a six-signature packet at the $25 sticker. The ten dollars in § 36-20-74 is the Alabama notary-act cap, not that checkout.
4. If the identity check fails, stop treating “try again after midnight” as a plan. Switch to a mobile notary or a walk-in. NotaryLive’s FAQ describes a Personal Verifier path. That is their product, not a universal escape hatch.
5. Keep the session confirmation. The value of an out-of-state remote session in a later dispute is the recording that notary’s state already requires. The value of a walk-in is the ink the desk already said it wanted. The value of Alabama paper-remote is the original with the wet-ink stamp, plus the seven-year recording § 36-20-73.1 already requires. Do not count on an Alabama e-RON file. The statute does not print one.