Arkansas remote online notary: the state rule and your options

Mixing the labels into one “is video legal in Arkansas?” checkout is how a Little Rock owner pays a company sticker and still has a notary who never received the electronic commission, or treats a $25 company price as if Arkansas had copied Oklahoma’s caps. Arkansas video work is legal. It is not automatic on the day the ordinary commission arrives. It is also not a second remote fee after the electronic commission, which is the Oklahoma pattern.

• Remote online notarization is an online notarial act by communication technology. Communication technology means a live connection you and the notary can see and hear. Ark. Code § 21-14-302, as Act 1047 added that definition, and § 21-14-309. The notary is physically in Arkansas. You are not in the same room. The document is electronic.
• An in-person electronic act is a different use of the same electronic commission. The eNotary page and the handbook say the notary and the signer are in the same place, and the document is electronic. That is often called in-person electronic notarization. It is not the video product. A notary who has the electronic commission and does not use an approved remote provider still has to be in the room.

The ordinary commission comes first. Ark. Code § 21-14-101, as the 2024 code display and the enactment history we retrieved show it: the Secretary of State may appoint a notary for ten years. The applicant is at least 18, a United States citizen or a permanent resident, able to read and write English, and an Arkansas resident, or a resident of a bordering state who is employed or operating a business in Arkansas, or a nonresident spouse of a United States military member who is employed or operating a business in Arkansas. The application goes to the Secretary of State with a fee of $20. The notary files, in the county of residence or of Arkansas employment, a surety bond of $7,500, or a surety contract for not more than an aggregate $7,500. A bond is a promise of money if the notary fails the duties of the office. It is not the price of your session. § 21-14-108 uses the same $20 and the same $7,500 on renewal.

The live Secretary of State materials we read agree with those two commission numbers. They do not agree with each other about the webcam, or about when a renewal may be filed.

• § 21-14-101 and § 21-14-108, as displayed for the 2024 code: ten-year term; application and renewal fee $20; bond $7,500. § 21-14-108 says that sixty calendar days before the commission expires, the notary submits a new application and the $20 fee.
• Notary Public and eNotary Handbook, revised January 2025: bond $7,500; commission term ten years; a new bond and the application fee on renewal; the exam passing score is 80 percent. The application steps say a convenience fee is charged on a card payment. Those steps do not print a dollar for that convenience fee, and they do not restate the $20. The user guide does.
• BCS Online Filing Portal User Guide: the new application and the renewal each redirect to a payment processor for the $20 filing fee. The bond line is $7,500. Renewal is available if the commission is expired or within 60 days of expiration.
• Notary FAQ, 2024: a renewal cannot be submitted earlier than 60 days before expiration. More than 60 days after expiration, the filing is a new application, not a renewal. The exam is 30 questions, and at least 24 must be correct. That is the same 80 percent the handbook prints. It is the notary’s own exam. It is not a quiz you take as the signer.

The electronic commission is the second gate, and the dollar for that gate is the one the statute and the live page explain differently. § 21-14-304: before an electronic notarial act, the notary registers the capability to notarize electronically or online. The filing is an application, an attestation that the applicant has not been convicted of a felony, and a filing fee of $20. The applicant completes a training course provided by the Secretary of State and passes an exam the Secretary approves. The applicant may sit the exam up to two times in a twelve-month period. A third failure means the applicant starts the application over. The eNotary page says the online application is an amendment for an “enotary initial application,” and that the amount paid electronically is $25: a $20 application fee and a $5 convenience fee. The same page says the course and the exam are offered for the Secretary of State by the American Society of Notaries, and that the course and exam fee is $30, paid by card during registration. We are setting both fee versions down. The statute prints $20. The live checkout prints $25 and tells you the extra $5 is a convenience fee. The $30 course is a third number. It is not the filing fee.

The eNotary page also says there are no additional registration requirements for an electronic notary to perform remote online notarizations. The statute’s definition, added by Act 1047, still says an online notary public is an electronic notary public who has been authorized by the Secretary of State to perform online notarial acts. The registration section covers “electronically or online” in one application. We are printing both. The path we read is one electronic commission, the course and exam, and a provider on the approved remote list. It is not a second Secretary of State fee that expires when the ordinary commission is renewed. Oklahoma’s remote chapter is the opposite on that point: a $25 authorization ends when the commission ends and does not renew with it.

The electronic commission runs with the ordinary commission. The handbook says the electronic term expires on the same date as the traditional commission, and that it shall not run past the traditional bond. The eNotary page says the same thing, and it recommends waiting to renew the ordinary commission first if less than a year remains. Electronic notaries must complete refresher training every two years. The handbook says that if the refresher is late, the solution provider suspends access until the training is done and a new electronic amendment is filed. A renewal of the ordinary commission does not, by silence, keep the electronic tools turned on.

The technology is a roster the Secretary publishes, not a sentence that every checkout brand is already approved. The eNotary page says an electronic notary must use an approved solution provider. For remote work, the page lists providers approved to offer remote technology in Arkansas: Expedite (formerly DocVerify), Pavaso, SIGNiX, eNotaryLog, Rocket Close, LLC (formerly Amrock), Simplifile, Snapdocs (the page spells the former name “formely Pactima Inc.”), Proof (formerly Notarize), Blue Notary, NotaryLive, and Stavvy. A star on that page marks providers that also offer in-person electronic tools. Act 1047’s definition of a solution provider is a business that applied, met standards, and was approved by the Secretary of State. That list is an approved roster. It is not a guide that disclaims approval, and it is not a ranking of which company a signer should hire. Proof and NotaryLive appear on it for remote work. A checkout that shows one of those names is the company’s screen. It is not a statement that this notary registered that provider for this commission term.

NNA’s Arkansas remote-notary how-to, labeled secondary, prints the registration cost as $25 and lists five providers: BlueNotary, Clear Sign, DocVerify, Pavaso, and SIGNiX. The $25 matches the live checkout total. It does not match the $20 the statute prints, and the NNA page does not print the $5 convenience-fee sentence. The five-name list is shorter than the roster on the Secretary of State page, and it includes a name, Clear Sign, that the live roster we read does not. We cite NNA for the sentence and we label it secondary. The roster we use is the one on the eNotary page.

Read the fee rule before you treat a company price as Arkansas law. Ark. Code § 21-6-309, amended by Act 537 of 2017: a notary may charge a fee if it is a reasonable amount the notary determines, and if it is disclosed to and agreed by the client before the act. Knowingly charging a fee the law does not provide, or a fee that breaks that rule, is a violation, with a fine of not less than $100 for each offense. The handbook repeats the reasonable-and-agreed rule for ordinary acts and cites the same section. The electronic chapter of the handbook repeats it for electronic acts and does not add a dollar. We did not read a dollar maximum in §§ 21-14-101, 21-14-304, 21-14-309, or 21-6-309. Oklahoma’s $5 and $25 caps are not Arkansas numbers. A company sticker near $25 can be the company’s price. It is not an Arkansas cap, and it is not the $20 filing fee, the $25 checkout, or the $30 course.

Where you may sit is § 21-14-309, and the notary’s chair is narrower than yours. The online notary is physically in Arkansas. You may be in Arkansas or somewhere else. If you are outside the United States, the notary confirms that the record is to be filed with or relates to a matter before a public official, court, governmental entity, or other entity subject to United States jurisdiction, or that it involves property in the United States or a transaction substantially connected with the United States. The act of making the statement or signing must not be prohibited by the foreign state where you are. The eNotary page says the same location split in shorter words: the notary is in Arkansas, and the signer may be outside the state. The handbook’s electronic chapter says an electronic notary who uses an approved remote provider must be in Arkansas and does not have to be in the same place as the signer.

The first pages of that same handbook, and the 2024 FAQ, say the opposite about a webcam. The handbook’s opening says a notary cannot notarize a document by video or remotely, and that personal appearance is required. The FAQ asks whether a notary may notarize a signing witnessed over a webcam, and it answers no. It says the signer and the notary must be physically in each other’s presence, and that this also applies to electronically notarized documents. The same FAQ says the last changes to Arkansas notary law went into effect in 2019. Act 1047 was approved April 29, 2021. The electronic chapter of the January 2025 handbook, and the live eNotary page, describe remote work as allowed when the notary holds the electronic commission and uses an approved remote provider. We are printing the opening pages, the FAQ, the electronic chapter, and the statute. We are not deciding that the 2019 sentence in the FAQ repealed Act 1047. A signer who only read the FAQ will think video is banned. A signer who only read the eNotary page will think any webcam is fine. The page itself says approved remote technology is not FaceTime or Zoom.

The ID check has three doors, and the third door is three checks at once. § 21-14-309: the notary may rely on personal knowledge of the person creating the electronic signature; or on satisfactory evidence from a credible witness; or on each of remote presentation of a government identification, credential analysis, and identity proofing. Personal knowledge means the notary already knows you well enough to be reasonably sure who you are. A credible witness is a person who appears on the live connection, identifies you, and is either personally known to the notary or identified by a government credential that contains a signature and a photograph, such as a passport or a state driver’s license. Remote presentation means a clear image of that credential, good enough for the notary to identify you and to run credential analysis. Credential analysis, in the statute’s words, is a process or service, under criteria the Secretary of State approves, by which a third person affirms that a government identification is valid, using public and proprietary data sources. Identity proofing is a process or service, under criteria the Secretary approves, by which a third person affirms who you are, using personal information from public and proprietary data sources. The sections we read do not print a five-question quiz, an 80 percent signer score, or a two-minute clock. The 80 percent figure in the handbook is the notary’s commission exam. If the identity check on a company screen cannot finish, a mobile notary or a walk-in is the product that can finish. That failure is the company’s check. It is not an Arkansas quiz score we can quote.

The certificate has a required notation, and the statute does not print one magic sentence. § 21-14-309(d): the electronic notarial certificate for an online notarial act shall include a notation that the notarization is an online notarization. The handbook says an electronic certificate still has to say what the notary did, and that the solution provider may offer a prepared certificate.

The session file is part of the online act, and the clocks are not the Oklahoma clocks. § 21-14-310: an electronic notary who performs an online act keeps a secure electronic record. For each act it includes the date and time, the type of act, a description of the document, the printed name and address of each principal, how identity was established, a recording of any video and audio conference used as identity evidence, an audio and video copy of the performance of the act, and the fee, if any. The notary takes reasonable steps to keep the record secure, keeps a backup, and protects that backup from unauthorized use. The record is maintained at least five years after the date of the transaction or proceeding. The eNotary page shortens the recording sentence: the solution provider retains the recording for five years. The statute puts the record on the electronic notary. The live page puts the recording on the provider. We are printing both. We are not deciding which drawer a later dispute will use. An ordinary Arkansas journal is a different rule. The handbook encourages one and says you are not required to keep it. The 2024 FAQ says Arkansas notaries are not required by law to keep a record of official acts, and that a journal is recommended. That FAQ sentence is about the ordinary job. It is not a repeal of the five-year online record in § 21-14-310.

One criminal label on the eNotary page is broader than the section we read. The page’s Act 1047 summary says fraud is a Class D felony. § 21-14-312, as Act 1047 added it: a person who, without authorization, knowingly obtains, conceals, damages, or destroys the certificate, disk, coding, card, program, software, or hardware that lets an online notary affix an official electronic signature or seal commits a Class D felony. § 21-14-111 is a different offense: witnessing a signature without personal knowledge, proof of identity, or familiarity with the signature is a Class A misdemeanor. We are printing the page’s “fraud” bullet and the two sections. We are not rewriting the Class D felony into a general fraud statute the section does not print.

Act 1047 also contains a temporary section the bill said not to codify. That section allowed a limited group of notaries, including attorneys and title agents and people they supervise, to witness certain documents by real-time audio and visual means, and it named videoconference tools in that temporary section. The bill made that section retroactive to March 30, 2020, and tied it to Executive Order 21-07. The permanent online rules are the codified sections, §§ 21-14-302 and 21-14-304 through 21-14-314. The live eNotary page says approved remote technology is not FaceTime or Zoom. We did not read a live Secretary of State page that still offers the temporary emergency path.

Arkansas did not name this chapter after the uniform notarial act Kansas uses. The remote rules sit in the Electronic Notary Public Act. NNA’s bill note, labeled secondary, says the online sections draw on that uniform act and on other models. We cite that note as secondary. We will not rename Subchapter 3.