A document needs to be notarized for a mailbox on Form 1583. The remote online notary comparison lines up video, a house call, and a store counter.
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 Illinois owner needs a notary this week. The form is the use-case. The mailbox store is someone else’s product.
Legal
This page is not legal advice. An in-state commission is a notary license from Illinois. A regular Illinois-commissioned notary may perform remote ink-signature notarization under 5 ILCS 312/2-102(b). Electronic notarization, the video session with an electronic seal, needs a separate Electronic Notary Public commission and a Secretary of State–certified system. A bank, a commercial mailbox (CMRA), or the Postal Service still decides whether this packet may be remote.
Not legal advice.
The Illinois 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 Illinois that phrase usually points at electronic notarization. A company cannot turn a regular Illinois notary into an Electronic Notary Public. It also cannot erase the electronic commissions the Index Department has issued since 2024.
Illinois (the state rule)
State rule · September 2026- In-state RON
- A
- Signer RON access
- A
- Walk-in / mobile backup
- C
Primary sources: Illinois Secretary of State, Notary Services; 5 ILCS 312/2-102, 2-105, 6-102.5, 6A-104; 14 Ill. Admin. Code Part 176. Country context: NASS and NNA. Secondary vendor map: Proof, July 8, 2026, not the country authority.
Two Illinois video jobs, and why a webcam is not always enough
The National Notary Association’s 2023 rule write-up is blunt. Illinois electronic notarization is the remote-online-notary product.
- Traditional in-person is the room job.
- Remote notarization is a printed document plus a physical notary seal. Any appointed notary may conduct it. 5 ILCS 312/2-102(b). The signer must attest to being physically in Illinois. 5 ILCS 312/6-102.5(b)(3). Identity can be personal knowledge, a credible witness, or remote presentation of a government photo ID. A knowledge-based quiz is allowed, not required. 14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.700. A legible copy goes by overnight mail, fax, or electronic means no later than the next day, and the notary notarizes and returns it within 24 hours. 5 ILCS 312/6-102.5(c). That is not a $25 e-seal checkout.
- Electronic notarization is an electronic signature and seal, usually over live audio-video. The notary must hold an Electronic Notary Public commission and identify SOS-approved technology. 5 ILCS 312/2-102(d) and 14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.800. The notary must be physically in Illinois, and the venue is the county where the notary sits. 5 ILCS 312/6A-104(e) through (f). The signer may be in the United States, or outside it only for a U.S. court or government matter, U.S. property, or a transaction substantially connected with the United States. 5 ILCS 312/3-105(b) through (c). A regular notary who never took that commission cannot finish it.
Illinois residents apply online for a Notary Public or Electronic Notary Public commission. Questions go to enotary@ilsos.gov or 217-782-7017. A regular bond is $5,000. Remote notarization by audio-video needs a $30,000 bond, or the $5,000 bond plus an extra $25,000. 5 ILCS 312/2-105 and 14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.340. Adding it to an existing commission needs a provider-approved electronic signature and the provider’s name. If 90 days or less remain, renew first.
Illinois SOS publishes a certified electronic-notarization system-provider list. 14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.805(q). This page does not say whether Proof, NotaryLive, or any other directory brand is on that list today.
If the electronic notary does not personally know the signer, 14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.835 requires credential analysis of a government photo ID plus a quiz of at least five questions, five answer choices each, 80 percent correct, two minutes, one retake inside 24 hours, and a second fail locks that notary for 24 hours. 14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.835(c). If that cannot finish, use a mobile notary or a walk-in. A broken link, a departure, or a poor picture restarts the act, including identity. 14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.720, 176.860(d), and 176.825(c).
An electronic notary must keep an electronic journal and an audio-video recording for at least 7 years. 5 ILCS 312/6A-104(d) and 14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.840. New York and Florida use 10 years. Texas SOS states five years for online notaries. For remote ink-signature calls, 5 ILCS 312/6-102.5(b)(2) tells the signer or the signer’s designee to keep the recording at least 3 years. The certificate must state the audio-video wording in 14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.730 or 176.810(c) and 5 ILCS 312/6A-104(e).
Statute notes
The National Notary Association’s 2023 rule write-up is blunt: Illinois “remote” notarization is essentially remote ink-signature notarization. You sign a printed document in wet ink on a live video call, then mail or fax it. Illinois “electronic” notarization is the remote-online-notary product. The Illinois State Bar Association’s June 2023 explainer, labeled secondary bar news, lists the same three options: traditional in-person, remote (ink over video), and electronic (e-seal over video).
- Remote notarization is a printed document plus a physical notary seal. Any notary appointed under the Illinois Notary Public Act has authority to conduct remote notarizations. 5 ILCS 312/2-102(b). The signer must attest to being physically in Illinois on the live call. 5 ILCS 312/6-102.5(b)(3). Identity can be personal knowledge, a credible witness, or remote presentation of a government photo ID. Enhanced identity checks, including a knowledge-based quiz, are allowed but not required. 14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.700. After the call, the signer sends a legible copy to the notary by overnight mail, fax, or electronic means no later than the next day. The notary notarizes that copy and sends it back within 24 hours. 5 ILCS 312/6-102.5(c). That is not a $25 e-seal checkout.
- Electronic notarization is an electronic signature and electronic seal on an electronic document, usually over live audio-video. Before that act, the notary must hold an Electronic Notary Public commission and identify SOS-approved technology. 5 ILCS 312/2-102(d); 14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.800. The electronic notary must be physically in Illinois at the time of the act. The venue is the Illinois county where the notary is sitting. 5 ILCS 312/6A-104(e)–(f). The signer may be in Illinois or elsewhere in the United States. A signer outside the United States is allowed only if the record is for a U.S. court or government matter, involves U.S. property, or is a transaction substantially connected with the United States. 5 ILCS 312/3-105(b)–(c). A regular Illinois notary who never took the electronic commission cannot finish this session from a webcam.
The Secretary of State’s notary home page, as retrieved from public SOS copy: Illinois residents apply online for a Notary Public or Electronic Notary Public commission. A hardship path using a printed application exists. Questions go to enotary@ilsos.gov or 217-782-7017. A regular bond is $5,000. Remote notarization by audio-video needs a $30,000 bond, or the $5,000 bond plus an extra $25,000. 5 ILCS 312/2-105; 14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.340. Adding electronic notary to an existing commission needs a provider-approved electronic signature and the provider’s name. If 90 days or less remain on the current commission, the SOS online-application copy says renew first.
Illinois SOS publishes a certified electronic-notarization system-provider list. 14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.805(q). We did not load a live table this retrieval that we can quote as current names. This page does not say whether Proof, NotaryLive, or any other directory brand is on that list today. Name the SOS list, then confirm the live page before you pay.
The ID check on the electronic track is not a courtesy box. If the electronic notary does not personally know the signer, 14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.835 requires multi-factor authentication: credential analysis of a government photo ID plus a dynamic knowledge-based quiz. The rule’s floor: at least five questions, five answer choices each, 80 percent correct, two minutes, one retake inside 24 hours, and a second fail locks the same electronic notary for 24 hours. 14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.835(c). If those steps cannot be satisfied, the electronic notary may not perform the act. That is when a mobile notary or a walk-in becomes the product that can finish.
A broken call is a restart, not a pause. If the signer or the notary leaves the session, the audio-video link breaks, or the picture is too poor to finish, the act starts over, including identity confirmation. 14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.720 (remote ink-signature notarization) and 176.860(d) (electronic session). If a signer leaves the identity-check workflow early, that check also starts over. 176.825(c).
The session file is part of the act. An electronic notary must keep an electronic journal and an audio-video recording for at least 7 years, even if the act never finished. 5 ILCS 312/6A-104(d); 14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.840. That printed floor is shorter than New York and Florida (10 years) and longer than the five years Texas SOS prints for its online notaries. Remote ink-signature calls are different again: 5 ILCS 312/6-102.5(b)(2) tells the signer or the signer’s designee to keep that recording at least 3 years. Do not mash those three keep-times into one number.
The certificate has to say the meeting used audio-video. Remote ink-signature notarization: “This remote notarization involved the use of audio-video technology.” 14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.730. Electronic: “Notarial act performed by audio-video communication.” 14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.810(c); 5 ILCS 312/6A-104(e).
What actually needs a notary on an Illinois LLC / bank stack
Illinois LLC formation is filed with the Secretary of State as Articles of Organization (Form LLC-5.5). The official SOS guide we retrieved, Guide for Organizing Domestic Limited Liability Companies, says each organizer must sign and print a name and address. 805 ILCS 180/5-1 and 5-45 make that signature an affirmation under penalty of perjury. They do not say the Department of Business Services requires a notary for that filing. 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 printed document that sits next to the LLC.
| Document | Typical notary question | Video vs an ink signature |
|---|---|---|
| IL LLC Articles of Organization (Form LLC-5.5) | Usually none for the SOS filing itself. Live SOS guide: the organizer signs; 805 ILCS 180/5-45. We did not read a notarization requirement on that guide. | Do not buy a video session because a blog said “LLCs need a notary.” Confirm the live form. |
| Bank signup documents (resolutions, signature cards, sworn statements) | The bank’s current checklist. Some desks accept an Illinois electronic notary or an out-of-state video notary. Some want a printed document signed in ink. | Ask the desk before you pay $25. The bank sets its own notary rule. |
| Operating agreement or power of attorney the bank requested | The notarization type printed on the form. | An Illinois electronic notary is often enough if the desk accepts a remote electronic act. If they printed “in person” or “wet ink,” that is a mobile notary or a walk-in. Remote ink-signature notarization can also produce ink, after the mail-back step in 5 ILCS 312/6-102.5(c). |
| PS Form 1583 (mailbox signup) | Yes, a notary public licensed in a U.S. state, territory, possession, or DC, or the mailbox store employee in person. June 2024 form. | The form’s own note allows a live video call. An Illinois electronic notary or an out-of-state video notary can both fit that sentence. Using a random picture pasted on the PDF is a common reject. See the 1583 page. |
| Vehicle title, motor-vehicle power of attorney, real-estate closing | The Secretary of State facility, title company, lender, or closing desk, not this site, decides whether a remote act is enough. | We have not read a current SOS-facility or title-company rule that we can quote as a statewide video policy. If the desk wants ink, do not buy a video session to argue with them. |
| Will or estate document | We did not read a clean statewide sentence that every Illinois will may be an electronic notary checkout. The receiving desk or the estate statute in front of you is the authority. | No current official page we can cite says the desk will take a remote electronic will today. When the desk wants a printed document signed in ink, that is a mobile notary or a walk-in. |
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
Because in-state electronic notarization is live, all-night service is a real option for many Illinois documents, if the receiving desk will take a remote electronic act. An Illinois Electronic Notary Public or a notary licensed in another video-notary state can both close that session. Company availability letters live on the directory, once.
If the desk wants a regular Illinois notarization of a printed document, or the identity quiz fails, you are shopping store hours or a booked house call. Remote ink-signature notarization can still finish some of those jobs, but it is a scheduled ink-and-copy path, not an instant e-seal. That is the C on walk-in / mobile showing up as a calendar. It is not a failure of the state rule.
5 ILCS 312/3-104 prints legal maximums for an Illinois-commissioned notary: $5 for a non-electronic notarial act (with a higher cap under Section 3-102), and up to $25 for an electronic notarial act. A copy of a journal entry or recording may carry a reasonable extra fee. That is a state fee cap. It is not a company sticker and not a UPS price. The consumer starting prices we cite on company cards are still the official pages retrieved August 2026.
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 Illinois rule and the document table. Official starting prices we cite: NotaryLive about $25 per session; Proof/Notarize about $25 for the first notarization and $15 for each extra notarization; OneNotary online about $25 and mobile from about $80. BlueNotary does not publish a session price. Independent Illinois mobiles are not that OneNotary sticker. Counters set their own prices.
Related guide: how to notarize a power of attorney. An Illinois property power of attorney needs at least one witness and a notarized signature, and the notary cannot be that witness.
Related guide: Illinois remote ink notarization (RIN). It walks through the ink path step by step: the signer in Illinois, the next-day copy, the notary’s 24-hour return, and who keeps the recording.
Related guide: Teams notary. Why a plain Teams or Zoom meeting is usually not a notarization, and where the Illinois ink path fits.
Related guide: apostille birth certificate. An Illinois birth certificate for use abroad starts as a certified copy from the county clerk, a local registrar, or the Department of Public Health. This page grades notaries, not that apostille desk.
Form 1583 as an Illinois 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 Illinois signer can use an Illinois electronic notary or an out-of-state remote notary.
What we will not do here: grade mailbox brands, pick a Chicago 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
- Read the receiving desk’s current instruction. If they printed “in person” or “wet ink,” do not buy a video session to argue with them. If they will take ink over video but not an electronic file, that is Illinois remote ink-signature notarization, not a platform e-seal.
- If they accept a remote electronic act, you may use an Illinois Electronic Notary Public or a notary licensed in another video-notary state. The Illinois Secretary of State is the authority for the in-state electronic commission. NASS and NNA are the country sources. The company’s live notary pool is the day-of fact.
- Budget the extras from the official page, extra notarization, extra signer, witness, before you upload a six-signature packet at the $25 sticker. The $25 in 5 ILCS 312/3-104(b) is the electronic-notary-act cap, not a promise that the company’s checkout stops there.
- If the identity quiz fails the statutory retry, stop treating “try again after midnight” as a plan. 14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.835(c)(7): a second fail locks retry with the same electronic notary for 24 hours. 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.
- Keep the session confirmation. The value of an Illinois electronic session in a later dispute is the recording the statute already requires electronic notaries to keep for at least 7 years. The value of a walk-in is the ink the desk already said it wanted.
Sources
- Illinois Secretary of State, Notary Services: online apply for Notary Public / Electronic Notary Public; hardship path using a printed application; bond $5,000 regular vs $30,000 for remote notarization by audio-video; enotary@ilsos.gov; 217-782-7017. The SOS site returned a server error on a later retrieval from this environment; facts above match the public SOS copy we retrieved and the statute/rules that implement it.
- Illinois SOS, online notary application: add electronic notary to an existing commission; provider-approved electronic signature and provider name; commission-number rules; renew first if 90 days or less remain.
- Illinois SOS, Electronic Notarization System Providers. SOS publishes certified providers (14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.805(q) also points at the Index notary home). We did not load a live name table this retrieval. This page does not say whether a directory brand is certified today.
- 5 ILCS 312/2-102: any notary appointed under subsection (a) may conduct remote notarizations (b); separate Electronic Notary Public application (c); electronic A/V acts require the electronic commission and SOS-approved technology (d).
- 5 ILCS 312/2-105: $5,000 traditional bond; additional $25,000 or a combined $30,000 when remote or electronic acts are in scope. Implemented at 14 Ill. Admin. Code 176.340.
- 5 ILCS 312/6-102.5: remote ink-signature acts; signer attests to being in Illinois; recording kept by the signer or designee at least 3 years; next-day copy to the notary and notarized return within 24 hours.
- 5 ILCS 312/6A-104: electronic A/V recording; keep at least 7 years even if the act is not completed; electronic notary physically in Illinois; certificate must note audio-video communication.
- 5 ILCS 312/3-104: maximum $5 for a non-electronic notarial act (with the Section 3-102 exception); maximum $25 for an electronic notarial act.
- 5 ILCS 312/3-105: electronic notary physically in Illinois; signer in Illinois or elsewhere in the United States; signer outside the United States only with the U.S.-nexus exceptions printed in subsection (c).
- 14 Ill. Admin. Code Part 176: rules effective June 5, 2023. Remote ID and restart: 176.700, 176.720, 176.730. Electronic commission, providers, identity quiz, journal: 176.800, 176.805, 176.810, 176.835, 176.840. Quiz floor: five questions, five choices, 80 percent, two minutes, one retake, 24-hour lock after a second fail (176.835(c)).
- NNA, Illinois administrative rules 2023: remote notarization is remote ink-signature notarization. You sign a printed document in wet ink on a live video call, then mail or fax it; electronic notarization is the remote-online-notary product.
- Illinois Blue Book, Office of the Secretary of State. Index Department Notary Public Division began commissioning Electronic Notaries Public in 2024.
- ISBA, June 2023 administrative-rules explainer: labeled secondary bar news. Three options: traditional in-person, remote (ink over video), electronic (e-seal over video).
- Illinois SOS, Guide for Organizing Domestic Limited Liability Companies (Form LLC-5.5): organizer must sign; we did not read a notarization requirement. See also online LLC instructions and 805 ILCS 180/5-1, 5-45.
- NASS, Remote Electronic Notarization: country-level enacted-law count.
- NNA, What is a Remote Online Notary?: notary-side status, including states that have not authorized RON.
- Proof RON map (July 8, 2026), labeled secondary vendor map. Proof is also a listed vendor on this site.
- Notarize consumer pricing: $25 / $15 / $15 / $10.
- NotaryLive pricing: $25/session; extras; 10-year storage.
- OneNotary individuals pricing: $25 online; mobile from $80.
- PS Form 1583, June 2024.