Iowa remote online notary: the state rule and your options

Mixing the labels into one “is video legal in Iowa?” checkout is how a Des Moines owner pays a company sticker and still has a notary who never filed the remote application, or treats a $25 company price as if Iowa had copied Missouri’s $5 electronic cap. Iowa video work is legal. It is not automatic on the day the ordinary commission arrives. The commission dollar is the rare number the statute and the live forms page both print.

• Remote online notarization is a notarial act for a remotely located individual, by communication technology. Communication technology means a live connection you and the notary can see and hear. Iowa Code section 9B.14A. The notary is physically in Iowa. You are not in the same room. The document is electronic.
• An in-person electronic act is a different job. The remote page says the notary and the signer are in the same place, the certificate is signed electronically, and the notary certifies the act electronically. That is often called in-person electronic notarization. It is not the video product. A notary who never filed the remote application can still do that in-room electronic act if the technology notice in section 9B.20 is done. The signer is still in the room.

The ordinary commission comes first. Iowa Code section 9B.21, as the 2026 code display we retrieved shows it: the Secretary of State issues a commission for three years. The applicant is at least 18, a citizen or permanent legal resident of the United States, a resident of Iowa or a person with a place of employment or practice in Iowa, able to read and write English, and not disqualified under section 9B.23. The application fee is thirty dollars. Before the commission issues, the applicant executes an oath of office and submits it to the Secretary of State. A resident of a state that borders Iowa may be appointed if that person’s place of work or business is in Iowa. That term is one year, and the commission expires if the person stops working or keeping a place of business in Iowa. The section does not print a bond. A bond is a promise of money if the notary fails the duties of the office. It is not the price of your session. Kansas prints a $12,000 bond in K.S.A. 53-5a22. Iowa’s commission section does not.

The live Secretary of State materials we read agree with the $30 and with the three-year term for an Iowa resident. They do not use one sentence about who renews every year.

• Section 9B.21, retrieved for this page: application fee $30; Iowa term three years; bordering-state resident who works in Iowa, one year. History line: 2012 Acts, chapter 1050, section 19. The remote chapter that uses this commission was added later, by 2019 Acts chapter 44.
• Secretary of State, Notary forms and fees: application $30, renewal $30, change of name or address no fee, and “Application for Approval to Perform Remote Notarizations” no fee. Renewal points at section 9B.21A. That section says the Secretary, two months before the commission expires, notifies the notary and furnishes a blank reappointment application. It does not restate the $30. The forms page does.
• Iowa Notaries Public handbook, the PDF we retrieved from the notary forms site: the application fee on the steps we read is $30. The reminder at the front says Iowa residents renew every three years, and notaries who are not Iowa residents renew every year. The FAQ answers “Do I need a notary bond?” with “No, Iowa does not require a bond.”

The one-year sentence is the place those two sources are not the same width. Section 9B.21 prints a one-year term for a resident of a bordering state whose work or business is in Iowa, and it says the commission expires if that work in Iowa ends. The handbook reminder says notaries who are not Iowa residents renew every year. The statute we read does not say every nonresident. It says a bordering-state resident with Iowa work. We are printing both. We are not deciding which window a clerk will use for a nonresident who does not live in a bordering state.

The remote application is a second gate, and the dollar for that gate is the one the forms page and the remote page agree on: there isn’t one. Section 9B.14A(7): before the first remote act, the notary notifies the Secretary of State and identifies the technologies. The section does not print a fee. The forms page prints “No fee” on the remote application. The remote page says there is no cost to register as a remote online notary, and that the commissioned-notary fee is the $30 you already paid. The handbook FAQ says the same thing about the registration and adds that the training course is a third-party fee and that the technology solutions have varying costs. Kansas’s remote notice is $20. Iowa’s remote filing with the Secretary is not.

The course is the third number, and it is not a Secretary of State filing fee. The remote page says the course is provided by the National Notary Association, that it is the only course the office approves, and that the fee is $30, paid to take the course. The page links that association’s Iowa remote course. 721—43.5(3), as the rule PDF we retrieved shows it: the course must be finished inside the six months immediately before the first remote act, and the notary must give the Secretary satisfactory proof. A notary who already finished that first course at least once before the 12 months leading up to a reappointment, and who wants to keep doing remote acts, must finish an update course inside the six months before the reappointment deadline. The remote page we read describes one course at $30. It does not print a second price for the update course.

The approval runs with the commission. 721—43.5(2): approval to perform remote acts expires on the same date as the commission. Two months before that date, the Secretary notifies the notary and furnishes an application for reapproval, and may combine that form with the reappointment form. Oklahoma’s remote chapter is harsher on the label: a $25 authorization ends when the commission ends and does not renew with it. Iowa also wants a fresh remote approval when the commission is renewed. The forms page we read still prints that application as no fee. Neighboring Missouri wants the remote capability registered again on recommission and caps the electronic act at $5. Iowa’s reapproval is a form. It is not a $5 cap and it is not Kansas’s $20 notice.

The technology is a roster the Secretary publishes, not a sentence that every checkout brand is already approved for the notary on your screen. The remote page says there is a list of approved technology vendors, and the link on that page goes to the remote registration form. The form we retrieved heads the list “Remote notarization technology providers approved for use by Iowa notaries” and ties the list to section 9B.14A(7). Names on that list include Blend Signing Room, Blue Notary, DocuSign Notary, eNotaryLog, Expedite (formerly known as DocVerify), NotaryLive, OneNotary, Pavaso, Proof (formerly Notarize), SIGNiX, Simplifile eSign Events, SnapDocs (formerly Pactima), and Stavvy. The list is longer than the names repeated here. 721—43.11: a provider registers, and the Secretary approves the technology before an Iowa notary may use it. 721—43.10: a notary who is authorized for remote work may use a provider only if that provider has registered and been approved. 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. A checkout that shows one of those names is the company’s screen. It is not a statement that this notary named that provider on the remote application for this commission term.

Ordinary video-call software is not on that roster. The remote page says Skype, Zoom, and Facebook may not be used for the remote process. Chapter 9B and 721—chapter 43 require software designed to facilitate remote online notarization. The page says that software has to include identity proofing (the page spells the requirement “identify-proofing”), a way to sign electronically, and storage of the recordings of the notarial act. A phone app that only makes a video call is not the approved path.

Read the fee rule before you treat a company price as Iowa law. The handbook FAQ: a notary may charge a reasonable fee. A notary cannot refuse the service because the person is not a customer, and the employer cannot restrict the notary for that reason. Section 9B.8(3) is the statute for that customer sentence. We did not read a dollar maximum in sections 9B.14A, 9B.20, 9B.21, or 9B.21B, or in 721—chapter 43. Section 9B.21B is a different fee. It is what the Secretary charges for copies and certifications of notary records: one dollar a page, and five dollars for a certificate. It is not the price of your session. Missouri’s $5 electronic cap is not an Iowa number. Wisconsin’s five-dollar document cap is not an Iowa number. A company sticker near $25 can be the company’s price. It is not an Iowa cap, and it is not the $30 commission, and it is not the $30 course.

Where you may sit is section 9B.14A, and the notary’s chair is narrower than yours. The notary is located in Iowa. You may be in Iowa. You may be 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 handbook says the notary must be inside Iowa’s geographical boundaries. An Iowa commission is used in Iowa. The handbook FAQ says an Iowa commission is not a license to notarize in other states.

The ID check has three doors, and the quiz door has numbers that are close to Kansas and not the same. Section 9B.14A(3): the notary may rely on personal knowledge under section 9B.7; or on the oath or affirmation of a credible witness; or on at least two different types of identity proofing. Personal knowledge means dealings that give reasonable certainty you are who you claim to be. Identity proofing, in the statute’s words, is a process or service by which a third person gives the notary a way to verify a remote signer by a review of personal information from public or private data sources. A credible witness is a person who knows you and will swear to that. Section 9B.7: a passport, a driver’s license, or a government nondriver identification card may be expired, but not by more than three years. Another government identification may be used if it is current or expired not more than three years, contains a signature or a photograph, and satisfies the notary.

721—43.9(2) is the rule for the door that uses identity proofing. Credential analysis is a check, by a third-party service, that the identification is real. The rule says the methods must be substantially similar to the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Digital Identity Guidelines. The check uses automated software, confirms security features, confirms the credential is not fraudulent or modified, confirms details against the issuer when that information is available, and gives the result to the notary. The notary then compares the photo on the identification, if it has one, with the person on the live connection. The other type is dynamic knowledge-based authentication (KBA). Knowledge-based authentication is a quiz drawn from your personal history. The rule prints the quiz: at least five questions; at least five answer choices each; at least 80 percent correct; all questions answered within two minutes; one retake within 24 hours, with at least 60 percent of the prior questions replaced; no retry with the same notary for 24 hours after a second failure; and a person who fails a third attempt is not permitted to make any further attempts. If you leave the session, the identity check starts over. Kansas uses the same five questions, five choices, 80 percent, and two minutes, and it replaces 40 percent of the questions on the retake. Iowa replaces 60 percent, and the third-failure sentence does not give a later retry. If that quiz cannot finish, a mobile notary or a walk-in is the product that can finish.

House File 397, 2023 Iowa Acts chapter 133, approved June 1, 2023, changed when the technology standards attach to that quiz. The enrolled act amends section 9B.14A(7) so that identity proofing must conform to the Secretary’s standards if the notary elects to use identity proofing. The bill text we read does not print its own effective-date section. The handbook says that, effective July 1, 2023, a notary who personally knows the signer, or who uses a witness the notary personally knows, is not required to use identity-proofing technology. In the other cases, the notary must use identity-proofing technology that meets the Secretary’s standards. We are printing the bill and the handbook. The three doors were already in the 2019 statute. The 2023 change, as the handbook states it, is that the quiz-and-credential technology is not forced on the personal-knowledge door or the known-witness door.

The certificate has required words. Section 9B.14A(4) and (5): the certificate must show that the act used communication technology. A short form is enough if it meets the Secretary’s rules, or if it is the statutory short form and contains a statement substantially as follows: “This notarial act involved the use of communication technology.” 721—43.1 and 43.2 point those remote certificates back at the same subsections. Section 9B.15: the certificate is signed and dated at the time of the act, names the jurisdiction, names the office, and, for a notary, shows the commission expiration. 721—43.3: the jurisdiction is the place in Iowa where the notary is physically located when the act is performed. Section 9B.17 says the official seal includes the notary’s name, the words “Notarial Seal” and “Iowa,” the words “Commission Number” and the number the Secretary assigned, and “My Commission Expires” with the date or a blank line the notary fills in.

The session file is part of the remote act, and a journal of every act is not the same rule. Section 9B.14A(6): the notary, or a person acting for the notary, keeps the audio-visual recording, or has a repository keep it. Unless a rule sets a different period, the recording is kept at least ten years after it is made. We did not read a shorter floor in 721—chapter 43. The handbook says the recording should be of the remote notarial act only. It says recordings of a person answering knowledge-based questions, and of the process of verifying identity, should never be recorded. The statute’s words are “the performance of the notarial act.” The handbook’s safety sentence is narrower than “record the whole call.” We are printing both.

A journal is the other place the sources do not use one sentence. The handbook says Iowa law does not require a notary to keep a journal, that a journal is strongly recommended, and that it is wise to keep journal entries for ten years. 721—43.9(1) says approved communication technology must provide an electronic notary journal that documents the electronic notarial acts. The provider-registration rule, 721—43.11, asks for a plan to keep records, journals, and recordings if the provider stops offering the technology. We are printing the handbook and the rule. We are not deciding that the technology journal replaces a journal the statute never required the notary to keep, and we are not deciding that the handbook erased the journal the approved software must provide.

One more Iowa role does not exist in the Kansas remote chapter we used as the comparison. A remote facilitator, defined in section 9B.2, is a person who takes part in a remote act by providing the communication technology or by creating, transmitting, or keeping the audio-visual recording. Section 9B.14B: to facilitate that act directly, the facilitator keeps in Iowa its usual place of business, or a registered office or registered agent, and files a foreign-entity authority statement that gives the current address. Section 9B.14C: a notary or a remote facilitator shall not sell or transfer personally identifiable information collected for the act, except to perform the act, to carry out the transaction, with written consent, under legal process, or in a business reorganization that keeps the same limits. A violation is a simple misdemeanor. Section 9B.14A(10): a provider that lets its technology facilitate the act, or that stores the recording, appoints the Secretary of State as its agent for service of process in a related civil action in Iowa.

The compiled administrative chapter prints one more date that is not the end of the statute. The 721—chapter 43 PDF we retrieved says the chapter rescission date under Iowa Code section 17A.7 is January 1, 2028. That line is the rule-review date printed on the chapter. It is not a sentence that section 9B.14A expires that day. The remote statute is in the code. The rules that carry the six-month course, the quiz, and the provider approval are in the chapter that prints that date. We are printing both. We are not treating January 1, 2028 as a repeal.