Kentucky remote online notary: the state rule and your options

Mixing the labels into one “is video legal in Kentucky?” checkout is how a Louisville owner pays a company sticker and still has a notary who never registered, or a fee the statute never capped. Kentucky’s remote path is legal. It is not automatic on the day the commission arrives. It is also not a $25 legal maximum borrowed from another state.

• Remote online notarization is an electronic notarization by an online notary who is physically in Kentucky, using communication technology. Communication technology means a live connection the signer and the notary can see and hear. KRS 423.355(4): if the signer appears by communication technology, the certificate must say so.
• In-person electronic notarization is a different box on the same registration. The signer is still in the room. The record is electronic. KRS 423.390(11)(d) asks the notary to say which of the two, or both, the registration covers.

The commission comes first. KRS 423.390(2): the applicant is at least 18, a United States citizen or permanent legal resident, a resident of or employed or practicing in the Kentucky county where the application is made, and able to read and write English. KRS 423.390(3): the commission term is four years. KRS 423.430(3)(a): the Secretary of State may charge $10 for the commission application or a renewal. That $10 is the commission line. It is not a session price.

Within 30 days of receiving the commission, the applicant appears in person before the county clerk named in the application, takes the oath, files the commission, and files assurance. KRS 423.390(4). The assurance is a surety bond of $1,000, issued by a surety licensed in Kentucky. KRS 423.390(5). The notary may perform notarial acts only while that assurance is on file with the county clerk. County clerk fees follow KRS 64.012. The notary section does not print those county dollars.

Online work is a second gate. KRS 423.390(10): before the first notarial act on an electronic record, or before the first online notarial act, the notary registers with the Secretary of State. The notary is already commissioned, submits an electronic registration, pays a registration fee “as specified in KRS 423.430,” submits the forms the Secretary requires, and submits proof of the $1,000 assurance. The statute does not ask for a second bond. KRS 423.355(6) says the same registration step in shorter words: register before performing any electronic notarization under that section.

KRS 423.390(13) is the waiting period. Thirty days after the notary meets every registration requirement and pays the required registration fee, the notary is registered to do in-person electronic acts, electronic notarizations as an online notary, or both. A checkout the day the form is sent is not proof the 30 days have run. KRS 423.390(15): if the commission expires, is revoked, or is suspended, the registration is suspended by operation of law until the person is commissioned again.

Read the fee statute before you treat a company price as Kentucky law. KRS 423.430(1): for a notarial act on a tangible or electronic record, or for an electronic notarization, the notary may charge a fee that complies with KRS 64.300 and that was clearly disclosed in advance. KRS 423.430(2): compensation for services that are not notarial acts is not governed by that section. Travel is the example owners hit. The section does not print $25, or any other dollar maximum, for the notarial act. Utah’s remote cap and Nevada’s electronic cap are those states’ statutes. They are not KRS 423.430. We will not import that $25 figure as a Kentucky legal maximum.

KRS 64.300 is the other half of the fee sentence, and it is an exemption, not a price list. No fee or compensation shall be allowed for affixing the jurat of a notary to an application, affidavit, certificate, or other document needed to support a claim for federal benefits, for a person or that person’s dependents who served in the National Guard, a reserve component, or as an active member of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, or Marine Corps. A jurat is the notary’s certificate that the signer swore to the document. If your document is that military-benefit claim, the statute says the jurat is free. It does not set the price of an ordinary acknowledgment.

The Secretary of State fee lines that KRS 423.430(3) actually prints are these: application for a commission or renewal, $10; a replacement commission, $10; an update to commission or registration information after a change of name, address, or other specified information, $10; an electronic certificate of authority or apostille, $5 per document. An apostille is a certificate that a document is genuine for use in another country. KRS 423.390(10)(c) requires a registration fee “as specified in KRS 423.430,” in addition to the commission fee and the county clerk fees. The fee schedule does not print a separate line labeled “online notary registration.” NNA’s Kentucky how-to, a secondary source last updated June 21, 2023, says the registration fee is $10. We cite NNA for that sentence and we label it secondary. The $10 lines we can quote from the statute are the commission, replacement, and update lines above.

KRS 423.390(7) is the update clock. If the notary changes a mail or email address, county, name, signature, electronic signature, or the technology used for notarial acts, the journal, or tamper-evident records, the notary tells the Secretary of State within 10 days, on the Secretary’s form, with the fee KRS 423.430 specifies. The update line in KRS 423.430(3)(c) is $10. The change-of-information form we retrieved prints that $10 fee, the office at Notary Commissions, P.O. Box 821, Frankfort, KY 40602, and the phone (502) 564-3490. The same form tells remote online registrants to submit an updated registration, signed electronically with the updated electronic signature and digital certificate, so the document can be notarized, at web.sos.ky.gov/notaries//SubmitRegistration.aspx. The Secretary of State notary contact page prints the same phone, the office at 1025 Capital Center Drive, Suite 201, Frankfort, KY 40601, and in-person hours of 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The provider list we use is the Secretary of State form, not a company map. The electronic registration form we retrieved says the notary must begin onboarding with each chosen provider before submitting the form. Box A is “Electronic In-Person Only.” Box B is “Remote Online + Electronic In-Person.” On the copy we read, Box B includes Notarize Inc. and Notarylive Inc. among the named providers. The same box also names other providers, including Blue Notary LLC and OneNotary Inc. A name on that form is the list the notary checks. It is not proof that the notary on your screen checked that box and finished the 30-day wait. 30 KAR 8:005 Section 3 says the registration is submitted electronically as posted on the Secretary of State’s website.

The digital certificate is the notary’s, not the platform’s. 30 KAR 8:005 defines a digital certificate as an electronic record, issued by a third-party certificate authority, that certifies who owns a public key and makes the document tamper-evident. Tamper-evident means a later change shows. Section 4: the notary selects the technology. No person shall require a technology the notary has not selected. The notary uses that digital certificate to sign the document and notarize it. The June 2, 2022 Secretary of State memorandum says a technology platform may not use its own digital certificate as a substitute for the notary’s digital certificate. The certificate must be issued to, and controlled by, the notary. A checkout that only shows the company’s seal is not that rule.

Where the signer may be is KRS 423.355(2), and it is broader than “both people in Kentucky.” The online notary is physically in this state. The signer is in Kentucky, or elsewhere in the United States, or outside the United States under the two conditions above. KRS 423.355(3): the notary may refuse the act if those outside-the-United-States conditions are not satisfied. KRS 423.355(8): Kentucky law decides whether the electronic notarization is valid, no matter where the signer sat. That is the statute’s choice of law. It is not a promise that a bank in another state will accept the act.

The ID check is not a courtesy box. KRS 423.325(3): for an electronic notarization, the online notary has satisfactory evidence if communication technology meets the statute and the Secretary’s rules, and one of three paths is used. The first is the notary’s personal knowledge of the signer. The second is all three of these: the signer presents a government identification credential that contains a signature and a photograph; credential analysis of that credential; and identity proofing, which may include a dynamic knowledge-based authentication assessment. Credential analysis is a check that the ID is real. Identity proofing is a check that the person matches the ID. Dynamic knowledge-based authentication is a quiz drawn from data sources. The third path is a valid public key certificate that complies with the Secretary’s regulations under KRS 423.415. If those steps cannot finish, a mobile notary or a walk-in is the product that can finish.

The session file is part of the act. KRS 423.355(5): the journal notes whether the signer was in the notary’s physical presence or appeared by communication technology. The notary creates a complete audio-video recording of the conference. The notary keeps that recording at least 10 years after the date of the transaction or proceeding, or for the journal retention period in KRS 423.380, whichever is longer. KRS 423.380(1): the online notary keeps a journal of all electronic notarizations for 10 years after the last electronic notarization written in that journal. 30 KAR 8:005 Section 6 says the same two clocks in regulation form: the electronic journal for at least 10 years after the last act in it, and the audio-visual recording for at least 10 years after the recording is made. The journal entry also includes the fee charged, if any. KRS 423.380(3)(f). A custodian may hold the journal or the recording. KRS 423.380(8).

A physical document over video is a different notice. The regulation is the source for that notice. It is not a second commission. 30 KAR 8:005 Section 7: before the first use of communication technology for a notarial act on a tangible record, the notary notifies the Secretary of State in writing by email or regular mail and names the technology. A tangible record is a physical document, not an electronic file. The certificate for that act must contain the statement, “This notarial act involved the use of communication technology.” The notary keeps an audio-visual recording for at least 10 years. That section is not KRS 423.355’s electronic notarization. If the desk wants ink and a person in the room, this notice does not replace a mobile notary or a walk-in.

NNA’s country page says that, in states that cap remote fees, $25 is the most common maximum. We did not read a remote-act dollar cap in KRS 423.430. We will not import that $25 figure as a Kentucky legal maximum. A company sticker near $25 is the company’s price. It is not KRS 423.430, and it is not the commission’s $10 line.