Maine video notary vs mobile: remote notarization has been in effect since July 1, 2023; the notary stays in Maine; the Secretary of State commissions the notary for seven years; the application fee is $50; the commission statute and Chapter 700 do not require a bond; the recording is ten years; NotaryLive is on the approved-provider list and Proof is not; and Maine does not print a dollar cap on the notarial act

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 a Maine owner needs a notary. 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 Maine. A Maine-commissioned notary may perform remote online notarization, which is an electronic session, after the Secretary of State accepts the notice under 4 M.R.S. § 1915. Public Law 2021, chapter 651 takes effect July 1, 2023. The notary must be located in Maine. The signer may be in Maine, elsewhere in the United States, or outside the United States if the record meets section 1915. Section 1922 prints a seven-year term. 5 M.R.S. § 87 and the Secretary of State FAQ print a $50 fee. The commission statute and Chapter 700 do not require a bond. Maine does not print a dollar cap on the notarial act. The audio-visual recording is kept at least ten years. The September 2026 approved-provider list names NotaryLive. It does not name Proof. A regular Maine notary who never received that acceptance still has to be in the room. A bank, a commercial mailbox (CMRA), or the Postal Service still decides whether this packet may be remote.

The Maine grade that is not a company letter

We grade the state rule first. Remote online notarization (RON) is a video session with a notary. A company cannot turn a regular Maine commission into an accepted Secretary of State notice. It also cannot put Proof on a list the September 2026 PDF does not print. Neighboring Massachusetts has a 2023 remote statute and has not opened the training or the notification form. Maine’s notice form and approved-provider list are already published.

A published provider list, a $50 commission, and a Massachusetts signup that is still closed

Mixing the labels into one “is video legal in Maine?” checkout is how a Portland owner pays a company price and still has a notary who never got the notice accepted, or treats a company name as if the September 2026 PDF had printed it. Maine video work is legal. It is not automatic on the day the ordinary commission arrives. The published list is the roster Massachusetts has not opened. The missing dollar cap is the number Idaho’s section 51-133 does print, at $5. We will not copy that $5 onto Maine.

• Remote online notarization is a notarial act for a remotely located individual, by communication technology. Communication technology means an electronic device or process that lets you and the notary communicate at the same time by sight and sound. 4 M.R.S. § 1915. The notary is located in Maine. You are not in the same room.
• An in-person electronic act is a different notice box on the same form. The Secretary of State apply page: in an electronic notarization, the signer is in person with the notary and is not remotely located. The notary uses an approved provider’s technology so the record can be signed electronically. A checkout that only makes a video call is not that in-room product, and it is not the remote product unless the technology is on the approved list and the notice for remote work was accepted.

The permanent date is the session law, and the rule dates are later. Public Law 2021, chapter 651, the effective-date section: this Act takes effect July 1, 2023. The notice form, dated July 1, 2023, says the revised uniform law on notarial acts took effect that day. The apply page says the same. Chapter 700 prints July 5, 2023, filing 2023-101, as an emergency effective date, and October 2, 2023, filing 2023-184, as the later effective date. Those dates are the rule chapter. They are not a second start date for section 1915. October 2, 2023 is not the day the statute began.

The ordinary commission comes first. § 1922: the applicant is at least 18, a resident of Maine or a person with a place of employment or practice in Maine, able to read and write English, not disqualified under section 1924, and has passed the examination in section 1923. Before the commission is issued, the applicant takes the oath before a dedimus justice. On compliance, the Secretary of State issues a commission for seven years. The commission authorizes notarial acts. It does not give the notary the immunity or benefit the law gives public officials or employees. Chapter 700, section 2: the term is seven years from the date of issuance. After approval, a certificate is mailed. The applicant has 30 calendar days to take the oath before a dedimus justice and 45 calendar days from appointment to return the certificate of qualification. If that window is missed, the rule prints a reappointment path. We will not print a dollar for the dedimus. The statute and the rule do not print one.

The $50 is the commission fee, and the sentences that carry it are not the same width. 5 M.R.S. § 87: a fee of $50 must be paid to the Secretary of State by a person appointed to the office of notary public before the person enters upon the discharge of official duties. The history line on that section is a 2005 amendment. It is not a 2023 remote fee. The notary FAQ says the fee to become a notary public is $50, by check to the Treasurer, State of Maine, or by card. Chapter 700 says every application for a commission, and every renewal application, must be accompanied by the fee prescribed by section 87, payable to the Treasurer, State of Maine. The notice form does not print a separate fee for the remote or electronic notice. The statute, the FAQ, the rule, and the form print the same $50. The statute’s “before official duties” sentence and the rule’s “with the application” sentence are not two different $50 charges, and the form does not print a remote-notice fee.

The commission statute and Chapter 700 do not state a bond, and silence is not a dollar. Section 1922 does not require a surety bond. Section 87 is a $50 fee, not a bond. Chapter 700 does not use the word bond. The statute and the rule do not state a bond amount. The National Notary Association’s Maine page says a surety bond is not required. That page is secondary. Idaho’s commission statute prints a $10,000 bond. Maine’s commission statute does not print that sentence. A bond is a promise of money if the notary fails the duties of the office. It is not the price of your session, and it is not the $50 fee.

The exam is required, and the renewal exam has a mechanic the new-applicant statute does not print. § 1923: an applicant who does not already hold a Maine commission must pass an examination administered by the Secretary of State or an approved entity. The exam is based on a course that covers the laws, rules, procedures, and ethics of notarial acts. The section does not print a price and does not say what happens if an answer is wrong. Chapter 700, section 3, says an applicant for renewal must also pass an examination. The FAQ says a renewing notary must take an online examination based on the course of study, and that an incorrect answer blocks the next category until a correct response is given. The statute, the rule, and the FAQ do not state an exam fee, and they do not state a question count.

The remote gate sits on top of the commission, and the statute’s verb is narrower than the office’s. § 1915(12): before the first remote act, the notary notifies the Secretary of State that the notary will perform acts for remotely located individuals and identifies the technologies. If the Secretary has set standards, the technology and the identity proofing must conform. The apply page says the notary must submit the notice and must receive approval before a remote act or an electronic act. Chapter 700 says a commissioned notary is not authorized to perform electronic or remote notarizations until a notice meeting the rule has been submitted and accepted. The notice form, which the notary signs, says the notary will not perform any electronic or remote online notarization until the Secretary of State has given approval. A change of provider, or a change to the information on the notice, has to be sent within 10 business days. The apply page says the same ten business days for a technology-provider change. The statute says “notify.” The office says “approval.” A mailed notice that nobody has accepted is not already enough.

The list is the fact Massachusetts does not have on a live page, and the September 2026 PDF is a closed list. The Approved Providers of Technology PDF, revised September 2026, says it is a complete list of organizations approved to provide electronic and/or remote notarization services to notarial officers. The Secretary of State does not endorse any provider. The names and periods on that PDF are:

Proof is not a name on that PDF. NotaryLive is, as Notarylive, Inc., for both remote and electronic work, through October 31, 2027. BlueNotary LLC and OneNotary, Inc. are also on the PDF. OneNotary’s printed period ends November 3, 2026. Pro Notary LLC is approved for remote work, and the electronic box on that row is empty. The PDF prints those periods. A period that ends in November 2026 is not shown as already renewed, and an empty electronic box does not allow an electronic act. The apply page says you may not use Zoom or FaceTime. You must use communication technology from a provider the Secretary of State has approved. Proof and NotaryLive are companies on this site. Only one of those two names is on this Maine list. A checkout that shows Proof is the company’s screen. It is not a statement that this Maine notary named Proof on an accepted notice.

The $250 is the provider’s filing, not yours. 5 M.R.S. § 86: the Secretary of State receives $250 for filing a new or renewal application for approval to be a provider of communication technology used to perform remote or electronic notarization under section 1915. The provider application form prints the same $250, payable to the Treasurer, State of Maine. Chapter 700 says the provider’s approval is valid for one year from issuance and may be renewed. That $250 is why the list has end dates. It is not the notary’s $50, and it is not the price of your session.

Read the fee sentences before you treat a company price as Maine law. Chapter 700, section 2: any fee a commissioned notary charges for a notarial act must be disclosed in writing before the act, and the notary must get consent before performing the act. The course of study says the State of Maine does not statutorily set fees for notarial services, and it repeats the written-disclosure and agreement rule. Section 1920 says a journal entry includes the fee, if any. Chapter 39 and Chapter 700 do not print a $5 cap or a $25 cap. Idaho caps any notarial act at $5. We will not turn Maine’s disclosure sentence into that cap. A company sticker near $25 can be the company’s price. It is not a Maine cap, and it is not the $50 commission.

Travel is not a table. Chapter 700’s fee sentence does not print a cents-per-mile figure, an hourly rate, or a two-hour minimum. A house call is a price you agree to first, in writing, before the act. We will not copy another state’s mileage rule onto Maine.

Where you may sit is § 1915, and the notary’s chair is narrower than yours. The notary is located in this State. You may be in Maine. You may be somewhere else. If you are outside the United States, the record is to be filed with or relates to a matter before a public official or court, governmental entity, or other entity subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, or it involves property in the territorial jurisdiction of 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 apply page says the remotely located individual may be in another state or outside the United States. Section 1922’s residence rule is about who may hold the commission: a Maine resident, or a person with a place of employment or practice in Maine. Chapter 700 says remote authority ends if a notary public is no longer a Maine resident and no longer has a place of employment or a business in Maine.

The ID check has three doors in the statute, and the rule’s technology door is a list of methods, not a quiz score. § 1915(3): the notary has personal knowledge under § 1907; or satisfactory evidence by the oath or affirmation of a credible witness; or satisfactory evidence by at least two different types of identity proofing. § 1907: personal knowledge means dealings that give reasonable certainty you are who you claim to be. Satisfactory evidence can be a passport, a driver’s license, or a government nondriver identification card, or another government identification that contains a signature or a photograph and is satisfactory to the notary. The section does not print an expiration window. A credible witness appears before the notary and is known to the notary, or is identified by a passport, driver’s license, or government nondriver card. We will not copy Idaho’s “expired not more than three years” sentence onto Maine. Chapter 700 says the provider’s technology includes at least two of these methods: a credential validated by a government or a third party; a biometric identifier; a public-key certificate; or an identity assessment based on questions drawn from public or private data sources for which you have not already supplied the answer. The rule does not print a question count, a percent correct, a two-minute clock, or a retake. If that check cannot finish, a mobile notary or a walk-in is the product that can finish. We will not invent a quiz the rule did not print.

The certificate has required words, and they are Maine’s words. § 1915(9) and (10): the certificate must show that the act used communication technology. A short form is enough if it meets the rules, or if it meets section 1917 and contains a statement substantially as follows: “This notarial act involved the use of communication technology.” Chapter 700 adds a sentence for a tangible record that was signed remotely: the record must include a statement that the act was performed remotely using communication technology approved by the Secretary of State. We will not add a longer sentence and call it the statute.

A tangible record can use the video path, and it is not the same product as an electronic session. § 1915(4): if the tangible record is physically in front of the notary, the notary may take the acknowledgment by communication technology when the record is displayed to you and you identify it during the recording. § 1915(5): if the tangible record is not in front of the notary, you sign the record and a declaration during the recording, and you send the record and declaration to the notary no later than four days after the act. The declaration says, in substance, that the record is the same one on which the named notary performed the act and before whom you appeared by communication technology on the stated date. After the notary receives it, the notary executes the certificate. The act is effective on the date you signed that declaration. The apply page’s electronic product is the other door: you are in the room, and the signature is electronic. A checkout that finishes an electronic file in one video call is the remote electronic product only when the notice for that product was accepted and the provider is on the list.

Some acts stay off video even after the notice is accepted. § 1915(16) and (17): a notary may not, for a remotely located individual, witness the marking and sealing of an absentee ballot, give the candidate oaths or the petition-circulator oaths named in that subsection, witness the signing of an application for a people’s veto or a direct initiative, or give the circulator’s oath on those petitions. A notary may not solemnize a marriage for a remotely located individual. Chapter 700 also says a notary commission alone does not authorize solemnizing marriages. That authority is a separate marriage-officiant license under 5 M.R.S. § 90-G. Section 86 prints $25 to file that license application. That $25 is not the notary’s $50, and it does not open a remote marriage. If the document is one of those blocked acts, the video grade does not apply. Use the room.

The session file is part of the remote act, and the journal is a second clock. § 1915(11): the notary, or a person acting for the notary, keeps the audio-visual recording, or has a repository keep it, for at least ten years, unless a rule sets a different period. Chapter 700’s remote section says the recording is retained for at least ten years. Chapter 700 does not shorten that floor. § 1920: a notary shall keep a journal for all electronic and remote notarizations and may keep a journal for tangible notarizations. The journal is kept for ten years after the last notarial act written in it. An electronic journal has to be permanent and tamper-evident. The FAQ says a journal is required for electronic and remote notarizations, is not required for in-person acts that are not electronic or remote, and is strongly suggested for every act. The statute and the FAQ do not say the optional tangible journal replaced the ten-year recording.

The phone line is shared, and the email is not. The notice form prints the Secretary of State, Division of Corporations, UCC and Commissions, 101 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0101, telephone (207) 624-7752, email CEC.Notaries@Maine.gov. The certificate-of-formation form prints the same telephone and the same mailing station for the corporations desk, and it prints CEC.Corporations@Maine.gov. Its cover letter, revised June 26, 2024, prints a delivery address of 6 E. Chestnut Street, 5th Floor, Augusta, ME 04330, for FedEx or UPS, and the State House Station address for the Postal Service. The notary form and the formation form print those contacts. They do not say which desk answers a notary question.

What actually needs a notary on a Maine LLC / bank stack

A Maine limited-liability company files a certificate of formation. 31 M.R.S. § 1531: one or more authorized persons execute the certificate and file it with the Secretary of State. The certificate states the name, the registered-agent information in Title 5, section 105, and any other matters the members decide to include. The section does not require a notary acknowledgment. § 1676: the initial certificate must be signed by at least one authorized person. An agent, including an attorney-in-fact, may sign. The power of attorney does not have to be filed. Form MLLC-6 prints a $175 filing fee and says the execution of the certificate constitutes an oath or affirmation under the penalties of false swearing in 17-A M.R.S. § 453. That sentence is the signer’s own statement on the form. It is not a notary line. § 1680(13) prints $175 for a certificate of formation. The LLC forms page prints $175 for MLLC-6. The cover letter on the form PDF prints $50 more for next-business-day service and $100 more for same-business-day service, per entity. The statute, the form, and the forms page print $175. 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 document that sits next to the certificate.

This page does not publish a bank-by-bank or county-by-county “accepts video” list. 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 remote online notarization is live, all-night service is a real option for many Maine documents, if the receiving desk will take a remote act, if the notary actually had the notice accepted, and if the technology is one the September 2026 list still approves. A Maine remote notary or a notary licensed in another video-notary state can both close that session when the desk accepts it. Company availability letters live on the directory, once. A Massachusetts-commissioned notary cannot close that session tonight. Maine’s path is the one that is open.

If the desk wants you and the notary in the same room, the identity check fails, the act is on the blocked list, or the person you hired never finished the notice, you are shopping store hours or a booked house call. That is the B on walk-in / mobile. Counters keep store hours. The fee is the amount disclosed and agreed before the act. The trip is booked. It is not a failure of § 1915.

Maine does not print a legal maximum on the notarial act. The consumer starting prices we cite on company cards, about $25 a session, are still the company pages as of August 2026. Those are company stickers. A sticker at $25 is not a Maine cap. It is also not the $50 application or the provider’s $250 filing. Idaho’s act cap is $5. Maine’s rule is disclosure and consent.

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 Maine 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. We do not print a session price for BlueNotary. Those stickers are company prices. They are not a statement that the notary on your screen named that technology on an accepted notice. On the September 2026 PDF, NotaryLive, OneNotary, and BlueNotary are named. Proof is not. Being absent from that list is not a ban in every other state, and it is not an approval in Maine. Independent Maine mobiles are not that OneNotary sticker. Counters set their own prices inside the disclosure rule Chapter 700 prints. They do not get a dollar cap the statute did not print.

Form 1583 as a Maine 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. A Maine signer can use a Maine remote notary or an out-of-state remote notary. That is the same idea as Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. Other states have their own rules. See Alabama, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts, or South Carolina if that is your state. Massachusetts is the neighbor whose own notaries still cannot do the video job.

What we will not do here: grade mailbox brands, pick a Portland, Lewiston, or Bangor 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,” do not buy a video session to argue with them. Maine does not print a dollar cap. Massachusetts has not opened in-state video. They are not the same state.
2. If they accept a remote act, you may use a Maine remote notary or a notary licensed in another video-notary state. The Secretary of State is the authority for the commission, the $50 fee, the notice, and the approved-provider list. NASS and NNA are the country sources. The company’s live notary pool is the day-of fact. Do not assume every Maine notary on a checkout screen had the notice accepted. Do not assume Proof is on the Maine list. The September 2026 PDF does not name Proof. It does name NotaryLive.
3. Budget the extras from the official page, extra act, extra signer, witness, before you upload a six-signature packet at the $25 sticker. The notarial act has no printed Maine cap. The fee still has to be disclosed and agreed first. A witness fee on a company page is not a person sitting next to you.
4. If the identity check fails, stop treating another quiz as a plan the rule did not write. Chapter 700 does not print a retake count. 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, and it is not a sentence in § 1915.
5. Keep the session confirmation. The value of a Maine remote session in a later dispute is the audio-visual recording § 1915 already requires, kept at least ten years, and the journal § 1920 already requires for a remote act, kept ten years after the last act in that journal. The value of a walk-in is the act the desk already said it wanted, at a fee you already agreed to in writing.