Mississippi video notary vs mobile: a Mississippi-commissioned notary still has to be in the room; remote online is not authorized; in-person electronic notarization is a separate Secretary of State registration

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 Mississippi 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 Mississippi. A Mississippi-commissioned notary cannot perform remote online notarization. Miss. Code § 25-34-15 requires the signer to appear physically in person. In-person electronic notarization (IPEN) is a different product: an electronic notarial act after a separate Secretary of State application and approval, and the signer is still in the room. The Secretary of State issues the commission for four years after a $5,000 surety bond is on file. A bank, a commercial mailbox (CMRA), or the Postal Service still decides whether this packet may be remote.

The Mississippi 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 make a Mississippi notary perform RON in 2026. A House bill that passed one chamber and was not enacted does not change that. An in-room electronic registration is not a webcam license.

The commission comes from the Secretary of State

§ 25-34-41 is the commission statute. An individual applies to the Secretary of State. Before the commission is issued, the applicant takes the oath and files an assurance in the form of a surety bond, or its functional equivalent, in the amount of $5,000. The assurance must cover acts during the term and stay on file. On compliance, the Secretary of State issues a commission for four years. The commission authorizes notarial acts. It does not give the notary the immunity or benefit the law gives public officials or employees. The National Notary Association’s how-to, which is secondary for the appointment sentence, says the Governor appoints notaries and the Secretary of State in Jackson oversees the application and keeps the record. The same how-to says no training or exam is required for an ordinary Mississippi commission.

The application filing fee on that how-to is $25. The Secretary of State fee schedule was not available when this page was checked, so the $25 figure is NNA-cited. It is not a session price. It is not the $5 cap on a notarial act.

A journal is required for notarial acts. 1 Miss. Code R. 5-4.7: ten years after the last notarial act in the journal, the journal must be destroyed. A tangible journal is shredded or otherwise destroyed so the entries cannot be read. An electronic journal is deleted, including remaining tamper-evident technology in the notary’s possession. That is a journal rule. It is not a video-recording retention rule. Mississippi has no current audio-visual retention period for remote online notarization, because remote online notarization is not authorized.

In-person electronic notarization is not remote online notarization

Mixing “electronic” and “video” into one checkout is how a Jackson owner pays a company price and still has the wrong act. Mississippi’s electronic path is not a webcam product. It is also not automatic on the day the commission arrives.

• In-person electronic notarization (IPEN) is an electronic notarial act while the signer is physically with the notary. § 25-34-39: a notary may perform a notarial act on an electronic record under this chapter. The Secretary of State sets the methods by rule. A notary who wants to do that work files an additional registration after the commission. 1 Miss. Code R. 5-8.1 is titled notification regarding use of electronic notarization, and the text says in-person electronic notarial acts. The notary must hold a current unrestricted commission, submit an additional application on the Secretary’s form, and receive proof that the Secretary approved it. Renewal of that commission renews the in-person electronic qualification without another electronic application. The signer is still in the room.
• Remote online notarization (RON) is the video job. The notary and the signer are in different places. Mississippi has not authorized that job for a Mississippi-commissioned notary. A $25 video checkout is not the in-person electronic product, and it is not a Mississippi remote commission.

The 2021 administrative-rules summary from the National Notary Association says the Secretary of State may publish a list of approved electronic notarization system vendors, and that the office does not endorse a vendor. The live vendor list was not available when this page was checked. This page does not name a company as a Mississippi-approved electronic system, and it does not treat a company blog as that list. There is no official remote-online provider roster, because remote online notarization is not authorized.

House Bill 1154 passed the House and is not law

House Bill 1154 (2025 Regular Session), as passed the House, would have amended the Revised Mississippi Law on Notarial Acts. The House-passed text would have defined remote online notarization and remote ink-signed notarization, allowed appearance by communication technology, and applied the revised law to notarial acts performed after July 1, 2025. It would also have required an audio-visual recording of a remote notarization and moved maximum-fee authority toward Secretary of State rules. That document is the House-passed text. It is not the Mississippi Code.

The 2025 Code published on Justia still prints physical presence in § 25-34-15, and Chapter 34 as published there runs from § 25-34-1 through § 25-34-57. The National Notary Association’s August 6, 2025 how-to still says Mississippi does not allow remote online notarization. Bill-status trackers report that HB 1154 died in Senate committee on March 4, 2025. That death date is a secondary status report. The current Code and the association’s how-to are enough to grade the bill as not live. Do not buy a video session because a 2025 bill almost passed.

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

Mississippi forms a limited liability company with a certificate of formation, not a document titled articles of organization. Miss. Code § 79-29-201: the certificate must be signed and delivered to the Office of the Secretary of State. It sets out the company name, the registered-office information the section points to, and a dissolution date if the company has one. The section does not print a notarization requirement. Confirm the live form with the Secretary of State. 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 company filing.

We do 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

If the notary must hold a Mississippi commission, you are shopping store hours, a booked house call, or an in-room electronic notarial act. That is the F on in-state RON showing up as a calendar. IPEN does not fix the clock. The signer still has to be with the notary. If the receiving desk will take a video act from a notary licensed in a state that already lets its notaries perform RON, then a company that keeps late hours is a real option. Company availability letters live on the directory, once.

The ID check on a video call is not a courtesy. Companies print an ID scan and a quiz from a credit file. Signers with a thin U.S. credit file, a new tax ID, or a foreign passport fail that quiz more often than ads admit. That is when a mobile notary or a walk-in stops being the old way and becomes the product that can finish.

The $5 in § 25-34-9 is the Mississippi notarial-act cap. It is not a promise that a video company’s checkout stops at $5, and it is not a UPS price. The consumer starting prices we cite on company cards, about $25 a session, are the official pages cited on the directory.

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 Mississippi rule and the document table. Official starting prices we cite: NotaryLive about $25 per session; Proof/Notarize about $25 for the first notarial act and $15 for each extra notarial act; OneNotary online about $25 and mobile from about $80. We do not invent a session price for BlueNotary. Independent Mississippi mobiles are not that OneNotary figure. Counters set their own prices. Those company prices are for a video session with a notary commissioned where remote online notarization is allowed. They are not a Mississippi $5 act, and they are not an in-person electronic fee. Those company names are not printed here as a Mississippi-approved remote or in-person electronic vendor.

Form 1583 as a Mississippi 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 Mississippi signer can use an out-of-state remote notary for that video note. A Mississippi-commissioned notary cannot finish that video session. An electronic notarial act from a Mississippi notary still requires the signer in the room, and only after the Secretary of State has approved the additional application. That is IPEN. It is not the form’s video note. The same split, a local notary who cannot do the video and a signer who may still use an out-of-state video notary, is why people also read Georgia and California. Mississippi is not those pages. Georgia did not open the in-room electronic registration in Rule 5-8.1. California’s remote statute is waiting on a technology project. South Carolina runs a different in-room electronic statute.

What we will not do here: grade mailbox brands, pick a Jackson, Gulfport, or Tupelo 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.

Where the sentences do not match

• Physical presence versus “is video legal?” § 25-34-15 requires physical presence for a Mississippi notarial act. A signer in Mississippi can still use an out-of-state video notary under § 25-34-23. Those are two sentences. A checkout that merges them is how a packet gets rejected.
• IPEN is not RON. § 25-34-39 and Rule 5-8.1 allow electronic notarization with Secretary of State methods and an extra registration. The rule says in-person. The signer is still in the room.
• HB 1154 is not the Code. The House-passed text would have opened remote acts. The 2025 Code still prints physical presence. Trackers report a Senate-committee death on March 4, 2025. The grade does not treat the bill as law.
• The emergency remote fee is not the live fee. Executive Order 1467 and the temporary remote-notarization guidance were COVID-era authority. That guidance allowed the $5 act plus a communications-technology cost not to exceed $25. The emergency authority expired. The live cap is $5 under § 25-34-9. Do not pay, or charge, the old $25 technology ceiling as current Mississippi law.
• The early 2021 fee draft is not the rule. The National Notary Association’s 2021 rules note describes an initial draft with a higher fee table and a $25 electronic-system add-on. The June 21, 2021 revision repealed that draft and aligned the rule with the statutory $5 maximum. Print the statute and the revised rule.
• Do not use § 25-34-67 for the electronic act. A vendor FAQ has cited § 25-34-67 for in-person electronic acts. Chapter 34 as published on Justia runs §§ 25-34-1 through 25-34-57. The electronic section is § 25-34-39, with Rule 5-8.1. We do not copy the § 25-34-67 cite.
• A country count is not a Mississippi commission. NASS reports that 47 states plus Washington, D.C. have a law that allows remote e-notarization. Enacted somewhere else is not permission for a Mississippi notary to use a webcam tonight. Proof’s July 8, 2026 map, labeled secondary, lists Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina as the five without an effective remote-online law for their own notaries. Alabama and Connecticut have separate remote rules for tangible documents. Mississippi’s sentence is physical presence, plus in-room electronic notarization after approval.

A sequence that usually wastes less money

1. Read the receiving desk’s current instruction. If they printed “Mississippi notary, in person,” do not buy a video session to argue with them.
2. If they accept an out-of-state video notary, use a company whose notaries are licensed in states that already allow RON. § 25-34-23 is the recognition statute. NASS and NNA are the country sources. The company’s live notary pool is the day-of fact. Do not assume a Mississippi commission can appear on that call.
3. If they want an electronic notarial act and the signer can be in the room with a Mississippi notary who has Secretary of State approval under Rule 5-8.1, that is IPEN. It is not a late-night video checkout.
4. Budget the extras from the official page, extra signature, extra signer, witness, before you upload a six-signature packet at the $25 sticker. The $5 in § 25-34-9 is the Mississippi act cap, not that checkout.
5. If the ID quiz fails twice, stop retrying overnight. Switch to a mobile notary or a walk-in. NotaryLive’s own FAQ describes a Personal Verifier path. That is their product, not a universal escape hatch.
6. Keep the session confirmation. The value of an out-of-state video session in a later dispute is the recording that other state’s law requires. The value of a walk-in is the Mississippi notarial act the desk already said it wanted.