Nebraska remote online notary: the state rule and your options

Mixing the labels into one “is video legal in Nebraska?” checkout is how an Omaha owner pays a company sticker and still has a notary who never registered as an online notary, or treats a $25 company price as if it replaced the in-person schedule. Nebraska video work is legal. It is not automatic on the day the ordinary commission arrives. The bond is the number Iowa does not print. The $50 registration is the number Iowa’s remote application does not print. The $25 online add-on is the number Iowa’s no-cap chapter does not print.

• Remote online notarization is an online notarial act by communication technology. Communication technology means a live connection you and the notary can see and hear at the same time. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 64-402. The notary is physically in Nebraska. You are not in the same room. The document is electronic. The allowed acts are acknowledgments, jurats, verifications or proofs, and oaths or affirmations. § 64-408.
• An in-person electronic act is a different registration. The Electronic Notary Public Act, sections 64-301 through 64-317, is Laws 2016, LB465. § 64-308: the signer has to be in the physical presence of the electronic notary. The notary page says the same thing. Title 433, Chapter 7 sets that registration fee at $100. § 64-306 says the fee shall not exceed $100. The in-person steps document prints $100. § 64-418(3): the Electronic Notary Public Act does not apply to online notarial acts. A $100 in-room registration does not open the video job.

The permanent date is the session law. Laws 2019, LB186, section 27: the online-notary sections become operative on July 1, 2020. Section 30 says an emergency exists, so the act takes effect when passed and approved. The operative date of the online sections is still July 1, 2020. § 64-419 and § 64-420 save online acts performed on or after April 2, 2020, and before July 1, 2020, under the Governor’s Executive Order No. 20-13, dated April 1, 2020. That window is the emergency path. The Online Notary Public Act’s own operative date is the next day, July 1, 2020. § 64-404 says the course of instruction and examination shall be approved by the Secretary of State by July 31, 2020. We are printing the operative date and the course-approval date. We are not treating July 31 as a second start date for the statute.

The ordinary commission comes first. § 64-101: the Secretary of State appoints general notaries. The applicant is at least 19, passes the written exam, has not been convicted of a felony or of a crime involving fraud or dishonesty within the previous five years, and certifies that the applicant has read the notary laws. The applicant resides in Nebraska, except that the Secretary may commission a resident of a bordering state who is employed in Nebraska or has a regular place of work or business in Nebraska. The term is four years. Iowa’s commission section starts at 18 and runs three years. Nebraska’s age line is 19, and the term line is four.

The bond is in the commission statute, and the dollar matches the steps document. § 64-102: a general commission does not authorize notarial acts until a bond of fifteen thousand dollars, with an incorporated surety company as surety, is executed, approved, and filed with the Secretary of State. The applicant takes the oath on that bond. The initial-commission steps say the same $15,000 bond, and that the Secretary’s office does not sell the bond. An errors-and-omissions policy is optional and does not have to be filed. A bond is a promise of money if the notary fails the duties of the office. It is not the price of your session. Iowa’s handbook says Iowa does not require a bond. Nebraska’s commission statute does.

The $30 is the number the commission statute, the fee statute, the rule, and the steps document share. § 33-102: $30 for receiving an application, and $30 for receiving a renewal. § 64-104: a renewal may be filed within thirty days prior to expiration, with that fee and a new bond. A filing after the expiration date is a new application. Title 433, Chapter 6, section 004, prints the same $30 and the same bond, and it says a renewal has to arrive by the expiration date. The renewal steps say a renewal may only be submitted 30 days prior to the expiration date, and they print the same $30. We are printing the statute, the rule, and the steps document. We are not deciding that “30 days prior” means only the thirtieth day.

The citizenship sentence is the place the steps document, the rule, and the statute are not the same width. The initial-commission steps say an applicant must be a citizen of the United States or a qualified alien. Chapter 6, section 004, requires a U.S. Citizenship Attestation Form and does not print the words “qualified alien.” The § 64-101 text we read does not print a citizenship sentence. It prints age, the exam, the conviction bar, residence, and the four-year term. We are printing all three. We are not deciding which sentence a clerk will use on a given application.

The conviction bar is the other place those sources are not one sentence. § 64-101(6): no appointment if the applicant has been convicted of a felony, or of a crime involving fraud or dishonesty within the previous five years. The five-year phrase sits in the fraud clause. Chapter 6, section 004.03: no appointment for a felony unless a full pardon has been granted. Section 004.04: no appointment for a fraud or dishonesty crime within the last five years unless a full pardon has been granted. The FAQ uses those pardon sentences. Chapter 6, section 001.05, defines malfeasance to include a felony or a fraud crime within the last five years, which attaches the five-year window to the felony in that definition. We are printing the appointment rule, the FAQ, the statute, and the malfeasance definition. We are not deciding that the five-year window in section 001.05 shortened the felony bar in section 004.03.

The exam is a gate Iowa’s $30 association course does not copy. Chapter 6, section 006: the written exam is an open-resources test, a passing score is 85 percent, and the applicant has three attempts. A person who fails the second attempt waits thirty days before the third. Three failures end eligibility to take the exam again. A passing score is valid for 90 days. The initial-commission steps print 20 questions, 85 percent, three attempts, a 90-day certificate, and a direction to complete the test without assistance from others. They do not print the 30-day wait. We are printing the rule and the steps document. The online exam is a second test. Chapter 8, section 005: the Secretary administers the online course and exam, 85 percent is passing, and three failures end eligibility to take that exam again. The online steps print 20 questions, 85 percent, and three attempts, and they say a third failure ends eligibility to be an electronic notary public. The page those words sit on is the online registration. Chapter 8 says the person will not be eligible to take the online exam again. We are printing both. The online steps do not print a course price. Iowa’s only approved remote course is the National Notary Association course at $30. Nebraska does not publish a course fee on the page we read.

The online registration is the second gate, and the dollars are a ceiling plus a rule that sits inside it. § 64-403: the person holds a Nebraska commission, satisfies § 64-404, and pays the fee in § 64-405. § 64-405: the fee is in addition to the $30 in § 33-102, the Secretary sets it by rule in an amount sufficient to cover the cost, and the fee shall not exceed one hundred dollars. Chapter 8, section 019: the fee for registering or renewing an online-notary registration is $50. The online steps print $50. Those three sources agree that $50 is the amount charged, and the statute is the ceiling above that amount. They are not the Iowa “no fee” sentence. § 64-406: the registration names the technology, which must come from an approved online notary solution provider, and the term matches the commission. The notary may renew the online registration when the commission is renewed. Chapter 8, section 004: if the online registration is not renewed with the commission, the notary files a new application. You may apply for the online registration while applying for the first commission. The notary page says the online filing process for notary filings took effect November 20, 2023, and that filings that are not made online stopped being accepted after December 31, 2023. Chapter 6’s copy we retrieved is dated November 25, 2023. We are printing the page and the chapter date. We are not deciding that those two November dates are the same event.

The technology is a roster the Secretary publishes. The Approved Online Notary Solution Providers list we retrieved is titled as an approved list. It is not a guide that disclaims approval, and it is not a ranking of which company a signer should hire. Names on that list include Proof Platform, NotaryLive, OneNotary, Blue Notary, and NotaryCam. The list is longer than the names repeated here. The contact line on the Proof Platform entry uses a notarize.com address. The in-person electronic list we retrieved does not include Proof Platform or NotaryLive. OneNotary appears on both lists. Chapter 8, section 010, is the approval standard: credential analysis, identity proofing, and communication technology, plus a demonstration. A checkout that shows Proof or NotaryLive can match the online roster. It is not a statement that this notary named that provider on the registration, and it is not a statement that the brand is on the in-person electronic list.

Read both fee sentences before you treat a company price as Nebraska law. § 33-133: for each protest, $1; for recording the protest, $2; for each notice of protest, $2; for taking affidavits and seal, $2; for administering an oath or affirmation, $2; for each certificate and seal, $5; for taking an acknowledgment of a deed or other instrument, $5; and mileage at the rate in section 81-1176 for each mile traveled in serving a notice. An employee of the state or a political subdivision may not charge those fees if the government employer paid the commission and bonding fees. Chapter 6, section 008, prints the protest lines, the $2 affidavit, the $2 oath, the $5 certificate and seal, and mileage for serving a notice at the rate set by the Department of Administrative Services. The chapter list we read does not print the $5 acknowledgment line that § 33-133 prints. § 64-412: in addition to any fee authorized under § 33-133, an online notary or the employer may charge a fee not to exceed $25 for each online notarial act. We are printing the statute and the chapter list. We are not adding the $5 and the $25 into one ceiling the statute did not print as a single number, and we are not deciding that the missing acknowledgment line in Chapter 6 erased § 33-133. Iowa prints no dollar cap. A company sticker near $25 can sit on the online add-on and still leave the § 33-133 schedule in the statute.

Travel is not that mileage line. § 33-133’s mileage is for serving a notice. It is not a sentence that a house call to notarize a document has a state mileage rate. Chapter 6 uses the same “serving notice” words and points at the Department of Administrative Services rate. We will not turn either sentence into a trip fee. A house call is a price you agree to first.

Where you may sit is § 64-411, and the notary’s chair is narrower than yours. Chapter 8, section 008: when the online notary performs the act, the notary must be physically located in Nebraska. § 64-411(1): the act may be performed whether or not you are physically in Nebraska. The section does not add the foreign-signer test Iowa prints in section 9B.14A. § 64-418(2): an online notarial act satisfies a Nebraska requirement that you appear before the notary, except a law governing wills, codicils, or testamentary trusts, and except the Uniform Commercial Code other than article 2 and article 2A. A will is not this video product. § 64-105’s in-person rule does not apply to online notarial acts. § 64-203 says an appearance for an acknowledgment includes an appearance outside the notary’s presence when the act follows the Online Notary Public Act.

The ID check has three doors, and the quiz door has numbers that match Iowa’s quiz and then stop on a different failure line. § 64-411(2): the online notary verifies identity by personal knowledge; or by remote presentation of a current government identification that bears a photo, a signature, and a physical description, plus credential analysis and identity proofing; or by the oath of a credible witness. A passport that has been officially marked and does not include a physical description is still satisfactory evidence. Personal knowledge means dealings over a period of time that dispel any reasonable uncertainty about who you are. A credible witness is a person who knows you and will swear to that, and who is either with the notary or with you. Identity proofing, in § 64-402, is a process or service, under criteria the Secretary approves, by which a third person affirms your identity from public or proprietary data. Credential analysis is a check, by a third person under those criteria, that a government identification credential is valid. Knowledge-based authentication (KBA) is a quiz drawn from your personal history. Nebraska’s statute does not use those three letters. Chapter 8, section 010.04, prints the quiz: at least five questions from personal history or identity; at least five answer choices each; at least 80 percent correct; all questions answered within two minutes; one retake within 24 hours; at least 60 percent of the prior questions replaced on the retake; and a second failure blocks another try with the same online notary for 24 hours. If you or the notary leave the session, or the audio or video drops, the process starts over. Iowa’s rule uses the same five questions, five choices, 80 percent, two minutes, and 60 percent replacement, and then says a third failure is not given another attempt. Nebraska’s rule we read stops at the 24-hour block after the second failure. If that quiz cannot finish, a mobile notary or a walk-in is the product that can finish.

The in-person identification rule is stricter about who is in the room and looser about a second document. § 64-105: for acts under articles 1, 2, and 3, you are in the presence of the notary, and you are personally known or identified through satisfactory evidence. Satisfactory evidence is one current government identification with a photo, a signature, and a physical description, or one credible witness the notary knows, or two credible witnesses who show identification. The section does not apply to online notarial acts. The FAQ uses the same in-person list and adds a passport as its own line. We will not copy the in-person list onto the video session and call it § 64-411.

The certificate has required words, and they are not Iowa’s communication-technology sentence. § 64-411(5): the online notarial certificate must include a notation that the notarial act is an online notarial act. § 64-402: the certificate contains the online notary’s electronic signature, online notary seal, title, and commission expiration date, the date and place, and the completed wording of an acknowledgment, a jurat, a verification of proof, or an oath or affirmation. Chapter 8, section 007: the seal shows the commissioned name, an identifying number, the commission expiration date, the words “Online Notary Public,” and the word “Nebraska.” The general commission seal, in § 64-210, shows State of Nebraska, General Notary or General Notarial, the commissioned name, and the expiration date. Those are two seals. The sentence “This notarial act involved the use of communication technology” is not the Nebraska statute. That sentence is Iowa’s and Delaware’s. Nebraska’s sentence is the notation that the act is an online notarial act.

The session file is part of the online act, and a journal of every ordinary act is not the same rule. § 64-409: the online notary keeps a secure electronic record. For each act it includes the date and time, the type of act, a description of the document or proceeding, the printed name and address of each principal, how identity was decided, the fee if any, and a recording of any video and audio conference of the performance of the act. The recording shall not contain images of the documents that were notarized. The record and a backup are kept at least ten years after the date of the transaction or proceeding. Chapter 8, section 015, repeats the ten-year hold and says the record has to be available to the Secretary on request. The FAQ says notary journals are not required under Nebraska law and are recommended. That FAQ answer is the general-commission sentence. It is not a sentence that § 64-409’s electronic record is optional. Iowa’s handbook also says a journal is not required, and Iowa’s recording rule does not print Nebraska’s ban on images of the document. We are printing the FAQ and § 64-409. We are not deciding that the FAQ erased the online record.

§ 64-413 is what happens to the electronic signature when the registration ends. Except for a short re-registration path, the notary or a representative erases, deletes, or destroys the means of affixing the electronic signature and online notary seal, and certifies that to the Secretary. Chapter 8, section 018, says that certification is in writing within three months. A former online notary whose registration was not revoked, canceled, or denied need not destroy the means if the person reregisters within three months using the same electronic signature. The ten-year record in § 64-409 is a different duty from destroying the signature. We will not treat the three-month signature rule as permission to delete the recording.