Oklahoma remote online notary: the state rule and your options

Mixing the labels into one “is video legal in Oklahoma?” checkout is how a Tulsa owner pays a company sticker and still has a notary whose remote authorization ended with the last commission, or pays a video price against the $5 in-person cap. Oklahoma’s remote path is legal. It is not automatic on the day the commission arrives. It is also not one fee for every kind of act.

• Remote online notarization is a notarial act by communication technology. Communication technology means a live connection you and the notary can see and hear. 49 O.S. § 202. The notary is physically in Oklahoma. You are not in the same room.
• An in-person act is the ordinary job. You and the notary are in the same room. 49 O.S. § 5 caps that act at $5. That cap is not the remote cap.

The commission comes first. 49 O.S. § 1, as OSCN displayed it when we retrieved the page: the Secretary of State appoints notaries for four years. The applicant is at least 18, a United States citizen, and employed in Oklahoma or a legal resident of Oklahoma. A felony conviction is grounds for removal and blocks a later application or renewal. The history line is Laws 2025, SB 1028, c. 238, § 1, effective January 1, 2026. The same section prints a new-commission filing fee of $50, a renewal filing fee of $45, and a same-day filing service fee of $50 on top of the filing fee.

SB 1028 also requires a national criminal history record check for a new applicant and for a renewal. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation takes fingerprints electronically. The search fee may not exceed $50 or the cost of the search, whichever is less. OSBI has fourteen working days to send the result to the Secretary of State. That search fee is not the $25 remote authorization fee, and it is not the fee you pay for a notarized document.

Within 60 days after the commission issues, and before any notarial act, the notary files an oath of office, a loyalty oath, an official signature, an impression of the official seal, and a bond. 49 O.S. § 2, history line Laws 2025, SB 1028, c. 238, § 2, effective January 1, 2026: the bond is $10,000, approved by the Secretary of State. A bond is a promise of money if the notary fails the duties of the office. It is not the price of your session. On filing the bond, the notary pays the Secretary of State $25. The notary may not perform any notarial act until the bond, official seal, oath, and loyalty oath are received and approved.

The Secretary of State screens do not all print those commission dollars. We are setting both versions down. We are not choosing which window a clerk will charge.

• OSCN, 49 O.S. § 1 and § 2, retrieved for this page: new commission $50; renewal $45; same-day service $50; bond $10,000; bond filing fee $25. History line: SB 1028, c. 238, effective January 1, 2026. The enrolled bill shows the same replacement amounts.
• Secretary of State, Notary Filing fee schedule: new commission $50 citing § 1; renewal $45 citing § 1; notary bond $25 citing § 2(c); remote online notarization $25 citing § 204(B). The note prints an extra $50 if you want a document processed while you wait. Remote authorization applications may only be filed online.
• Secretary of State, Notary Public Online Services fee schedule, on the copy we retrieved: new commission $25 citing 49 O.S. § 1; renewal $20; notary bond $10 citing § 2(C); remote online notarization $25 citing § 204(B). The note prints an extra $25 for same-day processing. Remote authorization applications may only be filed online.
• Secretary of State, Remote Online Notarization FAQ, steps 1 and 2, on the copy we retrieved: a new commission filing fee of $25, and a notarial bond filing fee of $10. Step 3 prints the remote authorization filing fee as $25. The FAQ also says the act does not require a second bond for remote acts.

NNA’s SB 1028 note, labeled secondary, says the bill became law without the Governor’s signature, chapter 238, effective January 1, 2026, and that the Secretary of State told NNA the $10,000 bond applies to new and renewal applications filed on or after that date. The enrolled act we read does not print that grandfather sentence. We cite NNA for the sentence and we label it secondary. We will not treat it as a line in § 2.

Remote work is a second gate, and the fee for that gate is the one both SOS schedules agree on. 49 O.S. § 204(B): a notary applying to perform remote online notarizations pays $25 with the application. § 204(A): before the first remote online notarization, the notary registers and receives written authorization. The person may apply for the commission and the remote registration at the same time. § 204(C): the application includes the legal name, the official name on the commission, a description of the technology, a statement that the applicant will comply with the Secretary’s standards, and any other information the Secretary requires by rule. § 204(D): if the technology conforms to those standards and the applicant has met the section, the Secretary approves the technology and issues written authorization for the term of the commission.

We did not read a training-course hour requirement in § 204 or on the Remote Online Notarization FAQ. The gate we read is the application, the $25 fee, a description of the technology, and written authorization. It is not a second notary license with a class roster.

§ 204(F) is the clock that is easy to miss. The authorization begins on the date the Secretary sets and terminates on the commission’s expiration date. Renewal of the commission under § 1 does not renew the remote authorization. A notary who wants to keep doing video work after renewal files again. OAC 655:25-11-3(i) says the same thing. The rule was adopted in the Oklahoma Register, Volume 37, Issue 24, September 1, 2020, effective September 11, 2020. OAC 655:25-11-3(h): the Secretary notifies the applicant of approval or disapproval within 30 days after receipt. That 30 days is a decision deadline. It is not a sentence that the authorization starts only after 30 days of waiting.

The technology is named by the notary. It is not a standing list of brand names on the pages we read. OAC 655:25-11-3(b) asks for the name, address, and website of any vendor that will supply the technology, plus a statement that the technology complies with 49 O.S. §§ 201 through 214 and the rules. The Notary Filing page and the Notary Home page do not print Proof, Notarize, or NotaryLive as an approved-vendor roster. A checkout that shows one of those names is the company’s screen. It is not a statement that this notary listed that vendor and that the Secretary approved that technology for this commission term.

A later vendor change is a place the sources disagree. OAC 655:25-11-3(d): if the notary intends to use another vendor during the commission, an additional application identifying that vendor must be submitted. Subsection (e): each application under the section must be accompanied by a fee of $25, and the rule’s bracket cite is 49 O.S. § 209. The Remote Online Notarization FAQ, question 13, says the notary notifies the Secretary by providing the name, address, and website of the new vendor, and that there is no filing fee for that notification. The statute’s registration fee is § 204(B), $25. § 209 is the $25 cap on what a notary may charge for the remote act itself. The rule’s dollar matches both sections. Its bracket points at the act-fee section. We are printing both the rule and the FAQ. We are not deciding which one a clerk will collect for a vendor change.

Read the two act-fee sections before you treat a company price as Oklahoma law. 49 O.S. § 5: the maximum fee a notary may charge and collect for each notarial act is $5, except no fee shall be charged for the notarization of an official absentee ballot affidavit. The history line we retrieved for that fee sentence is Laws 2019, SB 915, c. 338, § 16, effective January 1, 2020. 49 O.S. § 209: a notary, or a person acting for a notary, may charge and collect a fee not to exceed $25 for a remote online notarial act. 49 O.S. § 213: if the Remote Online Notary Act conflicts with another provision of Title 49 or any other Oklahoma law, the Remote Online Notary Act controls. For a video act, the $25 cap is the one the conflict rule points to. The $5 cap remains the in-person act. An official absentee ballot affidavit stays free under § 5. We did not read a sentence that moves that free affidavit onto the $25 remote line, and we did not read a sentence that bans it from video.

Where you may sit is § 205, and the notary’s chair is narrower than yours. The notary is physically in Oklahoma and already authorized. You may be in Oklahoma. You may be outside Oklahoma but still inside the United States. You may be outside the United States only if the electronic record is to be filed with or relates to a matter before a court, governmental entity, public official, or other entity subject to United States jurisdiction, or involves property in the United States or a transaction substantially connected to the United States, and the notary has no actual knowledge that signing is prohibited in the place where you are. 49 O.S. § 211: a remote online notarization satisfies an Oklahoma law that would otherwise require you to appear in person. § 213 also says Oklahoma law decides whether the remote act is valid, no matter where you 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 has three doors, and the quiz door has numbers. 49 O.S. § 208(B): the notary may rely on personal knowledge of you; or on all three of remote presentation of a current government identification credential that contains your photograph and signature, credential analysis of that credential, and identity proofing; or on the oath or affirmation of a credible witness who knows you, if the notary knows that witness or has checked the witness the same way. Personal knowledge means dealings that give reasonable certainty you are who you claim to be. Credential analysis is a check, by a third person, that the ID is real. Identity proofing is a check, by a third person, that you match the ID, using personal information from public or private data sources. A credible witness is a person who knows you and will swear to that.

OAC 655:25-11-5 is the rule for the door that is not personal knowledge and not a credible witness. It calls that door multi-factor authentication. Credential analysis must use automated software, test that the ID’s security features are intact, confirm details against an issuing or authoritative source when that is available, and let the notary compare the photo on the ID with the person on the live connection. Identity proofing on that door is a dynamic knowledge-based authentication assessment. That 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 40 percent of the questions replaced; no third try with the same notary inside 24 hours of the second failure; and the notary must not see or record the questions or answers. If that quiz cannot finish, a mobile notary or a walk-in is the product that can finish.

The certificate has required words. 49 O.S. § 208(E): the certificate must indicate that the act was a remote online notarial act performed by communication technology. A certificate is enough if it meets the Secretary’s standards, or if it is otherwise sufficient under Oklahoma law and contains a statement substantially as follows: “This remote online notarization involved the use of communication technology.”

The session file is part of the act. 49 O.S. § 206: the notary keeps a journal in a permanent, tamper-evident electronic format. Tamper-evident means a later change shows. The entry is made at the time of the act. It includes the date and time, a description of the document and the type of act, the full name and address of each principal, how identity was established, and the fee, if any. The notary, or a person acting for the notary, creates an audio and visual recording. The recording is kept at least 10 years from the date of the act. The journal is kept at least 10 years after the last remote act written in that journal. A guardian, agent, or personal representative keeps that duty if the notary cannot. The FAQ restates those two clocks and cites § 206(D).

The short-title section is the exclusion we read, and it is not a will list. 49 O.S. § 201(B): nothing in the act permits a notary to take testimony, certify transcripts, or otherwise exercise the authority of a certified or licensed shorthand reporter under Title 20, §§ 1501 through 1513. A shorthand reporter is a person licensed to write down testimony word for word. We did not read a ban on wills, trusts, or deeds in §§ 201 through 214. If the desk still wants someone in the room for one of those documents, the statute’s silence is not a promise the desk will take video.

A credible witness does not have to sit in only one chair. 49 O.S. § 208(D): a witness who is physically with you may still be remote from the notary, if the witness and the notary can see and hear each other. A witness who is physically with the notary may be remote from you, if the witness and you can see and hear each other. That is not a rule that every witness must sit beside you.

NNA’s country page says that, in states that cap remote fees, $25 is the most common maximum. Oklahoma does print that $25 figure, in § 209, for a remote online notarial act. It also prints $5 in § 5 for each notarial act, with the absentee-ballot affidavit free. § 213 is why we do not collapse those into one number. A company sticker near $25 can sit on the remote cap. It is not the $5 in-person cap, and it is not the $25 or $50 commission filing fee.