South Dakota video notary vs mobile: online notarization is legal since the 2024 law, the notary must be in South Dakota, and the state keeps no approved-platform list

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 South Dakota owner needs a notary. The form is the use-case. The mailbox store is someone else’s product.

The South Dakota 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 South Dakota commission into a filed platform. It also cannot put your notary on a state-approved list. The state does not keep that list. The 2024 path is legal. The missing list, and the older penalty section, keep the in-state grade at a B.

Two video rules, in plain words

Do not treat “video notary in South Dakota” as one product. The year on the rule changes the job.

• The 2019 rule is SDCL 18-1-11.1. The notary is in South Dakota. The document is a printed document. The statute calls that a tangible document. The notary must already know you through past dealings. The handbook, page 26, describes the steps. The notary mails the document to you. The notary watches you sign on a video call. You mail the document back. The notary then signs and seals it. Both signatures are original. The certificate states your remote location and that the act used video. This rule is not useful if the notary is a stranger. A Form 1583 for a mailbox store is usually that stranger case.
• The 2024 rule is SDCL 18-1-11.2. The handbook calls it SB 211 from the 2024 session. The statute source line is Session Laws 2024, chapter 71, section 4. We do not add a calendar day the statute does not print. The document is electronic. The notary is in South Dakota. You are not in the same room. The notary does not have to know you from past dealings. The statute says the notary has personal knowledge by two different methods of identity proofing. Identity proofing is a check that you are the person you claim to be. The statute does not print a quiz score. The system must be tamper-evident. That means a later change shows. The notary makes an audio-video copy of the act.

The handbook’s identification section, page 14, says a remote act for a person outside South Dakota requires personal knowledge. That sentence matches the 2019 rule. The 2024 section of the same handbook quotes the two identity-proofing methods. We print both. We do not merge them into one rule.

The recording clock is SDCL 18-1-11.3. The notary keeps the audio-video copy for 10 years. A storage service may hold that copy. The certificate for the 2024 act follows SDCL 18-4-30. It has to say the notary identified you by identity proofing, and that the system was tamper-evident.

One older sentence was not updated. SDCL 18-1-11 makes it a Class 2 misdemeanor for a notary to sign when the people did not appear in person or under the 2019 rule. The source line stops at Session Laws 2019, chapter 100. It does not name SDCL 18-1-11.2. That is an observation. Ask a South Dakota lawyer if it matters for your document. SDCL 18-1-11.8 says a missed duty does not by itself void the notarial act. A person can still challenge the document under other law.

What the notary files, and what the state does not approve

SDCL 18-1-11.4 is the filing rule. Before an electronic act, the notary picks at least one tamper-evident system. Nobody may force a system the notary did not pick. The notary tells the Secretary of State, on the office’s form, which systems they use.

The eNotary page says that form is the Notary Change Form. Include an image of the electronic seal. If the platform will not make that image until you already hold a commission, file the image later. After the filing, the office issues a certificate that lists you as an e-notary. FAQ 10 says e-notarization is allowed and points to the Notary Public Search. FAQ 17 says to use the box labeled “Only Show E-Notaries.”

The same eNotary page says this in plain words: “South Dakota does not require electronic notarization platform providers to seek approval… our office does not keep a listing of approved vendors.” A checkout screen is not a South Dakota approval. Proof and NotaryLive are not names on a state list, because the state keeps no list. Ask the notary whether they filed the platform you are about to use.

The notary’s chair is narrower than yours. The eNotary page and handbook page 28 say the notary must be physically in South Dakota. The signer may be anywhere in the world. A regular commission, with no platform filing, is still a room job.

The seal has a short list. SDCL 18-1-3.1 requires the notary’s name, the words “South Dakota,” the words “notary public,” and a border. The expiration date goes below the seal. An ink seal and an electronic seal must also include the word “seal” inside the border. The eNotary page says the office does not supply the seal. It also says the expiration date stays outside the border of the electronic seal. We print both sentences.

The commission comes first. SDCL 18-1-1 says the term is six years and the fee is $30. The applicant lives in South Dakota, or lives in a county that borders South Dakota and works in South Dakota. The secretary of state may not appoint a person who has been convicted of a felony. FAQ 14 prints the $30 fee. FAQ 16 prints the six-year term. Each notary may act anywhere in this state. FAQ 2 says a South Dakota notary does not notarize in another state.

The bond is gone for a new application. The how-to-become page says, effective July 1, 2025, the surety bond is no longer required. FAQ 18 says a 2025 session law removed the bond. You send the application and the oath. A bond is not the price of your session. It was a promise of money if the notary failed the duties of the office. The office no longer requires that promise. This page does not invent a replacement dollar.

Read the fee sentence before you treat a company price as South Dakota law. Handbook page 7 says a notary may charge a fee for each document. The only stated exception is no fee for notarizing an absentee ballot request. The handbook names no dollar limit. It names no travel cap. Ask the price first.

A county recording office has a separate rule. SDCL 18-1-11.5 says the register of deeds must accept a certified printed copy of an electronic record. SDCL 18-1-11.6 is the certificate for that copy. That is not the 2019 mail-back job. It is a printed copy of a record that was already electronic.

What actually needs a notary

People show up because a bank, a processor, a landlord, or a mailbox asked for a sworn statement. We did not read a current South Dakota business filing form for a fee or a notary line on this pass. We will not invent either number.

We do not publish a bank-by-bank list we have not read on that desk’s page this month. If you need an operating address so a bank will open an account, that is a different product. It is not this site’s directory.

Open all night versus booked, in this state

A same-session video act can be a South Dakota notary who already filed a platform, on an electronic document. It can also be an out-of-state video notary, if the receiving desk will take that act. Company availability letters live on the directory, once. The missing fee cap does not keep a counter open after it closes.

If the desk wants you and a South Dakota notary in the same room, the identity check fails, or the notary never filed a platform, you are shopping store hours or a booked house call. That is the B on walk-in / mobile. It is not a failure of the 2024 law. The 2019 mail-back rule is slower than either of those. It is not an all-night checkout.

The consumer starting prices we cite on company cards, about $25 a session, are company prices from the official pages retrieved August 2026. They are not a South Dakota legal maximum. The handbook names no dollar limit. Ask the price first.

Company letters live on the directory

Availability, identity check, and session-record letters for Proof, NotaryLive, OneNotary, BlueNotary, mobile, and walk-in are on the directory, once. This page keeps the South Dakota rule and the document table. Official starting prices we cite: NotaryLive about $25 per session; Proof 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 filed that platform with the South Dakota Secretary of State. The state approves no platforms and keeps no list. Independent South Dakota mobiles are not that OneNotary sticker. Counters set their own prices. The handbook still names no dollar limit.

Form 1583 as a South Dakota 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 with a notary public. The form’s note allows a live video call. The notary must be licensed in a U.S. state, territory, possession, or the District of Columbia. The form does not require a South Dakota license. A South Dakota signer who needs a stranger on a video call is in the 2024 rule, not the 2019 personal-knowledge rule. The store still decides whether to accept the session. Nearby pages: North Dakota and Nebraska.

What we will not do here: grade mailbox brands, pick a Sioux Falls, Rapid City, or Pierre storefront, or explain store flags. Those are mailbox questions. The notary question is whether the session matched the form. That means a U.S.-licensed notary, two IDs, and a home address that matches the address ID. Details live on Form 1583 notarization.

A sequence that usually wastes less money

1. Read the receiving desk’s current instruction. If they need you in the room, do not buy a video session to argue with them.
2. If they accept a remote act, ask which South Dakota rule you are getting. The 2019 rule needs a notary who already knows you, and a printed document mailed both ways. The 2024 rule is an electronic document, two identity checks, and a notary who is physically in South Dakota and who filed the platform. The Secretary of State is the authority for that filing. NASS and NNA are the country sources. A Proof map is secondary. The state’s own page says it approves no platforms.
3. Ask the price before you upload a long packet at a $25 company sticker. The handbook names no dollar limit. A company price is not a South Dakota cap. A witness fee on a company page is not a person sitting next to you.
4. If the identity check fails, stop and switch. Use a mobile notary or a walk-in. The 2024 statute does not print a retake count.
5. Keep the session confirmation. The value of a 2024 session later is the audio-video copy SDCL 18-1-11.3 says to keep for 10 years. The value of a walk-in is the in-room act the desk already said it wanted.