Tennessee video notary vs mobile: remote online is live after a second Online Notary Public commission from the Secretary of State; a regular county commission still has to be in the room

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 Tennessee owner needs a notary this week. 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 Tennessee. A Tennessee-commissioned notary may perform remote online notarization if that notary also holds an Online Notary Public commission from the Secretary of State. A regular county notary without that second card 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 Tennessee 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 Tennessee county notary into an Online Notary Public. It also cannot erase the Online Notary Public commission that Tennessee already issues.

Two Tennessee cards, and why a webcam is not a county stamp

The Secretary of State is blunt: a county notary does not become an online notary by opening a laptop.

• Online notarization is a remote act. The Online Notary Public Act defines it as a notarial act by two-way video and audio conference technology. The notary and the signer are not in the same place. The notary must hold the extra Online Notary Public commission, be physically inside Tennessee, and meet the person on a live two-way feed. The signer may be elsewhere. SOS how-to page; Tenn. Code Ann. § 8-16-307; Rule 1360-07-03-.03(1)–(2).
• E-notarization is a different product. The Secretary’s FAQ: in e-notarization the file uses digital signatures, but the signer is still in the physical presence of the notary, like pen and paper. In remote notarization the person is present through audio and visual equipment such as a webcam. A second FAQ is shorter: the State of Tennessee does not offer e-notaries. It only offers notaries and remote online notaries. Do not buy a Tennessee “e-notary” card. That product is not on the SOS menu.

The county card comes first. The how-to page: only a person who is already an active notary may apply. Notaries public are elected by each county. You can check that status on the Secretary’s site. Then you review Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 8-16-301 et seq. and Chapter 1360-07-03. Then you finish a course of instruction concerning online notarization and pass an examination from a Secretary-approved provider. You attach that certificate to the application. The Secretary does not print a course price we can quote. We will not invent one.

The vendor contract comes before the application, not after. The how-to page wants a company that can attach an electronic notarial certificate, signature, and seal; run identity proofing and credential analysis; and store the video-and-audio recording. You upload the vendor’s name, a description of those tools, your electronic seal, your electronic notarial certificate, and the vendor’s read-and-authenticate instructions. The Department of State does not recommend or endorse a vendor.

Then you apply online and pay. The how-to page: set up an account, complete the Online Notary Application, submit and pay online. There is an initial fee of $75. Rule 1360-07-03-.02(1)(p) prints the same $75.00 application fee. The Secretary of State issues the Online Notary Public commission. The online commission runs with the county commission and expires the same day, no matter when the online card was granted. If you later reapply as a county notary, you may then reapply as an online notary. Tenn. Code Ann. § 8-16-306 is the application-and-qualifications statute. The Secretary may charge a fee for that application not to exceed an amount necessary to administer the part. The printed number we have is $75.

The ID check is not a courtesy box. Rule 1360-07-03-.03(4) and Tenn. Code Ann. § 8-16-310: identity may be the notary’s personal knowledge, or all three of remote presentation of a qualifying government photo ID, credential analysis, and identity proofing. Rule 1360-07-03-.05: a third party must run those last two steps. Identity proofing is a knowledge-based quiz. The printed floor is five questions, five answer choices, 80 percent correct, two minutes, one retry within 24 hours, and a 24-hour lockout with the same online notary after a second failure. If those steps cannot finish, a mobile notary or a walk-in becomes the product that can finish.

The session file is part of the act. The Secretary’s storage FAQ reprints Rule 1360-07-03-.03: keep the records in a safe and secure manner for five years after the notarization; keep a backup for the same five years; you may store the recording with a custodian or repository if the journal cross-references that place; protect the original and the backup from unauthorized use. Tenn. Code Ann. § 8-16-308 also prints a five-year electronic-record floor. We will not invent a longer number.

The certificate must say the act was an online notarization and name the Tennessee state and county where the notary sat. Rule 1360-07-03-.03(7). The feed must be live. A taped replay does not count. Rule 1360-07-03-.05(5).

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

A Tennessee LLC is formed by filing Articles of Organization with the Secretary of State. The live form we retrieved is Form SS-4270. We did not read a notarization requirement on that filing. 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 piece of paper that sits next to the LLC.

We do not publish a bank-by-bank or county-by-county “accepts video” list we have not read on that desk’s page this month. 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 notarization is live, all-night service is a real option for many Tennessee papers, if the receiving desk will take a remote act. A Tennessee Online Notary Public or a notary licensed in another video-notary state can both close that session. Company availability letters live on the directory, once.

If the desk wants a regular Tennessee stamp on paper, the identity check fails, or the notary never received the Online Notary Public commission, you are shopping store hours or a booked house call. That is the C on walk-in / mobile showing up as a calendar. It is not a failure of the state rule.

The Secretary’s fee FAQ: a fee can be required not to exceed $25 for each online notarization. The FAQ cites Rule 1360-07-03-.03. The printed dollar rule is Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 1360-07-03-.06: an online notary public, or that notary’s employer, may charge a fee that does not exceed twenty-five dollars ($25.00) for each online notarization. Tenn. Code Ann. § 8-16-311 adds the same $25.00 cap “in addition to any other fees authorized under this chapter.” That is a state fee cap for a Tennessee-commissioned online notary. It is not a company sticker and not a UPS price. The consumer starting prices we cite on company cards, about $25 a session, are still the official pages retrieved August 2026. Counters set their own prices. We did not read a printed general acknowledgment cap for a regular county notary that we can quote as that sticker.

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 Tennessee rule and the document table. Official starting prices we cite: NotaryLive about $25 per session; Proof/Notarize about $25 for the first stamp and $15 for each extra stamp; OneNotary online about $25 and mobile from about $80. We do not invent a session price for BlueNotary. Independent Tennessee mobiles are not that OneNotary sticker. Tennessee publishes a $25 online-notarization maximum (Rule 1360-07-03-.06; Tenn. Code Ann. § 8-16-311); counters set their own prices.

Form 1583 as a Tennessee 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 Tennessee signer can use a Tennessee Online Notary Public or an out-of-state remote notary. That is the same idea as Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Washington. Other states have their own rules. See California, Georgia, or Massachusetts if that is your state.

What we will not do here: grade mailbox brands, pick a Nashville or Memphis 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,” “wet ink,” or named a paper the desk will not take remote, do not buy a video session to argue with them.
2. If they accept a remote act, you may use a Tennessee Online Notary Public or a notary licensed in another video-notary state. You may not use a regular Tennessee county notary on video. The Secretary of State is the authority for the in-state Online Notary Public commission. NASS and NNA are the country sources. The company’s live notary pool is the day-of fact.
3. Budget the extras from the official page, extra stamp, extra signer, witness, before you upload a six-signature packet at the $25 sticker. A Tennessee online notary’s own state cap is $25 per online notarization, plus any other fees the chapter already allows. That is not a promise a platform’s extras stop at $25.
4. If the identity-proofing quiz fails twice, stop treating “try again after midnight” as a plan. Rule 1360-07-03-.05 locks a second failure out of the same online notary for 24 hours. 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.
5. Keep the session confirmation. The value of a Tennessee remote session in a later dispute is the recording the rules already require online notaries to keep for five years. The value of a walk-in is the ink the desk already said it wanted.