To get a letter notarized, write the letter but leave it unsigned, bring it to a notary public along with a current government-issued photo ID, and sign it in front of the notary so they can verify your identity and apply their seal. The appointment itself usually takes under ten minutes once the letter is written.
What Notarization Actually Confirms
A notary’s job is narrow. They confirm that you are the person named in the letter and that you signed it in their presence. They do not vouch for whether anything you wrote is true. That distinction matters when you’re drafting, because the recipient is relying on the notary for identity assurance and on you for the content.
People most often need a notarized letter when a bank, school, airline, landlord, court, or insurance company wants more than a plain signature. Travel consent for a child flying with one parent, authorization for someone else to access an account, a co-signer’s statement of financial responsibility, and sworn statements for custody, name-change, or small claims matters are typical examples.
Write the Letter Before You Go
Use a standard business-letter format and keep the facts specific. Vague language invites follow-up requests or rejection.
- Header: Your full legal name, mailing address, phone number, and email, followed by the date and the recipient’s name, title, and address.
- Salutation: “Dear [Recipient Name]:” is sufficient.
- Body: State your purpose in the first sentence. Then lay out the facts in chronological order with the dates, dollar amounts, addresses, and case or account numbers the recipient would need to act.
- Closing line: If you’re swearing to the truth of the contents, add a line such as “I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.” Otherwise, a simple “Sincerely” is fine.
- Signature block: A blank line for your signature, your printed name under it, and the date. Do not sign yet.
- Notary certificate block: Leave roughly three to four inches of blank space at the bottom for the notary’s certificate, signature, seal, and commission expiration. You can also attach a pre-printed certificate form as a separate page.
Write your name exactly as it appears on the ID you plan to bring. If your driver’s license says “Katherine” and your letter says “Kate,” the notary may decline to proceed. The same rule applies to any other people named in the letter: middle names, suffixes, and hyphens should match their legal documents.
Jurat or Acknowledgment
Every notarized letter needs a certificate block, and there are two standard types. Picking the wrong one can get the letter bounced back.
- Jurat: The notary administers an oath, and you swear the contents are true. The language reads along the lines of “Subscribed and sworn to before me on this ___ day of ___.” Use a jurat for court filings, affidavits, and any letter where the truthfulness of the statements is the point.
- Acknowledgment: The notary confirms only that you are the person who signed. The language reads along the lines of “personally appeared ___, who proved to me on the basis of satisfactory evidence to be the person whose name is subscribed.” Use an acknowledgment for property transfers, powers of attorney, and consent letters where identity is the issue, not truth of contents.
If the institution asking for the letter specifies one, use that one. If no type is specified and your letter contains factual claims you’re asserting as true, a jurat is the safer choice.
What to Bring
Two things: the completed but unsigned letter, and a current government-issued photo ID. A driver’s license, state ID card, or passport all work, and none can be expired. Some notaries will accept military identification or a permanent resident card, but a driver’s license or passport is accepted everywhere.
If anyone else needs to sign the same letter, each signer must appear at the appointment with their own valid ID. A notary cannot notarize a signature applied outside their presence.
Without a government-issued ID, you may still be able to proceed through a “credible witness” who knows both you and the notary personally, appears with you, swears to your identity, and confirms they have no financial interest in the document. Not every state allows this, and some require two witnesses rather than one. Call the notary’s office ahead to confirm the rules where you are.
Where to Find a Notary
Notaries work at most bank branches, UPS Store and FedEx Office locations, law offices, real estate offices, and some public libraries. Banks and shipping stores usually take walk-ins for a single-document notarization. If your bank already holds your account, ask whether the service is free for account holders.
Mobile notaries will come to your home, office, or hospital for a travel fee on top of the per-signature charge. That makes the most sense when you have multiple documents to notarize in one sitting or you cannot leave where you are.
Remote Online Notarization
Remote online notarization (RON) lets you complete the whole process on a live video call. As of 2025, 47 states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws authorizing it.1NASS.org. Remote Electronic Notarization You upload your unsigned document and ID to a platform, join a video session with a commissioned notary, and sign electronically while they watch. Identity is typically verified through knowledge-based authentication questions pulled from public records in addition to your photo ID. The session is recorded and retained — up to ten years in some states.
Before scheduling a RON session, check with whoever is receiving the letter. Some recipients, particularly government agencies and foreign institutions, still require a traditional wet-ink notarization and will not accept an electronically notarized document.
What Happens at the Appointment
The steps are the same whether you’re in person or on a RON platform:
- Identity check: The notary examines your photo ID and compares it to the name on the letter.
- Oath, if it’s a jurat: You raise your right hand and swear or affirm that the statements in the letter are true.
- You sign, with the notary watching: Never sign beforehand. A pre-signed document is the single most common reason notaries turn people away.
- The notary completes the certificate: They fill in the date, your name, the type of notarial act, and their commission details, then sign and stamp the document.
- Journal entry: Most states require the notary to record the date, time, type of act, and your identification method in a journal, creating a permanent record if authenticity is later questioned.
What It Costs
Most states cap what a notary can charge per notarial act. Caps run as low as $2 per signature in a few states and up to $25 in others, with most falling between $5 and $15. States without a cap leave the fee to the notary, so ask the price before sitting down. Banks sometimes waive the fee for account holders.
Remote online notarizations cost more. States that authorize RON typically allow a surcharge of $10 to $25 on top of the standard per-signature fee, bringing the total to roughly $25 to $40 per act. The platform itself may add a separate technology fee.
Mobile notary travel fees are rarely capped and generally run $50 to $150 or more depending on distance and time of day. That travel charge usually dwarfs the notarization itself.
After the Appointment
Keep the original. Make photocopies or scans for your files before sending the original to the recipient, because a copy generally doesn’t carry the same legal weight — some recipients will insist on seeing the actual stamp and raised seal.
The notarization itself does not expire. Once the act is properly performed, it remains valid even after the notary’s own commission later ends, as long as the commission was active on the day of the signing. The letter’s content, however, can go stale. A bank may refuse a three-year-old financial authorization, and a court may ask for a fresh sworn statement if facts have changed. Many institutions set their own time limits of 30 days, 90 days, or six months. Ask the recipient whether they impose a deadline before going through the process a second time.
One practical caution on choosing a notary: notaries are supposed to be neutral third parties, and most states don’t explicitly ban notarizing for a family member, but the appearance problem can undermine the document if it’s ever challenged. Use a notary with no personal connection to anyone named in the letter.