ID Requirements
From the National Notary Association
A Notary Public is an official of integrity appointed by state government – typically by the secretary of state – to serve the public as an impartial witness in performing a variety of official fraud-deterrent acts related to the signing of important documents. These official acts are called notarizations or notarial acts.
It is the foremost duty of a Notary to screen signers of particularly sensitive instruments – such as property deeds, wills and powers of attorney – for their true identity, their willingness to sign without duress or intimidation, and their awareness of the general import of the document. Some notarizations also require the Notary to put the signer under an oath declaring under penalty of perjury that the information contained in a document is true and correct.
From the State of California Notary Handbook
The notary public can establish the identity of the signer using identification documents as follows (Civil Code section 1185(b)(3) & (4))
There is a reasonable reliance on any one of the following forms of identification, provided it is current or was issued within 5 years:
- An identification card or driver’s license issued by the California Department of Motor Vehicles;
- A United States passport;
- An inmate identification card issued by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, if the inmate is in custody in California state prison;
- Any form of inmate identification issued by a sheriff’s department, if the inmate is in custody in a local detention facility
There is reasonable reliance on any one of the following forms of identification, provided that it also contains a photograph, description of the person, signature of the person, and an identifying number:
- A valid consular identification document issued by a consulate from the applicant’s country of citizenship, or a valid passport from the applicant’s country of citizenship;
- A driver’s license issued by another state or by a Canadian or Mexican public agency authorized to issue driver’s licenses;
- An identification card issued by another state;
- A United States military identification card (caution: current military identification cards might not contain all the required information);
- An employee identification card issued by an agency or office of the State of California, or an agency or office of a city, county, or city and county in California.
- An identification card issued by a federally recognized tribal government.
