Disclaimer: This article provides general informational content about New York State remote online notary practice under Executive Law Section 135-C. It is not legal advice; consult the NYS Department of State, the receiving office, or qualified legal counsel for authoritative guidance on your specific document.
A Question That Pops Up More Than You Might Think
If you have ever worked with a New York State remote online notary, chances are one of these conversations has happened.
“My brother is in New Jersey, but we are buying a house in Albany. Can a New York notary notarize his signature?”
“I live in Connecticut and I own a property in New York. I need to sign a deed from my kitchen. Is that allowed?”
“I am a New York notary. A client asked me to notarize a Florida deed that she is in the middle of selling. Can I take it?”
Each of these is a version of the same question, and it is one of the most common I get from clients who are preparing for a remote session from another state. The instinct is almost always the same: if the document touches another state, something must be different about how the notarization works. People assume that the state where a document “lives” – the state where the property sits, the state where the office is, the state where the paper originated – controls which rules apply to the notary.
That assumption is usually the source of the confusion. Today I want to walk through how New York’s remote online notary law actually handles out-of-state documents, out-of-state signers, and out-of-state recording offices, because the answer is cleaner than most people expect – with a handful of practical details that still matter a great deal.
Let me give you the short version first, and then we will go underneath it.
The short version: A New York State notary may perform a remote online notarial act with a signer who is located in another state. The signer’s location is not restricted by New York’s law. The two facts that do matter are (1) the notary must be physically in New York State when the act is performed, and (2) the notarial certificate on the document must be the form the receiving office will actually accept – and that question is driven by where the document is being recorded or filed, not by where it was written.
That is the whole architecture. Everything else in this post is a detail under one of those two pillars.
The Statutory Rule: Where the Notary Must Be, Where the Signer May Be
New York’s remote online notary framework lives in Executive Law Section 135-C. When the law was amended in 2023, the language that matters most for out-of-state signers became very specific. For a remote notarial act to be performed in New York, the statute requires that the electronic notary public be located within New York at the time of performing the act, “regardless of the location of the document signer.”
That single phrase – “regardless of the location of the document signer” – is the answer to nearly every question this post addresses. A signer can be in New Jersey, in Connecticut, in a sister’s apartment in Arizona, or (for documents intended for a U.S. matter) even abroad, and the act can still be a valid New York remote notarial act, so long as the notary is physically in New York when the session happens.
Three consequences follow from that rule, and each one is worth sitting with.
First, your physical location tells the notary where to be, not where you must be. If you are the signer, the law does not ask you to travel to New York. If you are a New York notary, the law asks you to be in the state. That is why, in every remote session I do, the first logistics check is always on my side of the screen: I must be physically in New York when we begin, and I must stay there for the act itself. If I am on a trip in Florida the morning of your session, I will reschedule or complete the act in person if we happen to be in the same place – because a remote act performed while I am out of state is not a valid New York remote act.
Second, the signer may be anywhere, including in another state that has its own remote online notary laws. Those other states’ rules do not automatically apply to you just because you are sitting there. New York’s remote session is governed by New York’s rules, and those rules give you – the signer – geographic freedom.
Third, and this one is subtle, “where the document is” has quietly become a much less important question than it used to be. Under remote online notarization, the document is an electronic record, and you sign it during the live session. The paper version you may print later, or the file you receive, does not “reside” anywhere legally significant at the moment of signing. What matters is where the act is performed (New York, by the notary) and where the document will ultimately be recorded, filed, or relied upon – which is a separate question we will tackle below.
A small but real point: the notary must still verify your identity with compliant audio-visual technology and retain the audio-visual recording, which New York’s rules require to be kept for at least 10 years. That retention duty is on the notary, but it is worth knowing, because it is why the session is conducted the way it is.
The Two Questions That Actually Matter
Here is the framework I teach every out-of-state client, because it solves 90% of the confusion in one sitting. You have three locations in your head – where the notary is, where the signer is, and where the document came from or is going. The law only truly asks about two of them, and the third is a practical question about the certificate.
Question 1: Is the notary physically in New York State at the time of the act?
This is a hard requirement for any New York remote online act, whether the signer is in Manhattan or in Miami. It is also the question people most often get backwards: they worry about their own location and not about the notary’s. The notary’s location is the one that is legally fixed; yours is the one that is free.
Question 2: Where will this document be recorded or filed, and what certificate does that office require?
This is the question that determines the actual words on your notarial certificate. It is not the signer’s location, and usually not the document’s origin – it is the receiving office. A New York deed recorded in New York needs a New York-compliant certificate of acknowledgment. A New Jersey deed recorded in New Jersey may need New Jersey’s statutory certificate. If you get this one question wrong, the notarization can be performed perfectly and still come back to you unrecordable, which is the quiet nightmare of out-of-state document work.
The reason these two questions do the heavy lifting is that remote online notarization changed the geometry. In the in-person world, everyone – signer, notary, document – sits in one room in one state, so “where” is a single fact. In the remote world, the signer floats, the notary is anchored, and the destination office is a third, separate point. The law and practice have been built around exactly that new geometry.
The Real Estate Scenarios That Most Often Come to Me
Real property is where the out-of-state question bites hardest, because a deed or mortgage document is not just signed – it is recorded, and recording offices have standards. Let me walk through the three patterns I see most often, because they map onto almost everything clients bring in.
Scenario 1: A New York property, a signer in another state.
You are buying, selling, or refinancing a home in New York, and a signer – maybe you, maybe a co-signer, maybe a power-of-attorney agent – is physically in New Jersey, Connecticut, or anywhere else. This is the classic case, and it is the cleanest one under the statute. A New York notary can perform the acknowledgment or oath remotely while the signer is in another state, because the law expressly does not care where the signer is. The act is a New York act, the certificate is a New York certificate, and the document goes to a New York recording office that is built to accept New York certificates. If the signer is a New York resident living out of state – and there are plenty of you, between upstate families and downstate work – nothing about your residence or your kitchen changes the analysis. The only requirements are that you can complete identity verification, that the notary is in New York, and that the act is the one your document requires.
Scenario 2: A New York property, a signer in New York, but a notary from another state.
The flip side, and it happens more than people think. A New York signer asks an out-of-state notary – say, a New Jersey notary they have used for years – to do the act remotely because it is convenient. Here the geometry matters in a different way: if the act is performed remotely by a New Jersey notary, it is a New Jersey remote act, and the certificate will be a New Jersey certificate. New York recording offices are used to accepting out-of-state certificates – New York’s real property law has long governed how a certificate of acknowledgment made by an officer of another state must be certified to be recorded here – but the practical move is always the same: confirm with the recorder or your attorney in advance that the specific certificate form will be accepted, and make sure the certificate includes the commission details the recording office expects. Many times it works seamlessly; occasionally a recorder’s office wants extra proof, and the only way to know is to ask before, not after.
Scenario 3: A property in another state, a signer in New York.
You own a lake house in Vermont, a rental in Massachusetts, or a condo in New Jersey, and you are in New York and want to sign the documents remotely. Can a New York notary handle it? Yes, the session itself is fine – a New York notary may take a remote act for a signer in New York on a document that concerns another state’s property. The certificate question is the one to solve: if the deed or mortgage will be recorded in that other state’s registry, you should use a certificate of acknowledgment in the form that state requires, and confirm that state’s acceptance of remote acts performed by notaries from other states (every state with its own remote law has answered this question, and the answers vary by state and sometimes by office). The notary’s state does not stop the session; the receiving state’s rules decide which certificate to print.
Notice the through-line across all three: the session’s location rule is simple and uniform, while the certificate’s form is the variable that must be matched to the destination. That division of labor is the entire game.
What the Receiving Office Cares About (And Why You Should Care First)
Let me go one layer deeper on that second question, because it is where files quietly die.
When a document with an out-of-state or remote certificate reaches a recording office, the recorder checks a few things: the certificate must be in the proper form (for New York recordings, the certificate prescribed by New York’s real property law, with a remote online act as one of the recognized ways of performing it), the notary’s identity must be verifiable (commission state, expiration, and for out-of-state officers the certification requirements the statute sets), and the act must be the one the document actually needs.
The practical move is always the same: before the session, ask the receiving office or your attorney one two-minute question – “Will you record a deed acknowledged remotely by a New York notary while the signer was in [other state]?” Almost always the answer is yes. Sometimes it comes with a form. Either way, you find out cheaply in advance, and you avoid the one quiet nightmare of out-of-state document work: a perfectly performed notarization that the office will not accept.
The In-Person World Is Simpler Than It Looks
One clarification, because I hear it a lot: in the in-person world, the rule is famously forgiving. A notary may notarize a document that originated in, or will be recorded in, another state, as long as the signer is physically present before the notary and the certificate is the form the receiving office requires. The National Notary Association has said it plainly: the notary may proceed if the signer can tell the notary what notarial act is needed, the document carries proper notarial wording (or the correct wording can be added), and the act satisfies the notary’s state’s laws.
What remote online notarization changes is the geometry, not that rule of mind: the signer’s geography has been explicitly made irrelevant by the statute, and the certificate must be one the destination office will accept. So the out-of-state conversation in the remote world has exactly two moving parts: where I, the notary, am and where the document lands.
A Practical Checklist for Out-of-State Sessions
If you are preparing for a remote session that involves another state in any way, this is the checklist I send to clients. It takes ten minutes to work through and it solves nearly every problem before the session starts.
- Identify the receiving office. Where will this document be recorded, filed, or relied upon? A county recorder, a court clerk, a lender’s title office, a foreign state’s registry – name it specifically.
- Determine the certificate form. Ask that office or your attorney: what form of notarial certificate do you require, and do you accept remote online acts performed by notaries from other states? Get the answer in writing if you can.
- Confirm the act type. Acknowledgment or jurat (oath or affirmation)? The certificate words differ, and the signer’s obligations differ. If the document has a pre-printed certificate, read it – it usually tells you the answer.
- Check the notary’s location. If you are the signer, confirm in advance that the notary will be physically in New York State at the time of the act. If you are a New York notary, confirm your location first; it is the one fact the statute hard-wires.
- Prepare for identity verification. You will need a valid government-issued photo ID, and the session runs on approved audio-visual technology. Have a stable, well-lit video connection ready.
- Mind the fees. In New York, a remote online notarial act carries a statutory maximum fee of $25 under Executive Law Section 136, the same for any signer and any document, in-state or out-of-state. If a notary charges a separate travel fee, it must be a disclosed, agreed service charge on top of the statutory amount, not a hidden addition.
- Keep the record. The notary must retain the audio-visual recording of your session for at least 10 years. You may request a copy of the completed certificate from the notary after the act.
Walk through those seven items and the “out-of-state” part of your transaction stops being a worry and becomes a line item.
Edge Cases and Common Misunderstandings
A few final trip-wires, because they come up with surprising regularity.
“I am a New York notary, but I am traveling.” If you are physically outside New York when a remote session is supposed to happen, you cannot perform it as a New York remote act. Reschedule, or perform it in person if you are both in the same place and the document and office will allow it. The statute anchors the act to where the notary is, and only New York counts.
“The document is from another state, so I must use a notary from that state.” Not necessarily. A New York notary can take a remote act on a document concerning another state’s property, provided the certificate is in the form that state’s recording office accepts. The notary’s home state and the property’s home state are different questions.
“My signer lives in New York, so the notary must be there.” For a New York remote act, the notary must be in New York – yes. But that requirement exists to protect the recording office’s ability to find and verify the notary; it does not exist to tell signers where they must sit. The signer is free.
“We will just notarize it anywhere and figure out the certificate later.” This is the one I most often fix. The certificate is not a detail you can retrofit. If the receiving office will not record what you produce, the signature is real but the document is stuck, and the fix usually means re-signing. Ten minutes with the recorder’s office prevents a whole month of limbo.
“Can a signer in another state even see the document?” In a remote session, the document is an electronic record shared in the session, and the signer signs it electronically. There is no physical paper crossing a border, which is why the “where is the document” question largely disappears from the statute. If you will want a paper copy later, the notary can provide a copy of the signed record and the certificate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a signer from New Jersey use a New York remote online notary for a New York property document? Yes. The notary must be physically in New York at the time of the act; the signer may be anywhere. The certificate should be a New York certificate of acknowledgment if the document will be recorded in New York.
I live in New York and own a property in another state. Can I sign the documents remotely with a New York notary? Yes, and this is one of the most common uses of remote notarization. Use the certificate form the other state’s recording office requires, and confirm in advance that the office accepts remote acts performed by out-of-state notaries.
Does the signer have to be in New York for a New York remote act? No. The statute is explicit that the notary must be in New York “regardless of the location of the document signer.” The signer’s location is not restricted.
Can a New York notary perform a remote act while traveling out of state? No, not as a New York remote act. The notary must be physically within New York when performing it. If both parties are in the same out-of-state location, an in-person act may be possible, subject to the document and office requirements.
What fee does a remote online notary in New York charge for an out-of-state signer? The statutory maximum for a remote online notarial act in New York is $25, regardless of where the signer is located. Any separate travel or service fee must be disclosed and agreed to in advance.
How long does the notary keep the recording of my remote session? New York requires the notary to retain the audio-visual recording of a remote act for at least 10 years.
If an out-of-state notary notarized a New York deed in person, will it record here? Generally yes, provided the certificate is properly completed and certified under New York’s real property law for certificates made by out-of-state officers. When in doubt, the recorder’s office can confirm before recording.
Final Thoughts
The out-of-state question is really a question about three places, and the law only pins down two of them. The notary must be in New York. The signer may be anywhere. And the document, in the remote world, no longer “is” anywhere at all – it is an electronic record, signed live, that eventually lands somewhere. That last fact is the one to control: before your session, learn what your destination office wants on the certificate, and everything else is logistics.