The PA Notary, Start to Finish

TL;DR / In plain English

A Pennsylvania notary public is a public officer commissioned by the Secretary of the Commonwealth to perform a short, specific list of acts — mostly witnessing signatures and administering oaths — as an impartial third party. The commission lasts four years, costs $42 to apply for, and requires three hours of approved education, a written exam through Pearson VUE, a $25,000 surety bond, and an oath of office recorded with your county. You are not a lawyer, cannot give legal advice, and cannot perform any act where you or your spouse has a direct financial interest. The law that governs everything you do is the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (RULONA), codified at 57 Pa.C.S. §§ 301–331, with implementing regulations in 4 Pa. Code Chapters 161, 163 and 167 — rewritten on March 28, 2026.

The role and the law

A PA notary’s job is narrow on purpose. When you press your stamp on a document, you are certifying three things: that the signer personally appeared in front of you, that you verified their identity, and that the person signed willingly. You are not vouching for what the document says. You are not interpreting it. You are not promising that what the signer swore is actually true — only that they swore it.

The statute that defines all of this is the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts, usually just called RULONA. Pennsylvania enacted it as Act 73 of 2013, it took effect on October 26, 2017, and it replaced the 1953 Notary Public Law that had been patched and re-patched for 60 years. RULONA is codified at 57 Pa.C.S. Chapter 3, running from § 301 (the short title) through § 331 (construction and uniformity). In 2020, the General Assembly added § 306.1 through Act 97 of 2020, which made Remote Online Notarization permanent after its emergency debut during COVID.

The implementing regulations — the detailed rules the Department of State actually enforces — were rewritten wholesale and published as final on March 28, 2026 in the Pennsylvania Bulletin (Doc. No. 26-438, 56 Pa.B. 1672). They live at 4 Pa. Code Part VIII, Subpart C, Chapters 161, 163, and 167. If you are reading an older guide that cites the prior regulations in Chapter 165, throw it out — Chapter 165 was deleted in the 2026 rulemaking.

The difference between pre-2017 and today matters in practice. Under the old 1953 law, notaries worked within a county, a notarization’s validity turned on a web of local-recording quirks, and electronic notarization barely existed. Under RULONA:

• A PA notary has statewide jurisdiction (57 Pa.C.S. § 303). You can notarize in any Pennsylvania county, not just the one your commission lists.
• The six notarial acts are explicitly enumerated (57 Pa.C.S. § 304). Anything outside that list is not a notarial act.
• Personal appearance is non-negotiable except through authorized remote technology (§§ 306 and 306.1).
• The notary certificate is treated as self-authenticating evidence in court under Pa. R.E. 902 — your signature and seal carry weight, and so do your mistakes.

If you want a single takeaway from the statute, it is this: you are a state officer performing a state function, under a statute that does not tolerate creative interpretation.

What notaries can and cannot do

RULONA gives a Pennsylvania notary six — and only six — notarial acts. Every time you reach for your stamp, the act you are performing must be one of these:

1. Take an acknowledgment — confirming that a signer who appeared before you acknowledges signing the document.
2. Administer an oath or affirmation — swearing someone in, verbally.
3. Take a verification on oath or affirmation — what most people call an affidavit; the signer swears the contents of a written statement are true.
4. Witness or attest a signature — observing the signer sign a document in your presence.
5. Certify or attest a copy or deposition — certifying that a photocopy is a true copy of an original record, or that a deposition transcript is accurate.
6. Note a protest of a negotiable instrument — a specialized act related to dishonored checks and notes.

That is the complete list. See 57 Pa.C.S. § 304 and the DOS Powers of a Notary Public page.

The harder part to internalize is the list of things a PA notary cannot do:

• No legal advice. A notary is not a lawyer. You cannot draft documents, explain their legal effect, choose a certificate type for a signer, or answer “should I sign this?” Doing so is the unauthorized practice of law under 42 Pa.C.S. § 2524, and — as discussed below — PA enforces this hard.
• No notarizing for yourself or a spouse with a pecuniary interest. RULONA prohibits any act where you or your spouse has a “direct or pecuniary interest” (57 Pa.C.S. § 304(e); see DOS Powers page). Regular wages, salaries, and lawful notary fees are not disqualifying interests. A commission you would earn if the deal closes is.
• No notarizing without personal appearance. Even if the signer is your sister and you watched her sign this morning over FaceTime — if she is not in front of you (or appearing through an approved RON platform), you cannot notarize. This is the single most common grounds for discipline and criminal charges in Pennsylvania.
• No marriages. Unlike some states, PA notaries cannot take marriage-license applications, issue marriage licenses, or perform ceremonies.
• No notarial acts outside Pennsylvania. You must be physically in Pennsylvania at the moment of the act, regardless of where the signer or document is. A PA notary standing on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River is not acting as a PA notary.
• No sealing a non-notarial act. Completing Section 2 of a federal Form I-9 is not a notarial act. The DOS guidance is explicit: “Completing Section 2 of I-9 is NOT a notarial act and must not be completed under a notarial seal.” See PA DOS I-9 Forms Guidance.
• No delegating. Your commission is personal. You cannot let a coworker “just use your stamp.”

More on these boundaries in the Ethics & Prohibited Acts pillar.

The commission: appointment → oath → stamp

Becoming a PA notary is a six-step process. Skipping any one of them either delays your commission or voids it entirely.

1. Qualify

Per 57 Pa.C.S. § 321 and the DOS Apply page, you must:

• Be at least 18 years old.
• Be a U.S. citizen or permanent legal resident.
• Reside in Pennsylvania, or have a place of employment or practice in Pennsylvania.
• Read and write English.
• Have a clean record, free of convictions involving fraud, dishonesty, or deceit.

Certain positions disqualify you outright: members of the U.S. Congress, federal officers drawing salary, and members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly may not serve as notaries.

2. Take the three-hour education course

Before you apply, you must complete three hours of approved notary education within the six months before submission (57 Pa.C.S. § 322; see DOS Mandatory Education). DOS maintains a list of approved providers. This applies to everyone — including notaries who were grandfathered under the pre-RULONA 1953 law. There are no exemptions.

When you are ready, our own Basic Education course satisfies the requirement and is built around the 2026 regulatory rewrite.

3. Pass the Pearson VUE examination

New applicants take the notary exam through Pearson VUE. The current examination fee is $65, per the fiscal impact statement filed with the March 2026 final regulations. Results are transmitted electronically to DOS. Crucially: if your commission expires and you apply after expiration, you must retake the exam, regardless of how many times you previously passed it.

4. Apply and pay the $42 fee

Submit your application online at notaries.pa.gov or by mail. The commission fee is $42, paid to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Your commissioned name must be your full legal name — no nicknames, no initials-only. “John R. Doe” is fine; “J.R. Doe” or “Chip Doe” will be rejected. Processing typically takes two to four weeks.

5. The 45-day clock — bond, oath, and recording

This is where commissions most often die. Once DOS grants your commission, you have 45 days to do all of the following (57 Pa.C.S. § 321(d); DOS Application Information):

1. Obtain a $25,000 surety bond from an insurance company authorized to do business in Pennsylvania. This is the headline change of the March 28, 2026 rulemaking — the bond more than doubled, up from the long-standing $10,000 figure. Current commissions may keep their existing $10K bonds until expiration, but every new or reappointed notary on or after March 28, 2026 must post the full $25,000. See the Bond & Insurance pillar for pricing and vendor comparisons.
2. Take the constitutional oath of office administered by the county prothonotary, recorder of deeds, or a judge.
3. Register your signature with the county prothonotary or recorder of deeds.
4. Record the bond, commission, and oath with the recorder of deeds.

Failure to complete these within 45 days voids the commission.

— PA DOS, Application Information

6. Order the stamp and journal

Your commission is active only after those 45-day steps finish. Now you can order equipment. Under the 2026 regulations, the required stamp must include, in this order (57 Pa.C.S. § 315; DOS Notary Equipment):

1. “Commonwealth of Pennsylvania”
2. “Notary Seal”
3. Your commissioned name followed by “Notary Public”
4. The county where you maintain your office
5. Your commission expiration date
6. Your seven-digit commission identification number

That seven-digit commission ID is new. It was optional-ish before March 2026; under the current rule it is mandatory on every impression. Existing notaries may continue using their existing seals until commission expiration, but any new or reappointed notary must comply immediately.

The stamp dimensions cap at 1 inch tall by 3½ inches wide, with a plain border. An embosser is allowed as a supplement — never as a substitute — and a notary may keep more than one stamping device for the same commission.

You will also need a journal — bound and numbered if paper, tamper-evident if electronic. The journal is not optional; more on that next.

For a full walkthrough of each step with current vendor pricing, see the How to Become a PA Notary pillar.

Daily practice

A PA notary’s daily obligations are short, boring, and absolutely enforced:

• The journal is required. Under 57 Pa.C.S. § 319 and 4 Pa. Code § 167.34, every notarial act must be entered contemporaneously with the date and time, type of act, document description, signer’s name and address, identification method, and fee charged. Entries must be consecutively numbered. Under the 2026 rule, no part of a Social Security number may be recorded — not even the last four digits, which prior guidance permitted. See the Journal pillar.
• The stamp goes near your signature. Every certificate must be dated, signed in your commissioned name, identify the county and state where you were located, and bear your seal. If the seal smears, make a legible impression adjacent to it.
• Fees are capped. The traditional-notarization ceiling is $5 per act (with $2 per additional name on an acknowledgment and $3 per page for protests); the new $5 fee for witnessing or attesting a signature became explicit with the March 2026 rewrite. For remote or electronic notarizations, you may charge up to $20 per act in addition to the base fee. You must provide an itemized receipt (4 Pa. Code § 167.3(c)). See the Fees pillar for the full table and how to bill travel and clerical costs separately.
• Identity is verified one of two ways. Either by personal knowledge of the signer, or by “satisfactory evidence” — typically a current, unexpired government-issued photo ID. The 2026 regs expanded the acceptable list to include military IDs, DOC inmate cards, DHS identification, Social Security cards, PA university IDs, medical marijuana cards, and consular documents.

Do those four things every day, keep your contact info current with DOS (you have 30 days to notify the Department of any change of name, address, phone, email, or technology provider), and you will stay well clear of the enforcement wire.

The four-year renewal cycle

A Pennsylvania notary commission lasts four years from the date it is granted (57 Pa.C.S. § 321(b)). There is no term limit on renewals.

Renewing is not automatic. You must:

• Complete three hours of approved education within the six months before you reapply. Courses approved for initial appointment count for renewal. See DOS list of approved providers.
• Pay the $42 commission fee again.
• Post a new $25,000 bond on reappointment. If you renewed before March 28, 2026, your $10,000 bond expires with your commission — your next renewal is at the new amount.
• Apply before your current commission expires. This is the critical one. Reappointment applicants who apply after expiration must retake the Pearson VUE exam regardless of prior passage. An expired commission is a dead commission; if you do not renew in time, you are no longer a notary and cannot perform any act until you reapply and are recommissioned from scratch.

Pennsylvania currently has only two DOS-approved Continuing Education providers statewide — the Pennsylvania Automotive Association (online) and the Pennsylvania Association of Notaries (classroom-only). For the roughly 75,000 commissioned PA notaries facing renewal every four years, this is an unusually thin market. Our Continuing Education course is being built to become the third option and the second online option.

Where notaries get into trouble

The prior sections describe the rules; this section describes what happens when notaries break them. Pennsylvania enforcement runs on four parallel tracks, and the 2020–2026 case record is vivid.

Failure to require personal appearance

This is the single most common disciplinary charge. RULONA § 306 requires the signer to be physically (or remotely, through an approved platform) in front of the notary at the moment of signing. Every shortcut — “I know her, she already signed it, just put the stamp on” — is a § 306 violation.

The consequence at the regulatory floor is loss of commission. In In re Lori S. Sobol (DOS, 2022), a Pittsburgh notary voluntarily surrendered her commission after DOS findings that she had notarized documents without personal appearance and had failed to maintain a journal. That is the lenient outcome.

The harsh outcome is criminal prosecution. In April 2025, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner indicted notary Gwendolyn Schell on roughly 250 criminal counts for her alleged role in a deed-fraud ring that fraudulently transferred 21 Philadelphia homes — using her seal to notarize signatures of deceased record owners. See the Philadelphia DA’s press release. The core of every charge is that she stamped for signers who were not present. Under the Philadelphia Deed-Fraud Task Force, notaries are now being prosecuted as co-conspirators — not witnesses.

Conflict of interest

A notary who notarizes a transaction in which she or her spouse has a direct financial stake has violated 57 Pa.C.S. § 304(e). The act is “voidable” at the option of the affected party. In practice this means real estate deals unravel, loans get rescinded, and the notary absorbs the E&O claim. Regular salary, hourly wages, and the notary fee itself are not disqualifying interests — a commission or bonus tied to the transaction closing is.

Unauthorized practice of law, including “notario público”

Pennsylvania treats non-lawyers who advertise legal services as notaries — especially using the Spanish notario público, which in Latin America designates a trained attorney — as committing both UPL under 42 Pa.C.S. § 2524 and a RULONA violation. DOS published a dedicated guidance document, Notario Público, the Practice of Law and Advertising, to address the problem head-on.

Bad IDs and missing journals

DOS disciplinary bulletins show a steady cadence of stayed suspensions coupled with mandatory education and administrative penalties in the $1,500–$2,000 range for notaries who accepted expired IDs, did not verify credentials, or failed to maintain accurate journals. Civil penalties under 57 Pa.C.S. § 323(b) cap at $1,000 per violation.

No private right of action — but the DOS and consumer-protection bar will come for you

In Seplow v. Closing Pro, Inc. (E.D. Pa. 2024), a plaintiff alleged his title company had charged $50 per notarized signature against RULONA’s $5 cap. The federal court dismissed the direct RULONA claim, holding that RULONA does not create a private right of action — enforcement is a state administrative monopoly. The plaintiff’s Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law claim and unjust-enrichment count survived, and the class allegations stayed alive.

The lesson is counterintuitive: overcharging does not get you sued directly under RULONA. It gets you (a) reported to DOS for commission sanctions and fee restitution, and (b) sued under the UTPCPL as part of a putative class. Neither is cheaper than following the fee schedule.

Is this a career or a side gig?

The honest answer: for most PA notaries, it is a side gig. The fee cap is real — at $5 per act, a single-act notarization earns you the cost of a coffee. Practicing at the statutory ceiling, a busy general notary doing 10 notarizations per day at an average of two acts per session earns roughly $100 a day in notary fees before clerical and travel charges.

Four business models actually scale:

• Mobile notaries charge the same $5-per-act ceiling but add “reasonable and customary” travel and clerical fees — which the statute does not cap as long as they are disclosed to the customer before notarization. A Philadelphia-area mobile notary typically bills $75–$150 per visit.
• Signing agents (notaries certified to handle mortgage and refinance closings) earn $100–$200 per closing from title companies. This requires additional certification (commonly through NNA’s Notary Signing Agent program) and $100,000 E&O coverage.
• Remote Online Notarization is where the volume is. Pennsylvania has 34 DOS-approved RON vendors — though Pavaso, a long-standing platform, shut down January 1, 2026 and remains on the approved PDF in error. Notaries who register with Proof, BlueNotary, OneNotary, or NotaryCam can work on-demand queues from anywhere in Pennsylvania and scale to 100+ sessions per week.
• Specialized niches — apostilles, hospital bedside signings, jail notarizations, estate-planning bundles — let experienced notaries command premium fees because few notaries will do them.

The notaries who earn real income treat the commission as an access point to a specific market (mobile, real estate, RON), carry real E&O coverage, and run the practice as a business. The notaries who treat it as a supplemental credential earn a few hundred dollars a year and renew out of habit.

See the RON pillar for the platform landscape and the Fees pillar for how to structure travel and clerical charges legally.

PA notary at a glance

Dimension	Rule	Primary source
Commission term	4 years, unlimited renewals	57 Pa.C.S. § 321(b)
Application fee	$42	57 Pa.C.S. § 329.1; DOS Apply
Examination fee	$65 (Pearson VUE)	56 Pa.B. 1672 fiscal statement
Education	3 hours, approved provider, within 6 months before applying	57 Pa.C.S. § 322
Bond (new/reappointed after 3/28/2026)	$25,000	57 Pa.C.S. § 324; 4 Pa. Code Ch. 167
Bond (existing commissions pre-3/28/2026)	$10,000 until expiration	4 Pa. Code Ch. 167 (transition)
Max fee, traditional acts	$5 per act ($2 per additional name on acknowledgment; $3 per page for protests)	4 Pa. Code § 167.3
Max fee, signature witnessing (new 2026)	$5 per signature	4 Pa. Code § 167.3
Max fee, electronic / RON (in addition to base)	$20 per act	4 Pa. Code § 167.3
Journal required	Yes — bound paper or tamper-evident electronic	57 Pa.C.S. § 319; 4 Pa. Code § 167.34
SSN digits in journal	Zero — no part permitted	4 Pa. Code Ch. 167 (2026 rule)
Stamp commission ID	7 digits, mandatory	57 Pa.C.S. § 315; 4 Pa. Code Ch. 167
CE required	3 hours, approved provider, within 6 months before reappointment	57 Pa.C.S. § 322
Civil penalty ceiling	$1,000 per violation	57 Pa.C.S. § 323(b)
Territorial jurisdiction	Statewide; notary must be physically in PA	57 Pa.C.S. § 303
Private right of action to enforce fee cap	None — DOS and UTPCPL enforcement only	Seplow v. Closing Pro, E.D. Pa. 2024

Further reading

• How to Become a PA Notary — the step-by-step application process with current fees and timelines.
• RULONA Complete Guide — section-by-section walkthrough of 57 Pa.C.S. Chapter 3 and the March 2026 regulations.
• Remote Online Notarization in Pennsylvania — the 34 approved platforms, registration process, and signer-location rules.
• Fees and Billing — the full 2026 fee schedule including the new $5 witness-signature rule and clerical-charge best practices.
• Journal Requirements — what to record, what is now prohibited, and how tamper-evident electronic journals work.
• Bond and E&O Insurance — the $25,000 bond market, pricing, and whether you also need errors-and-omissions coverage.
• Ethics and Prohibited Acts — conflicts of interest, UPL, notario público, I-9 forms, and the acts that will cost you your commission.
• Tools: PA Notary Fee Calculator — compute the maximum lawful fee for any combination of acts.
• Preview the curriculum — our Basic and Continuing Education courses, built around the 2026 regulatory rewrite. DOS provider approval pending.