Your ID Please! Advice From A Notary
Will a Notary Public Accept Your ID?
There are too many situations where someone needs notary service but doesn’t have valid ID. Unless you’re a notary public, you might think your temporary driver’s license, Medicare card, or Mexico Consular card is acceptable for notary services. Notary Publics are presented expired driver’s licenses, credit cards with pictures, social security cards, Costco cards and library cards for notary services.
Here are the only acceptable identification documents a California notary can use: California driver’s license or nondriver’s ID issued by the CA DMV, U.S. Passport book or card, a Foreign passport stamped by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, Driver’s license or nondriver’s ID issued by another U.S. state, Driver’s license issued by Mexico or Canada, Employee ID card issued by an agency of the State of California or any city or within the state, U.S. military ID card (but not a CAC card), Inmate ID issued by the CA Department of Corrections (if the person is in custody) and an ID issued by the USCIS.
Just because you present one of these documents to a notary doesn’t mean that they’re acceptable. It must be current or issued in the past 5 years. That means an expired driver’s license won’t work because they expire 5 years after issue. Also the name on the ID must match how the person will sign. It’s ok if there are middle and former names on the ID that don’t appear on the document, but a notary cannot stamp a notary seal on a document that has names that are not on the ID.
What if you don’t have acceptable ID? A document signer can bring two credible witnesses unknown to the notary, or one credible witness if the notary knows them. The witnesses must present valid ID to the notary, must know the document signer and not have any interest in the document being signed. But it’s not always easy to have 2 witnesses. It’s better to have valid ID available at all times.
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