Need to have a document notarized? The way it used to work in the past is that you would visit a notary in person at their office, and wait around for them to essentially provide a signature. Now the entire process can be done online, which makes the process much easier and saves you time. This is what you need to know about how the online notary process works.

Authenticate Yourself

The first part of the process is going to be to authenticate who you are. This process requires you to enter some information like the last four digits of your social security number, your birthday, and questions that only you should know the answer to. This could include previous addresses you've been associated with, areas where you've owned property, and other identifying information that can be quickly answered to verify who you are.

Create Your Signature

You'll then need to create the signature that you are going to use on the digital documents that you sign. It will likely be a bit messy if you are making it on the computer, but it will work just fine for the notarization process. You can typically do this by using your mouse and not be required to scan an actual signature. There will be a password that you need to make that is associated with this signature, and you must type that password to apply your signature to any document.

Sign The Document

You'll receive a copy of the document online that you need to sign. You should read and review the document first to verify that it is correct, then use your password to apply your authenticated signature to the document. It is incredibly simple to do and doesn't require a hard copy of the document.

Verify The Signature

The online notary will then ask you to verbally verify if the signature on the document is yours and if you willingly signed the document. Once you answer yes, the notary will put their signature on the document to verify that it is actually your signature being used. The notary process will be complete, and you'll have the signed document that you need.

Store The Document

At this point, you can print out the document so that you have it for your records or save it to your computer for easy access later on. The notary service may even store the document online for a certain length of time so that you can download it again if you lose it.