Online notarization for your apostille, with no paper original to ship

Let's be straight with you: if you're in another state or another country, finding a Florida notary is the hard part of an apostille. This add-on solves that.

Florida law (Chapter 117, Part II, Florida Statutes) allows a Florida-commissioned online notary to notarize over two-way audio-video. The notary has to be physically in Florida. You don't. Florida law treats the online notarization as performed in Florida, which is what makes the result a Florida document the Florida Department of State can authenticate.

Here's the part most people miss. An online notarization produces an electronic document with an electronic signature and seal. The state's apostille office works with paper and original ink signatures. So after your session, our Florida notary prints the electronic document and completes a Florida attested-copy certificate on the paper copy, signed in ink and sealed. Florida law expressly allows a notary to print an electronic record and attest that the printout is true and unaltered (section 117.05(12), Florida Statutes). That paper copy is what we file for your apostille. You never mail us anything.

Live near one of our appointment offices? You can also bring an unsigned document to an in-person appointment at our West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa or Clearwater office and sign in person. The online option is for everyone else.

One order covers everything. Here's exactly what happens.

Florida doesn't let an online notary take your word for it. Under section 117.265, Florida Statutes, the notary must confirm your identity with all three of these (unless the notary personally knows you):

1. Remote presentation of your ID. You hold a current, government-issued photo ID up to the camera.
2. Credential analysis. Automated software checks the ID's security features and data to flag a fake or altered card.
3. Identity proofing. Usually knowledge-based questions drawn from public and financial records. Florida's statutory minimum is five questions, you need at least 80% correct, and you have two minutes to answer. You get one retry if you fail (section 117.295).

If the notary can't complete those checks, or the databases don't have enough information about you, the law says the notarization can't go ahead. There's no workaround for that. Signers who don't have a U.S. Social Security number or a U.S. credit history are the most likely to run into it, because the questions come from those records. If that's you, call us before you order.

If you're outside Florida, the notary will also confirm, out loud or in writing, that you want a Florida notary and Florida law to apply.

Some documents need witnesses as well as a notary. A Florida power of attorney, for example, must be signed by the principal and by two subscribing witnesses and acknowledged before a notary (section 709.2105, Florida Statutes). The country receiving your document may have its own witness rules, too.

In a Florida online session, witnesses can take part in two ways (section 117.285):

• In the room with you. Each witness states their name and current address on the recording.
• Remotely, by video. A remote witness goes through the same identity verification you do and must confirm they live in, and are physically located in, the United States or a U.S. territory.

You can't witness your own signature. For a few sensitive document types, including some powers of attorney with banking or investment powers and health-care directives, Florida adds screening questions when fewer than two witnesses are physically present with you. If any answer suggests you could be a vulnerable adult, those witnesses must be in the room with you.

Signing from abroad? Your witnesses can sit with you, since the U.S.-location rule applies to remote witnesses. Tell us when you order that your document needs witnesses and how they'll join.

Online notarization works for documents you sign or swear to, and for copies of private documents. It can't turn a public record into an apostille-ready document. Florida law bars a notary from attesting a copy of a vital record or a public record that the record's custodian can certify (section 117.05(12)).

Not sure which column your document falls in? Call (850) 900-3443 before you order.

The online notarization add-on is $40 for the first document, made up of a $10 notarization fee and a $30 technology platform fee. The platform fee covers the secure video session, the ID and identity checks, and the recorded session Florida requires. Each additional document notarized in the same order is $20.

The apostille itself is priced the same as any order: $220 for one document, $380 for two, and $160 each for three or more. That includes the $10 state fee, the request form, in-person filing in Tallahassee, and FedEx return shipping inside the U.S. International delivery is a flat $100 per order. Full breakdown on our cost page.

Shipping abroad? Add $100 to any total above.

Your electronic notarial certificate shows that the notarization was done by online notarization rather than physical presence. Florida's statutory certificates carry a box for each (see the samples on the Florida notary certificate page).

The printout then gets a Florida attested-copy certificate in substantially the statutory form below, signed in ink by our Florida notary. The apostille authenticates that notary's signature and commission. The Department of State's own guidance accepts documents "certified as true copies by a Florida Notary Public" (authentication procedure).

One honest caveat: the apostille confirms the Florida notary, not what the receiving office will accept. If your bank, court, or registry abroad has its own rules about documents notarized online, ask them before you order.