Arizona Notary Manual: Commission, Bond, and Seal

The Arizona Notary Public Manual is the Secretary of State’s official handbook for every person holding or seeking an Arizona notary commission, and state law requires each commissioned notary to keep a copy and use it as a reference throughout the four-year term.¹ It also matters more now than it used to: since July 1, 2025, every new and renewing notary must pass a 45-question exam drawn directly from the manual before the Secretary of State will issue or continue a commission.²

Who Qualifies for a Commission

Under A.R.S. § 41-269, you must be at least 18, a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, able to read, write, and understand English, and free of any felony conviction. A limited exception under A.R.S. § 41-271 lets the Secretary of State reconsider applicants with a felony record where the circumstances warrant it.³

Residency is stricter than it sounds. You must be an Arizona resident for income tax purposes and claim Arizona as your primary residence on both state and federal returns. An Arizona mailing address alone does not qualify you if you file taxes in another state.

The 45-Question Exam

Every applicant for a new or renewed commission must pass a proctored exam before the Secretary of State issues the commission. It has 45 questions, requires an 80% score, and must be finished within 60 minutes.²

The exam is open-book, but only through the testing platform: a digital copy of the manual is available on screen, and no physical copies are permitted on-site or during remote proctoring. You can test at any of Prometric’s ten Arizona sites or remotely. The fee is $46.75 per attempt, and a failed attempt locks you out for 30 days before you can retake it.²

Bond, Application, and Filing Fee

Before you apply, you have to purchase a $5,000 surety bond from a licensed insurance company. The bond protects the public against errors or misconduct in your notarial acts. It must cover the full four-year commission term, with effective and expiration dates exactly four years apart (minus one day).³ The bond itself usually costs $50 to $100 depending on the agency; shop around.

Once you’ve passed the exam and bought the bond, three items go to the Secretary of State together:

Your original signed notary application
Your original notarized notary bond
A $43 filing fee

The $43 is a flat filing fee, not a split between separate application and processing charges.² One thing to know about the bond: it isn’t your personal protection. If a claim is paid against it, the bonding company covers the injured party and then comes after you for the money.

Your Seal

You cannot perform any notarial act without an official rubber stamp seal. It can be any shape, but the impression must fit within one and a half inches tall by two and a half inches wide, and it must show the words “Notary Public,” your name exactly as it appears on your application, the county where you are commissioned, the Great Seal of the State of Arizona, your commission number, and your expiration date.⁴

Ink has to reproduce cleanly on copiers, fax machines, and scanners. Black, dark blue, dark purple, and dark brown are acceptable. Red, green, and novelty inks with glitter or other particles are not. You can also own an embossing seal, but only as a supplement to the rubber stamp, never a replacement.⁴

Your Journal

Arizona requires every notary to keep a journal of all notarial acts in chronological order. Paper notarizations go in a paper journal. Electronic notarizations can be recorded in a paper or electronic journal.⁵

Each entry must contain at least the date of the act, a description of the document and the type of notarial act, the signer’s signature (in a paper journal), and any fee charged. The statute requires the date but does not require the time; recording the time is still good practice and the manual encourages it. Your journal is a public record and can be inspected or subpoenaed, so accuracy matters.⁵

Performing a Notarial Act

The two most common acts are acknowledgments, where the signer confirms they signed voluntarily, and jurats, where the signer swears or affirms the contents are true and signs in front of you. Both require you to verify identity before anything else.

Acceptable Identification

Satisfactory evidence of identity means an unexpired, government-issued ID with a photograph and signature. That includes a driver license or non-operating ID card from any U.S. state or territory, a U.S. passport, or another unexpired ID issued by the U.S. government, a state, or a tribal government that carries a photograph, signature, and physical description.

If a signer has no qualifying ID, you can rely on a credible witness. The witness must appear in person, be someone whose own identity you can verify by standard ID or personal knowledge, and vouch for the signer under oath.⁶ Note the use of a credible witness in your journal entry.

Physical Presence

For a traditional notarization, the signer has to be in the room with you. No exceptions. Arizona does not permit a signer to appear by video for a traditional notarization; if the signer is not physically present, you refuse.¹ Remote appearances are only allowed under the separate Remote Online Notarization framework below.

Maximum Fees

Arizona caps what you can charge, and going above the cap is grounds for revocation.⁷

Acknowledgment or jurat: up to $10 per notary signature
Copy certification: up to $10 per page
Certified oath or affirmation: up to $10 per act

You are not required to charge a fee, and many employer-sponsored notaries don’t.⁸

What You Cannot Notarize

A notary is an impartial witness, and Arizona draws clear lines. You cannot notarize a document if you are a party to it, if you are an officer of a party, or if you would get a direct financial benefit from the transaction beyond your lawful notary fee. You also cannot notarize a document in which your spouse is a party or has a direct beneficial interest.

Notarizing for other family members is not expressly prohibited, but the Secretary of State discourages it. If a court later finds the notarization lacked impartiality, the document can be declared voidable, which is a real risk with deeds, wills, and powers of attorney.

The other common trap is unauthorized practice of law. Unless you are a licensed attorney, you cannot advise a signer on what document they need, recommend a type of notarization, explain a document’s legal effect, or help someone fill out legal paperwork. Verify identity and witness signatures; that’s the role. Arizona also specifically prohibits non-attorney notaries from advertising as or using the title “Notario Publico,” because it can lead Spanish-speaking clients to believe the notary is a licensed legal professional.

Remote Online Notarization

You can perform notarizations by audio-visual technology under A.R.S. § 41-263, but only after you register separately with the Secretary of State as a remote online notary on top of your traditional commission.⁹

The registration lists each technology platform you plan to use, an exemplar of your electronic signature, and a description of your electronic seal, which carries the same information as the physical stamp but is embedded in the digital file.⁹ Every remote session must be recorded, and the audio-visual recording has to be retained for at least five years from the date of the act. Recordings and any electronic journal entries must be stored so that unauthorized access or tampering is prevented. The same identification and record-keeping rules that govern in-person acts apply, with the platform handling credential analysis and knowledge-based authentication.

Renewing on Time

You can renew as early as two months before your current commission expires. Renewal mirrors the initial application: pass the exam, buy a new four-year bond, submit the signed application and original notarized bond, and pay the $43 filing fee.¹⁰

One detail trips renewing notaries up. If you changed your mailing, home, or business address more than 30 days ago and never reported it to the Secretary of State, you owe a $25 civil penalty with your renewal application. Skip it and your renewal stalls.¹⁰

Discipline and Revocation

Under A.R.S. § 41-271, the Secretary of State can deny, revoke, suspend, or place conditions on a commission for:⁷

Fraudulent or dishonest statements on your application
A felony conviction or conviction of a crime involving fraud, dishonesty, or deceit
Failure to perform any duty required by statute or Secretary of State rules
Misleading advertising or claiming duties or privileges you do not have
Charging fees above the statutory maximums
Failing to maintain your surety bond
Refusing to cooperate with an investigation by the Secretary of State or the Attorney General

If your commission is revoked, you cannot reapply for one year. You get notice and a hearing before any adverse action takes effect, and denial or revocation is an appealable agency action.⁷

When Your Commission Ends

If your commission expires without renewal, or you resign, or your commission is revoked, you must send your physical stamp, your journal, and all related records to the Secretary of State by certified mail or another method that provides a delivery receipt. The deadline is three months, and ignoring it carries a statutory penalty.¹¹ It’s a rule that rarely makes news but creates real problems when someone later needs journal records for a legal proceeding.

1
Arizona Secretary of State. Arizona Notary Public Reference Manual
2
Arizona Secretary of State. Notary
3
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 41-269 – Commission as Notary Public; Confidential Information; Qualifications; Assurance; No Immunity or Benefit
4
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 41-321 – Obtaining a Seal; Violation; Classification
5
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 41-319 – Journal
6
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 41-255 – Identification of Individual
7
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 41-271 – Grounds for Denial, Refusal to Renew, Revocation, Suspension, or Conditioning of Commission
8
Arizona Secretary of State. Notary Public Services
9
Arizona Secretary of State. Arizona Administrative Code Title 2, Chapter 12 – Remote Online Notarization
10
Arizona Secretary of State. Existing Notaries
11
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 41-317 – Resignation; Delivering Notary Seal, Notarial Journal and Records