How to Become an Electronic Notary in Virginia

To become an electronic notary in Virginia, you first need an active traditional notary commission in the Commonwealth, then submit a separate electronic notary registration to the Secretary of the Commonwealth through the online notary portal, along with a $45 fee and a description of the technology you’ll use. The whole process runs online, and your approval arrives by email rather than as a paper certificate. If you’re starting from zero, plan on two applications and $90 in fees.

Step One: Hold a Virginia Notary Commission

The electronic registration is an add-on, not a standalone credential. You cannot apply for it without a current Virginia notary commission, so that has to come first if you don’t already have one.

Virginia’s baseline qualifications for any notary are straightforward. You must be at least 18, a legal resident of the United States, able to read and write English, and either a Virginia resident or regularly employed within the Commonwealth. A felony conviction disqualifies you unless you’ve been pardoned or had your civil rights restored.¹

The traditional commission application costs $45, payable to the Treasurer of Virginia.² Once approved, the Secretary forwards your commission to the circuit court clerk you name, and you’ll take your oath of office there before you can notarize anything.

A Virginia notary commission runs four years and expires on the last day of your birth month in the fourth calendar year after issuance.³ Your electronic authorization will share that same expiration date, so if your traditional commission is close to renewal, factor that in before paying for the eNotary registration.

Step Two: File the Electronic Notary Registration

With your traditional commission active, you apply for electronic notary authorization through the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s online notary management portal. The registration form asks for four things:

Your full legal name and your official notary name
A general description of the technology you’ll use to create your electronic signature
A statement certifying that your technology complies with the electronic notarization standards developed by the Secretary
The email address where you want to receive official correspondence

You must sign the application with the electronic signature you’re describing in it, and the whole thing must be transmitted electronically.⁴ A non-refundable $45 fee is due at submission, payable online with Visa, Mastercard, or American Express.⁵

Once the Secretary is satisfied, your commission goes to the appropriate circuit court clerk and you get an email confirmation. There’s no separate paper certificate for the electronic authorization. From that point on, you can perform notarial acts on electronic documents in all the same ways a traditional notary handles paper ones.⁶

Choose Compliant Technology

Virginia does not maintain an approved vendor list. You pick your own software and hardware, then certify on the application that they comply with the standards the Secretary of the Commonwealth developed in coordination with the Virginia Information Technologies Agency.⁷ Most vendors will supply the technology description you need for the form.⁵

At a minimum, your setup needs to include:

A digital certificate to sign electronic documents, using Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to verify your identity and bind your signature to the document
Tamper-evident features so your signature and seal attach to documents in a way that makes any later change obvious and independently verifiable⁸
Real-time two-way audio-video, identity verification, and session recording capability if you plan to perform remote online notarizations

Consumer video chat tools won’t clear the RON bar because they lack credential analysis, knowledge-based authentication, and recording features Virginia requires. Professional RON platforms typically run between $15 and $25 per month, and you’ll pay separately for your digital certificate. Storage costs for years of video recordings add up, so build that into your budget from the start.

Electronic Notarization Is Not the Same as RON

This is worth pausing on because the terms get used loosely. Virginia treats them as two related but different things. An electronic notarization is any notarial act involving electronic documents, and it can happen with the signer sitting right across from you. Remote online notarization, or RON, is a specific type of electronic notarization where the signer is not physically present and appears through audio-video technology.⁹

Every RON session is an electronic notarization, but not every electronic notarization is a RON session. RON carries additional identity verification requirements and technology standards that in-person electronic notarizations don’t. Your electronic notarial certificate has to indicate whether the notarization was performed in person or by RON.⁸

What You’re Responsible for Once Commissioned

Every electronic notarization you perform must include an electronic seal containing your name exactly as it appears on your commission, your registration number, the words “Electronic Notary Public,” the words “Commonwealth of Virginia,” and your commission expiration date. Both the signature and seal must attach to the notarial certificate in a way that allows independent verification and makes tampering evident.⁵ The certificate itself must show the date of the act, the Virginia county or city where you were physically located, and whether the act was in person or by RON.⁸

You also have to keep an electronic journal of every notarial act you perform, retained for at least five years, with a protected backup copy. For RON sessions, that recordkeeping includes the audio-video recording.¹⁰

Your electronic signature, seal, and everything that creates them (software passwords, digital certificates, encryption keys, hardware tokens) must stay under your exclusive control. No one else can use them. Losing exclusive control is one of the specific grounds on which the Secretary can revoke your commission.¹¹ If you resign or your commission is revoked, you must immediately destroy those tools and certify to the Secretary that you’ve done so.³

Renewing Your Authorization

Your electronic authorization expires with your traditional commission, four years out on the last day of your birth month. You renew online through the Secretary’s notary management portal, and after renewing you still have to report to the circuit court to take your oath and pick up the new commission. Your renewal window closes 30 days after the expiration date; miss it and you’ll be applying from scratch rather than renewing.¹²

There is one small grace built into the electronic side. If your commission simply expires and you plan to reregister with the same electronic signature and seal within three months, you can keep your electronic tools intact instead of destroying them. Let that three-month window pass, and you have to erase the tools and start the electronic registration process over, $45 fee included.

1
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 47.1-4 – Qualification for Appointment
2
Secretary of the Commonwealth. Notary Commissions
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Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code Title 47.1 Chapter 4 – Term of Office
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Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 47.1-7 – Additional Requirements for Performing Electronic Notarial Acts
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Secretary of the Commonwealth. Learn About Becoming an Electronic Notary
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Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code Title 47.1 – Notaries and Out-of-State Commissioners
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Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 47.1-6.1 – Standards for Electronic Notarization
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Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 47.1-16 – Notarizations to Show Date of Act, Official Signature and Seal, Etc
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Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 47.1-2 – Definitions
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Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code Title 47.1 – Notaries and Out-of-State Commissioners – Section 47.1-14
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Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 47.1-23 – Grounds for Removal from Office
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Secretary of the Commonwealth. Renew Your Commission