How to Complete a Pennsylvania Notary Acknowledgment

A Pennsylvania notary acknowledgment is completed by appearing in person before a commissioned notary, proving your identity with valid government-issued photo ID, and verbally confirming that the signature on the document is yours and that you signed it voluntarily for the purpose stated. The notary then fills in a short form certificate, signs it, and applies an official stamp. The rules come from Pennsylvania’s Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (RULONA), codified in Title 57, Chapter 3 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes.¹

What You Are Actually Declaring

An acknowledgment has a narrow legal meaning. You declare two things to the notary: that you signed the record, and that you signed it for the purpose the record describes.¹ If you are signing on behalf of a company, trust, or another person, your declaration also confirms you had proper authority to do so.

This is not the same as a verification on oath or affirmation. A verification is a sworn statement that the contents of a record are true. An acknowledgment is only about the signature being yours and the signing being voluntary. The notary does not certify that you understood every clause, and a notary who is not also a licensed attorney cannot explain the document to you. Choosing the wrong notarial act is a common reason filings get rejected, so if the certificate on your document uses oath or affirmation language rather than acknowledgment language, ask the drafter which one the record actually requires before the appointment.

What to Bring

Identification comes first. Under 57 Pa. C.S. § 307, a notary can verify who you are in one of three ways:²

A current, unexpired passport, driver’s license, or state-issued nondriver identification card.
Any other government-issued identification that is current and contains your signature or photograph, as long as the notary finds it satisfactory.
A credible witness, if you lack acceptable identification.

Expired ID will not work, no matter how recently it lapsed. Check the date before you go. The notary also has discretion to ask for additional identification if something looks off.²

Bring the document itself, unsigned or signed, along with the notarial certificate attached to it. If the certificate is missing, the notary cannot invent one; you will need the correct short form language in front of them before they can act.

The Credible Witness Option

If you have no acceptable ID, a credible witness can vouch for you, but the rules are strict. The witness must appear in person with you, be personally known to the notary already, and personally know you. The witness provides a verification on oath or affirmation stating that you are the person named in the document, that they personally know you, that you lack the identification normally required, and that they have no financial interest in the record. A stranger vouching for another stranger does not satisfy the statute; the notary has to actually know the witness.

What Happens at the Appointment

You must appear personally before the notary.³ Mailing a signed document to a notary and asking them to notarize it in your absence is not allowed. The notary must see you, confirm your identity, and witness the acknowledgment directly.

After the notary checks your ID, you verbally acknowledge that the signature on the record is yours and that you signed it voluntarily for the purposes stated. You do not have to sign the document in front of the notary. An acknowledgment only requires you to confirm a signature that is already on the record, so a document signed last week can still be acknowledged today as long as you confirm the signature is yours. This surprises people, but it is the main thing that distinguishes an acknowledgment from a jurat.

The notary then completes the certificate, signs it, and applies the official stamp. The stamp must include the words “Commonwealth of Pennsylvania” and “Notary Seal,” the notary’s name as it appears on their commission, the words “Notary Public,” the county where the notary maintains an office, and the commission expiration date. Look at the impression before you leave. A smudged or illegible stamp is one of the most common reasons county recorders bounce a document back.

The Certificate Language

Pennsylvania publishes standard short form certificate language in 57 Pa. C.S. § 316, and the Department of State posts sample templates.⁴ Using the approved language protects you from rejection at the recorder’s office. Every certificate must show the venue (the state and county where the act takes place), the date, the name of the person acknowledging the record, and the notary’s signature, stamp, title of office, and commission expiration date.⁵

Signing as Yourself

When you sign for yourself, the standard short form reads: “This record was acknowledged before me on [date] by [your name].” The notary adds their signature, stamp, title, and commission expiration below.⁴

Signing for a Company, Trust, or Someone Else

If you are signing on behalf of a business, trust, or another individual, the certificate must identify your role. The representative capacity version adds fields for your type of authority (such as “officer” or “trustee”) and the name of the entity or person you represent. You must also represent that you are authorized to act for them.⁵ A corporate officer signing a commercial lease, for example, needs the certificate to reflect both their name and their title as an officer of the company. Using the individual form when you should have used the representative form is where most completion mistakes happen, and it can invalidate the acknowledgment for recording purposes.

Doing It Remotely

Pennsylvania permanently authorizes remote online notarization under Section 306.1 of RULONA. A notary located in Pennsylvania can perform an acknowledgment for a signer in another location using audio-visual communication technology, as long as the notary verifies identity through personal knowledge, a credible witness, or at least two different identity-proofing methods.¹

Remote notarization also works when the signer is outside the United States, provided the record relates to property in the U.S., a matter before a U.S. court or government entity, or a transaction substantially connected to the U.S., and the foreign country does not prohibit the act of signing the record. The notary must create an audio-visual recording of the entire session and retain it, or arrange for a designated repository to retain it, for at least ten years.

What It Costs

Pennsylvania caps the fee a notary can charge for taking an acknowledgment at $5.00, with each additional name on the same record costing up to $2.00.⁶ Other notarial acts like administering an oath or certifying a copy are also capped at $5.00 each. A notary charging significantly more than these amounts is exceeding what the Department of State’s fee schedule allows. Remote notarization services and private notary platforms often add convenience or technology fees on top of the base notarial fee; those are separate from the capped notarial fee itself.

If Something Goes Wrong

A defective acknowledgment can cause a county recorder to reject a deed, delay a real estate closing, or create a cloud on title that requires a court action to clear. The errors that cause the most trouble are the easiest to prevent: an expired ID the notary should have caught, the wrong short form certificate attached to the document, a missing county or expiration date in the stamp, or an illegible impression. Before you leave the appointment, confirm the venue line is filled in, your name is spelled correctly on the certificate, the date is right, and the stamp is readable. Fixing an acknowledgment after a recorder has rejected it is substantially more expensive than catching the problem at the table.

1
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 57 Chapter 3 – Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts
2
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 57 Section 307 – Identification of Individual
3
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 57 Section 306 – Personal Appearance Required
4
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 57 Section 316 – Short Form Certificates
5
Department of State. Sample Notary Public Statements
6
Department of State. Notary Public Fees