FAQ Notary and Apostille by a California Notary Public

California Notary Public's are Commissioned by the state to deter fraud by properly identifying acceptable Government issued ID's such as a Drivers License, State Issued ID, or Passport. 

• A Notary Public also witnesses the identified person signing of documents. 
• A Notary Public may also  give an Oath or Affirmation to a person. 

No. 

A Notary is not able to prepare or provide documents.  The client needs to provide and prepare their own documents or reach out to a Lawyer or Paralegal for assistance. If you have your documents but need them printed, we can assist with this. Just ask!

No. 

Notary Public's do not have any legal authority or certification. Not to say a person can't be both a Notary and a Lawyer. But these certifications are completely separate. 

Many different documents need to be Notarized. Some are Power of Attorney, Corporate Agreements, Consent for a Minor, DMV Auto Transfers, Affidavits, Real Estate Documents - Deeds, Purchase of Real Estate, Benefit Statements, Trusts, Permission for Construction, Guardianship, and many, many more. In fact a Notary can Notarize almost any document, even a handwritten paper. 

Our Mobile Notary service isn't for everyone. We provide a convenience. We travel to your location, your home, office, nursing home, hospital or a local coffee shop to provide Notary Services. 

But, yes, some banks & UPS do provide Notary services, but they don't always have a Notary available when you walk in. There may be a wait or no availability at all. We have a large team of Notaries throughout the Orange County, Long Beach and Oceanside areas. We make getting your documents Notarized easy!

Yes, we can! However there are other steps we must take in the case of an expired ID. 

• You will need to have two witnesses that personally vouch for knowing you are the person you say you are, and those two witnesses must have valid ID. 
• Witnesses can NOT be related to the person signing the document or be personally mentioned in the document.

• Witnesses can not be related to any of the signers or mention in the documents. 
• The best witnesses are people that are completely detached from the situation such as a friend or neighbor. 
• The reason for this is that sometimes someone in the family may contest a document and if there were two disinterested witnesses, it is much easier to have this document stand up to questioning. 
• Also note, medical staff, nurses and assistants will NOT sign as witnesses as it is against their medical license. 

The State of California allows a Notary to charge $15 per Notarized Signature, $15 per Witness Signature, and a Travel Fee. 

• There is no restriction on the amount a Notary can charge for a travel fee. 
• Additional costs may apply depending on urgency, after hours, printing, parking, additional mileage, wait time,  weekend, extra time, specialty services, etc

Remote online notarized documents are accepted in all 50 states, including California and people located in any state of US or anywhere in the world with proper accepted Identification can have their signature notarized remotely.

• However the State of California does not allow California state commissioned Notaries to perform Remote Online Notary services. 
• But again, a document notarized remotely by a notary located in another state for someone located in California is acceptable and legal. 

Mobile OC Notary can assist with completing the Apostille process  for a document from any state, written in any language, going to any foreign country. 

• Personal or corporate document that is written in an language, it will first need to be notarized before being Apostilled
• Vital records such as a birth or death certificate or a marriage license, it must be a recently (within the last 12 months) ordered form from the county recorders office in the county and state in which it was filed. Vital record documents are not notarized before being Apostilled
• Federal documents such as a FBI background check, these must go through the Federal process, which currently takes no less than 11 weeks at this time (August 2023)