Interesting call and answer from American Association of Notaries

I received a call from a potential mobile notary client, but she wanted notarization via webcam. She had a disability that kept her from leaving her home. She told me that if someone has a disability, a notary can use an electronic seal to notarize a document through the internet as long as a webcam is used and the notary can see the signer. Is that right?

That is not accurate. No state has a law in effect that allows notaries to use a webcam to perform notarization's, regardless of the disability status of the client Mobile notaries can go directly to a client with disabilities, but, currently, no notary in the U.S.A. has the authority to notarize through a webcam.

Virginia recently updated its notary law to include notarization's through audio or video conferencing, but these laws do not go into effect until mid-2012. Furthermore, the Virginia laws are extremely strict on how the identification process will be performed.

As of the date of this posting, you can be sure that no state allows webcam notarization's.