The office of Lieutenant Governor Kevin Meyer is announcing temporary changes to operations in response to COVID-19.

In order to practice social distancing and slow the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), our office located at 120 4^th Street, Juneau,  3^rd floor of the Alaska State Capitol is temporarily closed to the public. The following changes to operations will be in effect:

• We are unable to process walk-in orders at this time. This includes the processing of authentications and apostilles as well as notary applications.
• If you are applying for a notary commission we strongly encourage you to apply via the online database. Whether this is your first time or you are approaching your commission expiration date, please use the apply online option to submit your forms and fees.
• Please allow for a delay of 1-2 weeks for orders and applications to be processed. We will try our best to turn orders around as quickly as possible.

Please feel free to reach out to the notary office via email (notary@alaska.gov) or call our office at 907-465-3509.

WHAT TO KNOW BY JANUARY 1, 2021

AS OF JANUARY 1, 2021 – HB124 GOES INTO EFFECT. UPDATED STATUTES REQUIRES THE FOLLOWING:

BOND AMOUNT INCREASE FROM $1,000 to $2,500

Sec. 5. AS 44.50.034(a) is amended to read:

(a) A person applying for a commission as a notary public without limitation under AS 44.50.010(a)(1) shall execute an official bond of $2,500 and submit the bond with the application under AS 44.50.032. The bond must be for a term of four years from the date of commission.

Starting January 1, 2021, each time you apply for a notary commission, you must submit a new $2,500 notary bond. If you or your employer prefer not to purchase a commercial bond, the bonding requirement can be met using the State of Alaska updated notary bond form.

NEW NOTARIAL CAPABILITY: COMMISSIONED NOTARIES CAN REQUEST APPROVAL TO PERFORM NOTARIAL ACTS FOR REMOTELY LOCATED INDIVIDUALS

Sec. 10. AS 44.50.075.  Notarial act performed for remotely located individual. is amended by adding a new section to read:

(a) A remotely located individual may comply with AS 44.50.062(5)(A) by using communication technology to appear before a notary public…(e) Before a notary public performs the notary public’s initial notarial act under this section, the notary public shall notify the lieutenant governor that the notary public will be performing notarial acts with respect to remotely located individuals and identify the communication technologies the notary public intends to use. If the lieutenant governor has established standards under (f)(3) of this section or AS 44.50.072 for approval of communication technology or identity proofing, the communication technologies and identity proofing must conform to the standards.

In accordance with the passage of HB124 that goes into effect January 1, 2021, notaries commissioned by the State of Alaska shall maintain a journal in which the notary public chronicles all notarial acts that the notary public performs under AS 44.50.075 Notarial act performed for remotely located individuals. The notary public shall retain the journal for 10 years after the performance of the last notarial act chronicled in the journal.

*See Notary Journals section of Notary Supplies page for more detailed requirements.

Before being able to perform a notarization for a remotely located individual, or more commonly referred to as a remote online notarization (RON), a commissioned notary public must submit a written request to the office of the Lieutenant Governor. Written request must include:

• Commissioned notary’s name as it appears on their commission certificate and commission number
• Description of the technology vendor/provider they have selected to perform remote online notarial acts
• Provide a copy of their electronic signature as well as stamp/seal to be used to perform the remote online notarization on the provider’s platform.

Guidance on Implementing Notarizations for Remotely Located Individuals

*Please see more information on our Updated Notarial Capabilities page.

Alaska Notary Public Office

Notary Supply information for new notaries

To apply for a notary commission online, you will need a personal myAlaska account, internet access, a valid email address that accepts PDF attachments, the ability to open and print a PDF file, scan and upload your bond and oath of office documents and also pay the $40.00 application fee using a credit or debit card.

Online application steps:

1. Acquire your notary bond first (or employer approval form in the case of government commissions) before you continue with the application process.  All regular commissions require new notary bonds so starting this process before you have a notary bond will only slow things down for you in the long run because consolidating the missing pieces of your application at different times takes us more time than processing an application that meets all of the requirements.  If you are not sure what a notary bond is, or if you have one or not, go back to whoever is asking you to become a notary for assistance in rounding up that required notary bond.
2. When you have your notary bond or employer approval, load up the notary database and click on the “Apply for Commission” button on the right side of the page.
3. Select the type of commission you are applying for and fill out the Commission Information, Personal Information and Employer/Business Information sections completely. Your personal residence address is required by law but will remain confidential (unless you also use it as your publicly available mailing address and/or specifically select it for publication).
4. Scan and upload your notary bond or employer approval form and click the “Submit Application” button at the bottom of the page.   As soon as you submit your application you will receive an email message from the database containing a customized notary public oath of office form attached as a PDF file.
5. Print your oath of office form and have your signature on the oath of office notarized.
6. Click the link provided in the oath of office email message to return to the database to complete your application.  Scan and upload your completed notary public oath of office and pay the $40.00 application fee (the fee is waived for State of Alaska employees applying for limited governmental notary commissions.)
7. We will review your application and contact you by email if there are any problems.  When your application has been approved and issued you will receive a final email message confirming that your commission has been issued.  This email message will also have a PDF copy of your commission certificate attached (to help speed up the purchase of your notary seal if the vendor requires a copy of your certificate as part of that process.)
8. We will also mail you a hard copy notary commission certificate to the “publicly available” mailing address you provided.  To verify that you are providing the public with a valid mailing address, your printed hard copy commission certificate can only be mailed the public mailing address you provide.

If you have any questions, problems or need help with the application process please call 465-3509 or email the notary office for assistance.

For personal assistance please call the notary office at (907) 465-3509 (or 877-764-1234 toll free in Alaska,) or contact us by email at notary@alaska.gov