California Jurat Requirements: ID, Thumbprint, and Fees

California jurat requirements are set by Government Code Section 8202: the signer must personally appear before the notary, prove their identity with acceptable evidence, sign the document in the notary’s presence, and take a spoken oath or affirmation that the contents are true. The notary then completes a specific certificate, records the act in a journal, and charges no more than $15 for the service.¹²

Jurat vs. Acknowledgment

These are the two notarial acts Californians most often need, and they are not interchangeable. An acknowledgment only confirms that a person is who they say they are and that they signed a document voluntarily. No oath. No requirement to sign in front of the notary. You can sign at home and bring the document in later.

A jurat is different. The signer must sign in the notary’s presence, and the signer must swear or affirm out loud that the contents are true. That oath is what converts an ordinary signature into a sworn statement carrying perjury exposure. The notary never vouches for whether the statements are actually true; that responsibility sits entirely with the signer.³

Choosing the wrong act matters. A document that needed a jurat but received an acknowledgment lacks the sworn statement it was supposed to carry.

What the Notary Must Do

Every California jurat involves the same five steps, in this order.

1. Personal appearance. The signer has to be physically in front of the notary. A phone call, video call, or delivered document does not qualify.

2. Identity verification. The notary confirms the signer’s identity through “satisfactory evidence,” either an acceptable ID document or credible witnesses (see below).

3. Signing in the notary’s presence. Unlike an acknowledgment, a jurat requires the signer to actually sign the document while the notary watches. If the document has already been signed before the appointment, the signer should re-sign or initial in the notary’s presence.¹

4. Oath or affirmation. The notary administers the oath aloud. There is no scripted wording in statute, but a standard version is: “Do you swear or affirm that the statements in this document are true?”³ The signer must respond verbally. A nod or a silent thumbs-up is not enough. The notary needs to hear “yes” or “I do.”

5. Completing the certificate and journal entry. The notary fills in and signs the jurat certificate, applies the official seal, and records the act in their sequential journal.

Acceptable Identification

The first path to satisfactory evidence is a current government-issued photo ID. California accepts the following:³

A California driver’s license or ID card issued by the DMV
A U.S. passport, either current or issued within the last five years
A driver’s license from another U.S. state, or from a Canadian or Mexican public agency authorized to issue licenses
A valid foreign passport from the signer’s country of citizenship
A consular identification document
An inmate ID issued by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation or a county sheriff’s department

California DMV cards, U.S. passports, and inmate IDs must be current or issued within the last five years. Foreign passports, consular IDs, and other-state licenses must also contain a photograph, physical description, signature, and identifying number.

Credible Witnesses When There Is No ID

If the signer has no acceptable ID, identity can be established through credible witnesses instead.³

One credible witness works if that witness personally knows the notary. The witness must present their own qualifying ID and swear under oath that they personally know the signer, that the signer is named in the document, that the signer cannot easily obtain acceptable ID, and that the witness has no financial interest in the transaction.

If no witness personally knows the notary, two credible witnesses are required. Both present their own acceptable ID, and both swear to the same conditions under penalty of perjury. In either case, a credible witness cannot be named in the document and cannot have a financial stake in it.

Required Certificate Wording

California prescribes the jurat certificate language, and it is not optional. The certificate opens with a legible, boxed consumer notice:

“A notary public or other officer completing this certificate verifies only the identity of the individual who signed the document to which this certificate is attached, and not the truthfulness, accuracy, or validity of that document.”³

Below the box, the certificate states the venue (“State of California, County of ________”) and then the core certification:

“Subscribed and sworn to (or affirmed) before me on this _____ day of _______, 20__, by _________________________, proved to me on the basis of satisfactory evidence to be the person(s) who appeared before me.”³

The “satisfactory evidence” phrase is part of the statutory form. A certificate that leaves it out does not comply with Government Code Section 8202(d). The notary fills in the date and the signer’s name, signs, and applies the seal.

Thumbprint Requirement for Real Property and Powers of Attorney

Certain documents trigger a thumbprint requirement in the notary’s journal. This applies to deeds, quitclaim deeds, deeds of trust, any other document affecting real property, and powers of attorney.⁴ The signer places their right thumbprint in the journal entry. If the right thumb is unavailable, the notary uses the left thumb or any available finger and notes the substitution. If no fingerprint is possible at all, the notary records the reason.

Two documents are exempt: trustee’s deeds from a foreclosure decree or nonjudicial foreclosure under Civil Code Section 2924, and deeds of reconveyance.

A notary who fails to obtain a required thumbprint faces a civil penalty of up to $2,500.⁵

What Goes in the Journal

Every jurat gets a sequential journal entry containing:⁴

The date, time, and type of act (identified as a jurat)
A description of the document
The signer’s signature
How identity was established: either the ID document’s type, issuing agency, serial number, and expiration date, or the credible witnesses’ signatures and their own identifying documents
The fee charged
The thumbprint, if the document type requires one

The journal belongs to the notary and is the primary record if the notarization is questioned later.

Maximum Fee

California caps the fee for administering the oath and executing the jurat, seal included, at $15.² A notary may charge less. Mobile notaries who travel to the signer often add a separate travel fee, which is not part of the $15 statutory cap.

What Happens If Things Go Wrong

The oath is the whole reason a jurat exists. A signer who swears to false statements faces perjury charges under California Penal Code Section 126, a felony punishable by two, three, or four years in state prison.⁶

Notaries face their own exposure for cutting corners. Skipping the oath or failing to verify identification can bring commission revocation and civil penalties up to $750. Willful violations, such as notarizing for someone who did not personally appear, can reach $1,500. Willfully stating a false material fact in a certificate carries a civil penalty up to $10,000.⁷ A missing thumbprint on a document that required one adds up to $2,500 on top. Penalties stack, and a court judgment against a notary for damages caused by their failure triggers automatic revocation.

Remote Notarization Is Not Available Yet

As of 2026, California does not allow remote online notarization. Personal appearance means physical presence; a video call does not count.³ Senate Bill 696, the Online Notarization Act, has been signed but does not take effect until January 1, 2030, at the earliest, and only after the Secretary of State certifies completion of a required technology project. Any California jurat performed over video before that certification is outside the law.

1
California Legislative Information. California Code Government Code – Section 8202
2
California Legislative Information. California Government Code 8211
3
California Secretary of State. 2025 California Notary Public Handbook
4
California Legislative Information. California Government Code 8206
5
California Secretary of State. Notary Public Handbook 2017 Second Edition
6
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 126
7
California Secretary of State. Notary Public Disciplinary Guidelines 2012