Every U.S. state runs its own notary public program. That sounds obvious until you actually need to apply for a commission, renew one, or check whether the person stamping your loan documents is legitimate—and you discover the rules in Texas look nothing like the rules in Mississippi, and California has its own quirks again. There is no federal notary registry. No single phone number. No universal application form. Just fifty different state agencies (plus DC and several territories), each with its own website, fee structure and commission length.

This page is the directory I wish existed when I was hunting through search results for state notary public information and getting a different agency every time. Below you will find a snapshot of how each major state handles notary commissioning—who runs the program, what it costs, how long the commission lasts, and where to look up an active notary.

We focus on the high-volume states first: California, Michigan, Texas, Illinois, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Minnesota, Nebraska, Maryland, Ohio, Utah and Virginia. Other states get covered in shorter form further down. None of this is legal advice. Always verify directly with the state agency before you act.

A quick word on terminology. The phrase state notary public just means a notary commissioned by a state—as opposed to a federal notary, which is not really a thing for civilians (military and consular officers being the exception). Some states call the issuing agency the Secretary of State. Others use the Department of State. A handful, like Georgia, push the job down to county-level Clerks of Superior Court. Maryland uses the Office of the Secretary of State too, but the workflow runs through county notary administrators. Different vocabulary, similar idea: a state office or its delegate issues your commission.

Let us start in California, since the volume of search traffic for state of california notary public dwarfs almost every other phrase in this space. California notaries are commissioned by the Secretary of State—Shirley Weber's office, as of writing—and the program is one of the more rigorous in the country. You need to complete a six-hour state-approved education course, pass a written exam administered by Cooperative Personnel Services, get fingerprinted through Live Scan, and submit a background check.

Renewing notaries take a shorter three-hour course. The fee for the exam is $20. The commission application costs $40. Once approved, you must file an oath of office and your bond with the county clerk in the county where you maintain your principal place of business, within 30 calendar days of the commission date.

California commissions run for four years. The required surety bond is $15,000—higher than most states because California regulates notaries more aggressively. Notaries are personally liable for damages beyond the bond, so most buy errors and omissions insurance on top. The Secretary of State runs a public lookup at notary.cdn.sos.ca.gov (officially the Notary Public Search) where you can confirm whether someone is actually commissioned and check their commission expiry. If you are signing a deed of trust or a major contract and the notary is not in that database, stop the signing.

One California quirk worth flagging: notaries here must keep a sequential journal of every notarial act, with thumbprints required for any deed, deed of trust, quitclaim or power of attorney involving real property. The journal belongs to the state. If you resign or your commission expires without renewal, you turn the journal over to the county clerk. That requirement does not exist in most other states, and it catches new California notaries off guard during their first audit.

Cross the country to Michigan and the picture shifts. State of michigan notary public applications go through the Department of State—the same agency that handles drivers' licences and vehicle registrations. There is no required exam and no required course, which sounds lenient until you read the Michigan Law on Notarial Acts and realise the rules are still extensive.

Applicants must be 18, residents of Michigan or have a place of business in the state, and able to read and write English. The application fee is $10. You also need a $10,000 surety bond and you must file the bond with your county clerk before the Department of State will activate the commission.

Michigan commissions run between six and seven years—the exact length depends on the calendar. Specifically, the commission expires on your birthday, the next time your birthday falls between six and seven years after the date of commissioning. Weird, right? It is a quirk of state statute. The renewal process repeats the application from scratch.

Michigan also requires notaries to use a specific stamp format with the words Notary Public, State of Michigan, County of [X], Acting in the County of [Y]. Yes, two counties—one where you live, one where you currently serve—because Michigan notaries can act outside their home county only with an explicit acting-in designation.

You can search Michigan notaries through the Department of State website at michigan.gov/sos. The notary search is buried under Business Services in the navigation. It is functional but not pretty. Type in a name and a county, and the system returns commission status. Real estate professionals in Michigan rely on this lookup constantly, since missing notary credentials on a deed will get a recording rejected by the Register of Deeds.

Texas is the largest notary jurisdiction in the country—well over 400,000 active commissions at last count, which is more than California and Florida combined. The texas secretary of state notary public page lives at sos.texas.gov and is run by the Notary Public Unit inside the Government Filings Division. Texas has no education or exam requirement for a traditional commission. Apply online, pay $21, get bonded for $10,000, and you are in. Commissions last four years and the renewal window opens 90 days before expiry.

What makes Texas distinctive is the online notary public commission, which is separate from the traditional one. If you want to perform remote online notarizations under the 2018 statute, you apply for a separate online commission, pay another $21, post an additional $5,000 bond, and complete a state-approved RON training program. The Secretary of State publishes a list of approved technology providers and online notary trainers. You can hold both a traditional and an online commission simultaneously, and most active Texas notaries serving title companies and banks do.

Texas also runs a notary search tool at direct.sos.state.tx.us/help/help-not.asp—not the easiest URL to remember, but bookmark it if you sign mortgage paperwork regularly. The search returns commission ID, county, expiration date and bond status. One thing to know: Texas notaries cannot refuse to serve you on the basis of religion, race, sex or national origin, but they can and should refuse if they suspect coercion, lack of capacity, or fraud. State statute is very clear on that.

The Midwest cluster is next. Illinois notary public commissions are issued by the Secretary of State—Alexi Giannoulias' office—and the program changed substantially after the 2022 Notary Public Act revisions. Illinois now requires applicants to complete a state-approved three-hour course and pass an exam. The application fee is $10. You need a $5,000 surety bond. Commissions run four years for residents and one year for non-resident applicants from Iowa, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Indiana or Missouri who work in Illinois. The non-resident option is one of the more unusual features of the Illinois system.

Searches for notary public state of illinois often land people on third-party education sites; the official page is ilsos.gov/departments/index/notary/home.html. The state also launched electronic notary commissions in 2023, so Illinois notaries can now perform in-person electronic notarizations and remote online notarizations after registering separately. The notary database lookup confirms commission status and county of residence. If you need to verify an Illinois notary, the Secretary of State recommends calling the Index Department directly when the online search is ambiguous.

Ohio is similarly active. The Ohio notary commission moved to a statewide model in 2019 after Senate Bill 263. Before that, applicants applied through their county Court of Common Pleas. Now everything funnels through the Secretary of State's office at ohiosos.gov. New applicants must complete a three-hour course, pass a state-administered exam, and clear a criminal background check.

Renewal requires only a one-hour update course. The commission fee is $15 and the term is five years. Ohio also commissions online notaries separately, with another $60 fee and an approved RON provider. ohio notary public searches return commission status, county and expiration through the SOS website.

Down south, the picture changes again. Georgia delegates notary commissioning to the county Clerk of Superior Court, not the Secretary of State. So when people search notary public in ga and land on the SOS site, they are politely redirected to their home county clerk.

You apply in the county where you reside (or, if you are a non-resident, where you primarily work). The fee varies by county but generally sits between $36 and $51. There is no state exam, but you must sign an oath. The Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority maintains a statewide Notary Search at gsccca.org, which is the closest thing to a unified Georgia notary database. Commissions last four years.

Mississippi keeps it state-level. The Mississippi Secretary of State runs notary commissioning out of the Business Services Division. There is no exam. The application fee is $25. The bond requirement is $5,000. Commissions last four years. Notary public mississippi verifications happen through the SOS portal—you can search by name or county. Mississippi requires the notary's seal to include the commission expiration date, which is helpful for parties verifying a notarization months after the fact: just check whether the stamped expiry has passed.

Arkansas, meanwhile, is one of the cheapest jurisdictions to become commissioned. The Arkansas Secretary of State charges $20 for a notary commission. The bond requirement is $7,500. Commissions last ten years—the longest term of any U.S. state—which means an Arkansas notary commissioned at 25 might still be active at 35 without ever renewing.

There is no exam and no required course, though the SOS publishes a free notary handbook. Notary public arkansas lookups happen at sos.arkansas.gov. The ten-year term is generous; the trade-off is that Arkansas notaries are expected to stay current on statutory changes between renewals, which is a real responsibility.

The northern tier of states has its own personality. Minnesota notaries are commissioned by the Secretary of State—Steve Simon's office—and the application is one of the simplest in the country. Notary public mn applicants need to be 18, residents of Minnesota or a county bordering it (Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota), and able to read and write English.

The fee is $120, which sounds steep until you realise the commission runs five years and no bond is required. Minnesota does not require an exam either. The Office of the Secretary of State publishes a notary handbook and a notary search portal at sos.state.mn.us.

Nebraska is similar in flavour. The Nebraska Secretary of State issues notary commissions for $30, with a four-year term and a $15,000 bond. Notary public nebraska searches happen through the SOS notary lookup tool. There is no exam. The state offers electronic notarization and remote online notarization as separate commissions, each with its own additional fee and approved provider list. Nebraska also requires notaries to retain their journal for ten years after the last entry, which is on the longer end of journal-retention rules nationally.

Utah takes a middle path. Utah notary public commissions cost $35 through the Lieutenant Governor's office—not the Secretary of State, because Utah does not have one. Yes, that is correct: Utah is one of three states (along with Hawaii and Alaska) where the Lieutenant Governor handles many of the duties that fall to a Secretary of State elsewhere. Applicants must pass a state exam administered online, complete a $5,000 bond, and complete the application through notary.utah.gov. Commissions last four years. Utah was an early adopter of remote online notarization, with statute dating to 2019.

The Mid-Atlantic and Old Dominion states round out our directory. Maryland commissions notaries through the Secretary of State's office working with the county notary clerk. Notary public state of maryland applications begin online at sos.maryland.gov, where you complete the form, pay $25 to the state and (in most counties) an additional $11 county recording fee.

Maryland requires a state-approved education course of around six hours and, since 2021, an online assessment. Commissions run four years. The bond requirement was eliminated in 2009, which makes Maryland one of only a handful of states without a notary bond. Lookup happens through the SOS directory.

Virginia notaries are commissioned by the Secretary of the Commonwealth. The virginia notary public process costs $45, runs four years, and requires no exam, no education and no bond—one of the lowest-friction applications anywhere. Virginia did, however, become an early leader in electronic and remote online notarization, with statute dating to 2012. So while becoming a traditional Virginia notary is easy, performing RON in Virginia requires a separate registration, an approved technology platform and additional training. The Virginia notary database is searchable at commonwealth.virginia.gov.

That covers thirteen high-volume states. For the remaining thirty-seven, the basic pattern repeats: a state agency (usually the Secretary of State, sometimes the Department of State or a Lieutenant Governor) handles applications, issues a commission for a fixed term—commonly four or five years—and maintains an online lookup. Fees range roughly from $10 (Michigan, Illinois) to $120 (Minnesota). Bond requirements range from $0 (Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina) to $15,000 (California, Nebraska). Always check the official state agency before you apply, renew or verify; third-party sites often quote outdated fee schedules.

So how do you actually use this directory? Three common scenarios show up. First, you need to verify a notary stamped on a document you have just received. Go straight to the issuing state's SOS or equivalent agency lookup. Type the name. Confirm the commission number matches the seal. Confirm the expiry date is in the future relative to the notarization date. If anything fails, push back before relying on the document.

Second, you are thinking about becoming a notary yourself. Start with the state where you live or work. Read the application carefully, including any education and exam requirements. Order the bond from a surety company (not the state). Submit the application, fee and bond filing. Wait for the commission certificate. Order your stamp and journal from an approved vendor. Take the oath of office where required. Optionally, add a remote-online-notarization commission and errors-and-omissions insurance.

Third, you already hold a commission and you are about to renew. Note the renewal window—each state opens it differently. Some allow renewals 90 days before expiry; others insist you wait. Complete any continuing-education requirements that apply. Update your bond. Pay the renewal fee. Order a new stamp with the new commission dates. And make sure your old journal is archived or surrendered according to your state's retention rule. Treat the renewal like a small audit of your own practice. It is a useful checkpoint.