How to Become a Notary in California (2026)

Any legal resident of California who is at least 18 years old, passes a state exam, and clears a Department of Justice background check can be commissioned as a notary public by the California Secretary of State. California is one of the stricter states: it is the rare state that requires a six-hour approved education course before your first commission, a proctored written exam, Live Scan fingerprinting, and a $15,000 surety bond. The fixed parts of the timeline are short — the course is one six-hour sitting, the exam is one appointment, and once your commission is issued you have a hard 30-calendar-day window to file your oath and bond. The variable part is the wait on the background check and the Secretary of State's processing queue, which is why most applicants should start well before they need to be notarizing.

Eligibility requirements

Government Code section 8201 sets the bar. To be appointed you must:

• Age: Be at least 18 years old. The Secretary of State notes there is no maximum age set by statute.
• Residency: Be a legal resident of the State of California. There is no separate county residency rule — your commission is valid statewide, not just in the county where you file your bond.
• Education: Satisfactorily complete a course of study approved by the Secretary of State.
• Exam: Pass the written examination prescribed by the Secretary of State.
• Background check: Pass a background check. All applicants must be fingerprinted through Live Scan under Government Code section 8201.1.
• Criminal history disclosure: You must disclose all arrests for which trials are pending and all convictions — including convictions dismissed under Penal Code section 1203.4 or 1203.4a. Failure to disclose a conviction is itself a ground for denial. The Secretary of State's disciplinary guidelines treat felony convictions and disqualifying lesser offenses as grounds for denial, and denials can be appealed through an administrative hearing.
• Language: California does not impose a separate English-language or citizenship test. The exam itself is given in English, and notaries may not advertise notary services in a language other than English without including a required statutory disclaimer that they are not attorneys.

Step by step

1. Take the approved education course (private vendor; price varies). Every first-time applicant takes a six-hour course from a vendor approved by the Secretary of State. Note the trap: everyone being appointed takes the six-hour course, no matter how many commissions they have held in the past. The shorter three-hour refresher is only available to a notary who currently holds an active California commission and is applying for reappointment before that commission expires. Let it lapse and you are back to six hours. The Secretary of State publishes the approved vendor list; course fees are set by the vendors, not the state.
2. Register for and take the exam with CPS HR Consulting ($40). The exam is administered under contract by CPS HR Consulting (notary.cpshr.us or 916-263-3520). The $40 fee covers both the examination and your new or reappointing commission application. You bring your proof of course completion, a completed application, and a 2" x 2" color passport photograph, all of which are handed in at the exam site and forwarded to the Secretary of State. Passing requires a scaled score of at least 70 — CPS HR is explicit that this is a scaled score, not a raw percentage of questions answered correctly. A retake costs $20. Exam results stay valid for one year from the exam date.
3. Get fingerprinted via Live Scan (fee varies by site). Information about the fingerprinting requirement is mailed to applicants who pass the exam. You take the Request for Live Scan Service form to a Live Scan operator, who submits your prints to the California Department of Justice; the DOJ forwards them to the FBI. You pay the state and federal processing charges plus the operator's rolling fee. The Secretary of State does not set these amounts and directs applicants to call the Live Scan site for its processing fees. You must be reprinted for each new commission, even if you have been a notary before.
4. Wait for your commission packet from the Secretary of State (no additional fee). Once the background check clears and staff review your application, the Secretary of State issues your commission and mails your commission packet. If you are renewing, your reappointment commission is issued 30 days prior to your current commission's expiration.
5. Buy your bond, seal, and journal (surety company and supply vendor; prices vary). You need a $15,000 surety bond from an admitted surety insurer. The bond premium is priced by the surety company, not the state, and the bond is not insurance for you — it is a limited fund for paying claims against you, and you remain personally liable for the full extent of any damages and may have to reimburse the bonding company. You will also need a seal and a journal. To buy a seal you first obtain a Certificate of Authorization from the Secretary of State, for which there is no fee.
6. File your oath of office and bond with the county clerk within 30 calendar days (county filing fee varies). This is the step that catches people. You have 30 calendar days from the beginning of the term stated on your commission to take, subscribe, and file your oath of office and file the $15,000 bond with the county clerk in the county where you maintain your principal place of business. Your commission does not take effect until the oath and bond are filed. The Secretary of State states plainly that this 30-day period cannot be extended and that no exceptions are made for mail delays, county clerk processing delays, or any other reason. Filing in person is recommended to guarantee timely filing. Miss it and the commission is void — you must start over with a new appointment. County clerks charge their own filing fee, which is set at the county level.
7. Start your journal and secure your seal (ongoing duty, no state fee). From your first notarization you must keep one active sequential journal, and both journal and seal must be kept in a locked and secured area under your direct and exclusive control.

What it costs to become a California notary in 2026

Only two of these amounts are set by the Secretary of State. The rest are set by private vendors, surety companies, or individual counties, so treat them as line items to price out rather than fixed numbers.

The California notary exam

The exam is a written, closed-book test prescribed by the Secretary of State and administered by CPS HR Consulting at sites around the state. It is drawn entirely from the approved course material and the Notary Public Handbook, which the Secretary of State calls the official source of notary law in California — so the handbook is your real syllabus. Expect to be tested on identification and satisfactory evidence, the difference between an acknowledgment and a jurat, journal and thumbprint rules, seal requirements, maximum fees, and the conduct that leads to discipline.

Passing takes a scaled score of at least 70. Because scores are scaled across multiple exam versions rather than computed as a straight percentage, you cannot reliably reverse-engineer "how many can I miss" — study for comfortable mastery rather than the pass line. A retake is $20, and results remain valid for one year from the exam date. If you are renewing, take the exam at least six months before your current commission expires so a failed attempt does not create a break in your commission. You can drill the handbook material with our free California notary practice test before you book a seat.

California does not publish a pass rate for the notary exam, so treat any figure you see quoted online as unofficial.

After you are commissioned

A California notary commission runs for four years from the date specified in the commission. Your authority is statewide, not limited to the county where you filed.

• Journal: Keep one active sequential journal at a time recording every official act — date, time and type of act, the character of the instrument, the signer's signature, and how you established satisfactory evidence of identity. For deeds, quitclaim deeds, deeds of trust, and other documents affecting real property, you must also take the signer's right thumbprint (left thumb or another finger if the right is unavailable, with a note explaining why).
• Seal: Use a photographically reproducible seal containing the State Seal, the words "Notary Public," your name as commissioned, the county where your oath and bond were filed, your commission expiration date, and your commission number plus the manufacturer's number. It must be circular and no more than two inches across, or rectangular and no more than one inch by two and a half inches. Both seal and journal must stay in a locked and secured area under your exclusive control.
• Fees you may charge: Statutory maximums are $15 per signature for an acknowledgment or proof, $15 for administering an oath or affirmation with a jurat, and $30 for services connected with a deposition plus $7 for the oath and $7 for the certificate. You may not charge anything to notarize vote-by-mail ballot identification envelopes or other voting materials.
• Renewal: There is no simple renewal form — reappointment means taking a course again, retaking the exam, resubmitting Live Scan fingerprints, and filing a fresh oath and bond within 30 days. If you apply while your commission is still active, you qualify for the three-hour refresher instead of the six-hour course; if you let it expire, you take the full six hours again. If you let the commission lapse without reappointment, all notarial journals and records must be delivered to your county clerk within 30 days.
• Remote online notarization: Not yet available in California. The Online Notarization Act (SB 696, Chapter 291, Statutes of 2023) took effect January 1, 2024 but is operative in stages. The security requirements in Government Code section 8231.18 became operative January 1, 2025, but the provisions that actually authorize a California notary to perform remote online notarizations become operative only when the Secretary of State completes its Notary Automation Project 2.0, or by January 1, 2030, whichever comes first. Until then California law still requires the signer to appear personally before the notary.

California's process rewards planning more than it rewards speed. The two places applicants lose a commission are the education rule — letting a commission expire and being sent back to the six-hour course — and the 30-day oath-and-bond window, which the Secretary of State will not extend for any reason, including mail delays. Line up your surety bond and seal while you are waiting on your commission packet, file with the county clerk in person, and the rest of the path is a six-hour course, a $40 exam, and a set of fingerprints.