“Can my document be notarized online?”

We are commonly asked by our clients whether their specific document can be notarized online.

In some situations, the answer is a straightforward yes: we can confirm that provincial and federal court forms, provincial forms, Service Ontario forms, Service Canada forms, Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship forms (IMM forms), Canada Revenue Agency forms, Ontario wills and Ontario powers of attorney can be notarized virtually.

However, for some other documents, the answer isn’t as straightforward. In those instances, we advise our clients to contact the receiving organization or agency to confirm whether they will accept a document that has been electronically notarized. In this blog post, we explain why we make this suggestion and how it benefits our clients.

Under the Ontario Commissioners for Taking Affidavits Act, oaths, affidavits and statutory declarations can be commissioned (notarized) remotely. Seems pretty simple! 

However, even though remote notarization is legally permitted, the Commissioners for Taking Affidavits Act does not require organizations, agencies or individuals to accept documents that are notarized virtually. In other words, organizations, agencies and individuals can decide if they will or won’t accept documents that have been notarized online. 

At Downtown Notary, we are leading experts on remote commissioning and virtual notarization in Canada - we really know our stuff. Since March 2020, we have helped tens of thousands of clients all over the world with notarizing their documents quickly and easily online. Every week, we notarize hundreds of different documents for dozens of different organizations, agencies and individuals. So while we know that some organizations and agencies will accept documents that are virtually notarized, it’s not possible for us to know whether every single organization and agency will accept them. 

This is why when a client asks us if their document can be notarized online and we aren’t sure, we ask them to contact the receiving organization or agency to ask about their requirements. We understand that this can be frustrating - it adds extra work and time to our clients. Believe us, we would love to be able to give our clients the right answer! However, we think it’s very important that a client checks first because we do not want to waste anyone’s valuable time and money remotely notarizing a document for a client, only for that client to have the document rejected because the receiving organization doesn’t accept remote notarizations. 

At Downtown Notary, we are here to help. If you have any questions about our services, including online notarization, contact us today. While we can’t guarantee that we will have all of the answers, we can promise you that we will go above and beyond to help you and to give you the best customer experience possible. And if you’re document can’t be notarized online, we will strive to find you the right solution.