Remote Online Notarization for foreign individuals
On June 7, 2019 Florida passed its House Bill 409. This law is in effect as of January 1, 2020, allowing any Florida notary public to register with the Department of State of Florida as an online notary, and to execute real estate closings remotely.
Remote Online Notarization (RON) means that a signer and a notary public no longer have to be in each other’s physical presence. Instead, RON allows the performance of a notarial act using electronic means where the signor appears before the notary public by means of audio-video communication technology, such as a webcam.
Requirements
The notary must be physically present in Florida when they perform an online notarization, but the signer may be anywhere around the world.
This means that contractual notarizations can be performed completely online, including real estate closings.
However, there are a few things that you should know before notarizing documents electronically:
Foreign individuals
Fla. Stat. §117.265(4) establishes two methods by which a Notary can verify an online identity:
- By personal knowledge of each principal
- Or by all of the following methods:
- Remote presentation of a government-issued identification credential (viewing IDs via webcam);
- Credential analysis of each government-issued identification credential; and
- Knowledge-based authentication, known as KBA or another method of identity proofing that conforms to the standards of this chapter.
With KBA the signer must answer a set of questions related to their life, credit and financial history. However, this presents a drawback to KBA because it cannot be used to identify foreign individuals who lack a Social Security number. We are exploring an alternative solution for individuals who are known by the realtor, who is known by the closer, but who do not have a social security number to be identified through KBA. Feel free to contact us for more information.
Therefore, identities of foreign individuals lacking a Social Security number can only be identified by the Notary’s personal knowledge of the signer or through the oath or affirmation of a credible witness. Moris & Associates has been able to confirm that at least some foreign individuals with an ITIN are in fact able to be authenticated through KBA, but it depends on whether they have previously obtained credit in the United States.
Real estate closings
In real estate closings, prior to the execution and notarization of documents electronically, all parties must consent to using a RON (seller, buyer, and lender).
Witnesses
Ron can be used for documents requiring witnesses. The witness can be in the physical presence of the signor or remote from the signor, so long as the witness conforms to the statutory requirements for using audio-video communication technology.
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