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Booking a Session
Before you book
- Have your document(s) ready — PDF only. Other formats are not accepted at upload
- Check that you have a working camera and microphone for the video session
- Review the notary's profile to confirm they handle your document type and are in your preferred location
Complete identity verification before you book. It is required for every session on NotariseIt, and you will not be able to book or pay until it is done. A notarisation is itself a check of who you are, so this is the one step that has to come first. It takes a few minutes, lasts twelve months, and covers every notary on the platform. See Identity Verification.
Step 1 — Find a notary
- Click Find a Notary from the homepage, or Find Notaries in your dashboard sidebar.
- Use the filters: search by notary name or organisation, specialisation, or minimum rating.
- Click a notary's name to view their full profile — commission state, languages, the document types they accept, client ratings, and their availability.
Prices appear when you build a booking, not on the profile
A notary's profile lists the document types they handle but not their fees. Every notary sets their own prices above the ₦5,000 statutory minimum, and per-page documents are priced by length — so a figure on the profile would be wrong for most bookings. You see the exact fee for your documents at Step 4, before you pay anything.
"Accepts for Notarisation" — what the list means
Notaries take every document type NotariseIt supports unless they choose to narrow the list, so most profiles show all of them. The section says which case applies: whether the notary has picked the types they take, or has simply not restricted the list. Either way, what you see is what they will accept.
Every notary requires verified identity
You can browse notaries, compare them and see their available times without verifying. Booking is where it is needed: the Book button will ask you to verify first if you have not, and payment is held back with it.
Verification lasts twelve months. A lapsed check counts as unverified, so renew it before it expires — we email you in advance. A session already booked and paid for is unaffected if your check lapses afterwards, but you will be asked to renew before the notary can start it. See Identity Verification.
If the identity service is unavailable
Occasionally the provider we use is down. That is our problem, not yours, so we let the booking go ahead and email you as soon as it is working again. Because we do not store your ID number, you will need to enter it once more — it takes a couple of minutes, and it needs doing before your session can start.
Not sure which notary or document type to choose?
The AI virtual assistant (chat icon, bottom-right of the page) can help — ask it questions like "What is the difference between an affidavit and a statutory declaration?" or "Do I need a notary in my state?" before you book.
Step 2 — Does anyone else have to sign?
Most documents are signed by one person and this step takes a second: answer no and carry on.
If somebody else has to put their signature on the document, name them here. They are a signatory, and they are not the same as a witness:
| Signatory | Witness | |
|---|---|---|
| What they do | Signs the document | Watches somebody else sign |
| On the document | Their signature | Not on it |
| On the certificate | Named as a party who appeared | Named as a witness |
| Bound by it | Yes | No |
Get this right at booking
If you name a co-owner as a witness because that was the only box available, the notarial certificate will say a witness attested the deed when in fact a party executed it. The notary signs that certificate. Adding the right people in the right roles now is much easier than unpicking it afterwards.
If you are unsure, ask your notary before you book, or ask the assistant.
Naming a signatory
For each person you need their full name, email address and mobile number. All three are required and none of them is optional:
- The email carries their invitation link.
- The mobile receives the code that gets them in. Without it there is no way into their page at all.
- The name appears on the notarial certificate, so enter it as it appears on the identity document they will verify with.
You also say how they are signing — co-owner, director, attorney under a power of attorney, and so on. Pick from the list, or type your own if none of them fits. It appears beside their name on the certificate.
The mobile number is checked as you type. If you see we could not find that number, it means the number does not look like one that can receive a text on a Nigerian or international network — usually a digit missing, a leading zero that should not be there, or a country code that should. Correct it before you go on. A signatory who never receives the code cannot take part, and you will not find out until the day.
You can add someone later
You are not locked in. A signatory can be added to a booking after you have paid, up until the notary closes the field set. What cannot be added later is a document — those are fixed at booking.
Who signs when
If your notary offers separate signing times, each person you name chooses their own — they get an invitation and pick a slot from the same diary you just booked from. You do not all have to be free at once, and you do not have to attend their sessions.
If your notary does not offer separate times, everybody attends the session you have booked. You will be told which applies before you pay.
Either way it is one notarisation: one notarial fee, one certificate, one act. What changes is how many sittings it takes to collect the signatures.
The thirty-day deadline
Everyone has to have signed within thirty days of your session — not thirty days from when each person was invited, and not from the last person's sitting. Your session starts the clock.
The date is shown on your booking. Take it seriously: if it passes, the document is not notarised, and see what expiry costs below.
Step 3 — Choose a time slot
- On the notary's profile, click Book This Notary.
- Pick a date, then choose one of the available time slots.
All times are West Africa Time
Slots are shown in WAT (GMT+1) — the notary's jurisdiction — whether you are booking from Lagos or abroad. The label appears above the slot grid and again on the review step.
Step 4 — Upload your documents
- Click Upload and select your file (PDF only).
- Repeat for each additional document if you have more than one. The file picker takes one document at a time, so add them one by one.
- For each document, select the document type from the dropdown (e.g. Affidavit, Deed of Assignment, Power of Attorney). This is required for every document — it is what prices the notarial act, and the booking cannot go forward without it.
- For document types priced per page, the page count is read from the PDF automatically. You do not enter it, and the fee shown already includes the multiplication.
Your document isn't on the list?
Choose General Document, in the General Documents category. It is the catch-all for anything the catalogue does not name specifically, priced at the statutory minimum unless your notary has set their own fee for general work.
Only reach for it when nothing else fits. Picking the type that genuinely describes your document gets you the right price and a more accurate record of what was notarised.
Document limits
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Format | PDF only (.pdf) |
| Maximum file size | 10 MB per file |
| Maximum length | 150 pages per file |
| Files per upload | 1 — add documents one at a time |
Documents over 150 pages or 10 MB are not accepted at upload — you will need to split or compress them before re-uploading. Documents over 50 pages are accepted but will display a large-document notice — the notary is informed and may contact you to discuss the scope.
Live fee estimate
The total fee (notarisation fee + service charge + VAT) updates in real time as you add documents and select types. You will see the full breakdown before confirming.
How each document is priced
| Pricing model | How the fee is worked out |
|---|---|
| Flat | The notary's fee for that document type, charged once. |
| Per page | The notary's rate multiplied by the number of pages in your PDF. A 4-page document at ₦3,000 a page is ₦12,000. |
The ₦5,000 statutory minimum applies to the total for each document, not to a per-page rate. So a per-page rate below ₦5,000 is perfectly normal and lawful — a 4-page document at ₦3,000 a page comes to ₦12,000, well above the floor. A single-page document at that rate would work out at ₦3,000, so it is charged at ₦5,000 instead.
Every document in your booking is priced this way on its own, and the results are added together.
Step 5 — Review the cost
- Review the fee breakdown carefully.
- If the notary has set booking terms, read and accept them before proceeding.
- Fees start from ₦5,000 per document — the statutory minimum under the Second Schedule to the Notaries Public Act 2023 (s.10). Notaries may charge more depending on document type.
- Each document is charged separately. Two affidavits in one session are two notarial acts and cost twice one affidavit, even though they share a type.
What makes up your total
| Line | What it is |
|---|---|
| Notarisation fee | Your notary's fee for each document, priced flat or per page. |
| Service charge | The platform fee, calculated on the notarisation fee. |
| VAT | 7.5%, on the service charge only — not on the whole total. |
| Witness fee | Only if you added witnesses. One per witness, at the rate shown on the booking screen. |
| Attendance fee | Only if you named signatories. One per person whose fee you are covering — see below. |
| Payment processing fee | Paystack's charge for taking the payment. |
| Amount payable | What will actually leave your account. |
Worked example
A single-page affidavit with a notary charging the ₦5,000 minimum:
| Notarisation fee | ₦5,000.00 |
| Service charge | ₦100.00 |
| VAT (7.5% on service charge) | ₦7.50 |
| Payment processing fee | ₦179.31 |
| Amount payable | ₦5,286.81 |
The attendance fee, and who pays it
If you named signatories, each of them attends their own sitting with the notary, and each sitting carries an attendance fee. It pays for the notary's time in the room with that person.
It is not a second notarisation fee. The notarisation is charged once for the document, however many sittings the signing takes. The attendance fee is a separate, smaller amount, and it is the notary's — not a platform charge.
You choose who pays, per person. For each signatory you either cover their fee or leave them to pay their own. You can cover everybody, nobody, or some of them. Whatever you cover is added to the total you pay now; whatever you do not is billed to that person before they can be admitted to their session.
What to expect if you do not cover someone
They get an invitation like everybody else, and a payment step of their own. They cannot join their session until it is paid, and the slot they are holding will be released if it goes unpaid for too long — they can then choose another time inside the same deadline.
They are told the amount before they agree to anything. If you told them you would cover it and then did not, they will find out at that point, so it is worth being clear with them beforehand.
What the attendance fee does not buy
It buys an appearance, not an outcome. If somebody appears and the document turns out to be defective, or another party declines, or the thirty days run out, the notary still attended that sitting and the fee still stands.
The payment processing fee
Card payments are handled by Paystack, who charge 1.5% + ₦100 for each transaction, capped at ₦2,000. The ₦100 is waived on payments under ₦2,500.
That fee is added to your total and shown as its own line before you pay, so the amount on the Paystack checkout page is exactly the amount the app quoted you.
How long your session is
Every notary sets a standard session length for their whole practice, between 15 and 30 minutes. Thirty minutes is the platform maximum.
Your booking is that length. There is nothing to choose and nothing extra to pay — the session length shown on your booking is your notary's standard slot, and the fee you are quoted covers it.
Why 30 minutes is the ceiling
A notarisation sitting rarely needs longer, and a booked slot is time your notary cannot offer anyone else. Capping the slot keeps more appointments available across the platform. If your matter genuinely needs more time, say so in the notes when you book — your notary can tell you whether a second sitting is the right answer.
Step 6 — Pay
- Click Pay now.
- You will be taken to the Paystack checkout page.
- Complete payment by card or bank transfer.
The amount on Paystack matches the amount we showed you
The Final amount due on the payment step already includes the Paystack processing fee, so the figure on the checkout page is the same one you agreed to.
Your slot is held for 30 minutes
Your booking slot is held for 30 minutes from the moment you reach the payment step. A live countdown runs there, and a Pay now button appears on the booking in Dashboard → Appointments for as long as the payment is outstanding.
If nothing has been paid by then, the slot is released back to other clients and the booking is cancelled. You will receive an email, and you can rebook the same notary or another one.
A payment already under way is not cut off at 30 minutes. Before releasing a slot we check the transaction with Paystack. If you are part-way through — a bank transfer or USSD payment that has not landed yet — the hold is extended while it completes, up to an hour from when you booked. Only a payment that was abandoned or declined releases the slot on the clock.
To keep it simple:
- Have your card or banking app ready before clicking Pay now.
- If your bank sends an OTP, action it promptly.
- Bank transfer and USSD are fine to use — they take longer to confirm, and the hold accounts for that.
- On successful payment, you will receive a booking confirmation email with:
- Session date and time
- Notary name and contact
- A link to join the session
- A reminder to test your camera and microphone at least 15 minutes before the session. You can run the check at any time at www.notariseit.com/av-test — no login needed. See Pre-Session Tech Check.
Do the tech check early
Camera and microphone problems are the most common cause of session delays. Running the check the day before takes two minutes and means you can fix any issues without time pressure.
If your payment is still pending
A booking can sit with its payment unfinished — you closed the tab at the Paystack page, a card was declined, or you paid by transfer and the money has not landed yet. The booking shows a Pending payment status, and a Pay now button appears wherever that booking is shown:
- Dashboard → Appointments, on the booking itself
- Billing → Transactions, on the row marked
Pending - On the confirmation page you land on after paying, if the payment had not confirmed by the time you got back
They all do the same thing, so use whichever you are already looking at.
You have 30 minutes
Your slot is held for 30 minutes from the moment you book. If nothing has been received by then, the booking is cancelled and the time goes back to the notary's calendar.
The 30 minutes is not a hard cut-off if you are genuinely mid-payment. Before cancelling anything we ask Paystack what happened to your payment, and if it reports one still in progress the hold is extended — up to an hour from booking, which is the point at which Paystack's own checkout session has expired and there is nothing left to wait for.
Pending means you have not been charged. No money has left your account, so there is nothing to refund and nothing to chase.
What happens when you click Pay now
We check your existing payment with Paystack first. If it had in fact gone through — which is common with bank transfers, where the money can land after you have left the checkout page — the booking is simply confirmed and you are not charged again. You will see Already paid — confirmed.
If nothing was received, you are taken back to Paystack to pay as normal.
You cannot be charged twice by clicking it
The check happens before any new payment is started. Clicking Pay now on a booking whose money has already arrived confirms it rather than charging you again.
If the slot was already released
If the hold ran out before anything was received, the slot went back to the notary's calendar and the booking was cancelled. You cannot pay for it any more — the time may already belong to somebody else, so paying would buy you nothing.
The button changes to Book again, and takes you to the same notary's profile to choose a new time. Your identity verification still stands; you are only picking a slot again.
Check your documents are still there
Documents you uploaded stay in My Documents and can be attached to the new booking — but they are not kept for ever. An upload with no live booking against it is removed 24 hours after it was uploaded, and a cancelled booking no longer protects it. If a document has gone, the booking wizard will ask you to upload it again.
For the same reason, Book again is not offered on a slot that has already passed, or one less than an hour away — there would not be time to put a booking back together before it started.
If your payment arrives after the slot is gone
Occasionally money lands after a booking has been cancelled — a transfer that took longer than the hold allowed. When that happens we refund you automatically and email you to say so. You do not need to chase it.
The notarisation fee is refunded. The platform service charge, its VAT and the payment processing fee are not — the same three charges that are never returned on any refund. See Billing & Payments for why.
Cancelling a booking
Go to Dashboard → Appointments → [Your Booking] → Cancel. Your refund eligibility is shown before you confirm, and cancelling triggers an automatic refund via Paystack.
There is no reschedule
Cancel is the only control on an upcoming booking. To move a session, cancel the existing booking and make a new one — the refund follows the policy below, so cancelling outside the window costs you nothing on the notarisation fee. Documents already uploaded stay in My Documents and can be attached to the new booking.
Cancelling when other people are signing
Cancelling a booking that other people have been invited to cancels the whole notarisation, not just your own sitting. Their invitations stop working and any sessions they had booked are cancelled with yours.
What you get back depends on what has already happened:
- Nobody has attended yet. The ordinary refund policy below applies, to your own sitting and to any attendance fees you covered.
- Somebody has already signed. The sittings that were actually held are not refunded — the notary attended them. What has not been used is refunded as normal.
If somebody has already taken time off to appear on camera and verify their identity, tell them yourself. They are told by email that the notarisation has been cancelled, but that is not the same as hearing it from you.
If the deadline passes
The thirty days run from your own session, and there is no extension.
If they pass with signatures still missing, the document is not notarised. The sittings already held are not refunded — they happened, and the notary conducted them. Any further sessions that were booked are cancelled and the slots released. Nothing is left for you to tidy up.
To have the document notarised you book again, from the beginning, at full price.
You are warned twice
At day seven and again at day fourteen you are emailed a list of exactly who has not yet signed and what each of them still has to do. So is your notary.
You are the only person who can chase them — the notary can conduct sessions but cannot make anybody attend, and the other signatories have no standing to press each other. If a warning arrives, act on it.
Moving your own session
You can cancel and rebook as described above, and the deadline moves with your new session — with one exception.
It will not come forward past a sitting somebody else has already booked. If a signatory picked a date inside the deadline as it stood, the document stays open at least until that date even if you move yours earlier. They chose in good faith and the platform does not take it away from them.
And it will not go past the ceiling. A date more than thirty days after the act's first session is refused rather than quietly adjusted. If you genuinely need longer, your notary can reset the document — that re-arranges every party's session and starts the window again.
If somebody misses a joint session
Where everybody is signing in one sitting and one person does not turn up, a further session can be arranged with your notary. Speak to them — it is their diary, and arranging it is theirs.
The session you have paid for is not refunded, and the person who missed it pays their own attendance fee for the further one — you are not charged again for somebody else's absence.
Cancellation & refund policy
Three charges are never refunded, whenever you cancel: the platform service charge, the VAT on it, and the payment processing fee — the last of these went to Paystack rather than to NotariseIt, so it cannot be returned from here. What comes back to you is the notarisation fee, and how much of it depends on how far in advance you cancel:
| When you cancel | Notarisation fee refunded to you |
|---|---|
| More than 2 hours before the session | 100% — full refund |
| Within 2 hours of the session | 70% — 20% goes to the notary as compensation for their reserved time; 10% is retained by the platform |
Worked example, on a ₦7,879.45 booking: ₦7,500.00 notarisation fee, ₦150.00 service charge, ₦11.25 VAT, ₦218.20 processing fee. Cancel more than 2 hours ahead and ₦7,500.00 is returned. Cancel inside 2 hours and ₦5,250.00 is.
The exact amounts in naira are displayed on the cancellation confirmation screen before you confirm, so there are no surprises.
Refunds are processed via Paystack and typically appear in your account within 5–10 business days.
You will receive a reminder email approximately 7 hours before your session telling you how long the free cancellation window has left to run, and a further email at 90 minutes before if the penalty applies.
If your notary cancels
A booking that was moved to you after a notary cancellation carries no penalty. If the replacement time no longer suits you, cancel it and the full notarisation fee is returned however close to the session you are.
Cancel early to avoid the penalty
If you no longer need the session, cancel as soon as possible. Cancelling more than 2 hours before the session costs you nothing on the notarisation fee.
Session reminders
Reminders are sent automatically, on a fixed schedule. There is nothing to switch on and nothing to switch off — clients have no reminder settings.
| When | Channel | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| 24 hours before | Your session is tomorrow | |
| 7 hours before | How long the free cancellation window has left | |
| 90 minutes before | Cancellation penalty now applies | |
| 1 hour before | Your session is in 1 hour | |
| 30 minutes before | Checklist and join link |
Why you cannot turn these off
Missing a session costs you money. Cancelling inside the two-hour window returns only 70% of the notarisation fee, and not attending at all can carry a no-show fee — so NotariseIt takes responsibility for making sure you were told, rather than leaving it to a setting you might have switched off months earlier. Two of the five emails exist purely to warn you that the free-cancellation window is closing.
Times in every reminder are West Africa Time, the same zone the session is scheduled in.
Reminders are email only
Every reminder above arrives by email, and email is currently the only channel that sends. WhatsApp, SMS and automated voice-call reminders are built but not yet switched on.
When they do go live, SMS and voice calls will be part of a notary's practice subscription and will go to the notary alone — a client will not receive either on any plan. The email schedule above is unconditional either way.
Appointment statuses
Your booking carries a status and, separately, a payment status. Both are shown as chips on the appointment row, so seeing two chips side by side — for example Paid next to scheduled — is normal. They are answering two different questions.
Booking status
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pending payment | Booking created, payment not yet completed — a Pay now button appears on the booking |
| Scheduled | Booking is confirmed and the session has not yet run |
| Confirmed | Booking is confirmed and payment has been received |
| In progress | The session is open and running — a Join Session button appears |
| Completed | Session finished — certificate issued |
| Cancelled | Session cancelled by either party |
When other people are signing, the booking you are looking at may be one of several sittings of the same notarisation. Each carries its own status — a completed sitting on a document that is still waiting for somebody else is normal, not a contradiction. The document's own state is shown on its progress page, which you reach from the reference on any of its bookings.
| What you see | Meaning |
|---|---|
A reference such as NI-2026-XXXXXXXX on a booking | This sitting is part of a larger notarisation. Click it for the progress page |
| Invited | Named on the document; has not yet said whether they are taking part |
| Accepted | Has confirmed they are signing |
| Declined | Has said they will not sign — the document cannot complete until you deal with it |
| Signed | Has appeared and signed |
Payment status
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Paid | Payment has been received for this booking |
| Refunded | Payment has been refunded, in whole or in part |
On the Sessions page you may also see:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Live | It is session time — your notary will open the room shortly |
| Expired | The session window passed without the session running |