Appearance
Your Notarisation Session
Before you join
Run the tech check (recommended)
At least 15 minutes before your session, run the Pre-Session Tech Check to confirm your camera, microphone, and browser are working correctly. Go to www.notariseit.com/av-test — no login needed. The same link is included in your 30-minute reminder email.
Have these ready
- Photo ID — the notary will ask you to hold it up to the camera
- Your documents — upload them to the session under Dashboard → Sessions before joining if you haven't already
- A quiet, well-lit space — sit facing a light source (a window in front of you is ideal)
- A stable internet connection — wired is best; if on Wi-Fi, sit close to your router
Joining your session
- At the scheduled time, go to Dashboard → Sessions.
- Click Join Session on your upcoming session card.
- The pre-join screen opens — check your devices here before entering the room.
The pre-join screen
Before entering the session you will see:
- A live camera preview showing how you look to others
- Device selectors — choose your camera, microphone, and speaker from the dropdown menus
- A microphone level bar — speak normally and watch the bars move to confirm your mic is picking up sound
- A Test speaker button — click it to play a test sound and confirm you can hear
- A connection check, so you know whether your network can carry the session before you join
When you are happy with your setup, click Join session.
Your notary lets you in
Your notary confirms who is present before the session begins — this is part of how a remote notarisation is conducted, and it is their responsibility under the Notaries Public Act 2023. If you see Waiting for your notary to admit you, they can already see that you are there; keep the page open and you will be let in shortly.
If nothing happens after a minute or two, leave and rejoin from your appointment, or contact your notary. You are never stuck on that screen — Leave and go back to my appointment is always available.
If your camera or microphone is blocked
If you see a red warning banner, your browser has denied access. Follow the on-screen steps:
- Click the camera or lock icon in your browser's address bar
- Set Camera and Microphone to Allow
- Refresh the page
See the Pre-Session Tech Check guide for detailed instructions for each browser and device.
Entering the session
If the notary has not yet arrived, you will see a "Waiting for your notary…" screen. Stay on the page — it will start automatically when they join. If the notary is already in the room, you go straight into the live session.
During the session
What you see on screen
The main area shows video tiles for everyone — you, the notary, and any witnesses. Participants show a green indicator dot when they are connected, and your own tile is outlined in green.
In the header you will see:
| Indicator | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Green dot | Good connection |
| Amber dot (pulsing) | Connection is slow — move closer to your router |
| Red dot (pulsing) | Very poor signal — try a different network |
| Session timer | How long the session has been running (e.g. 00:23:47) |
| Amber pulsing timer | 5 minutes remaining in the scheduled slot |
When 5 minutes remain, you will also see a notification. This is a reminder — the notary controls when the session actually ends.
Your controls
There are almost none, and that is deliberate.
| Button | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| REC | Bar below the video | Recording indicator — confirms the session is on the record. It is an indicator, not a button |
| Chat | Bar below the video, once the notary opens it | Send a message to the room |
| Red phone icon | Bar below the video | Leave the session. You will be asked to confirm, because leaving cannot be undone — you cannot rejoin the same session afterwards |
There is no mute button and no camera toggle. A notarisation has to be recorded in full — the notary is certifying that they saw and heard you — so the platform does not give anyone a way to take themselves off camera or off microphone part-way through.
If you need silence at your end, mute at the level of your computer or phone rather than expecting a control in the session. Do it sparingly: the platform can tell that you are not audible, and it will hold up signing until you are.
Banners you may see during the session
"You cannot hear the other participant — Enable sound" (red banner at the top)
Your browser has blocked audio playback. Click Enable sound to fix it immediately. Without doing so you cannot hear the other participants, even if the call looks otherwise normal.
"Connection unstable — session on hold" (amber banner)
Someone's audio or video track has been interrupted by a network fault. Signing is paused automatically until the connection recovers. The banner confirms the recording is still running on the platform's servers — nothing you have signed is lost. You do not need to do anything; the session resumes as soon as the connection stabilises.
"Waiting for all parties to be seen and heard" (dark banner)
Someone's camera or microphone is not producing anything. There is no mute button in the session, so this points at a device or a browser permission — a covered lens, an unplugged webcam, a microphone another app has taken, or camera access you never granted. The platform requires everyone to be visible and audible at signing moments; the notary will ask whoever is affected to check.
If there is noise at your end
Use your own device's mute — the key on your laptop, or the control in your operating system — while the notary is speaking. Unmute again as soon as you are asked anything, because signing cannot proceed while you are inaudible.
Keep your camera on throughout the session
Your camera must remain on during the signing and seal steps. If your camera is off — covered, unplugged, or blocked by your browser's permissions — the notary cannot apply their seal or complete the session. This is a legal requirement, not a platform policy.
There is no pause. If you genuinely have to step away, tell the notary: they will decide whether to wait or to end the session and rebook. A session that is properly ended and restarted is ordinary and costs you nothing extra.
Automatic video quality adjustment
The platform monitors your connection throughout the session and automatically lowers video quality if your signal weakens — this keeps audio clear and signing responsive even on a slow connection. You may notice the video becoming slightly blurry during a weak patch; this is intentional and does not affect the legal record. When your connection improves, quality is restored automatically.
Steps in a notarisation session
Step 1 — Identity confirmation on camera
The notary will ask you to hold your photo ID up to the camera. Hold it steady for a few seconds and keep it flat — they may ask you to tilt it if there is glare. This is a legal requirement under the Notaries Public Act 2023 and is part of the session recording.
Step 2 — Document review
The notary will display the document in the signing panel. Read it carefully. If anything needs correcting, say so before you sign.
Step 3 — Signing
A signing panel appears on the right side of the screen. Your assigned fields are highlighted in blue.
Finding what is yours. Under the document is a strip of page chips showing only the pages where you have something to do, and the panel beside it lists them — "Form B, page 2, date" — with a click that takes you straight there. It counts what you have done as well as what is left, so you can see how far along you are.
You will also see the notary's marks on the document, faintly. Those are theirs; they are not on your list and there is nothing for you to do with them.
Order does not matter. Sign your fields in whatever order suits you, on whichever document. If you sign in the wrong place, ask the notary — a signature can be taken back and made again at any point before the session is finalised.
Typed signature
- Your name is pre-filled — edit it if needed
- Pick a style from the dropdown and set the size with the − and + buttons
- A preview shows exactly what will appear on the document
- Tick the confirmation box
- Click Sign
The preview is the real thing
The preview is produced by the same code that places your signature in the document, so what you see is what is filed. A long name is scaled down to fit rather than being cut off at the ends.
The five styles are chosen to stay legible on paper — a notarised document is usually printed, filed and often photocopied, and very fine script strokes can disappear in a copy.
Handwritten signature (QR code)
If the notary has requested a handwritten signature for a field:
- Click Show QR Code
- Scan it with your phone camera — a handwriting pad opens in your phone's browser
- Draw your signature with your finger and tap Submit
- Your signature is sent back to the session instantly
For date fields, the current date fills in automatically — just confirm and click Sign.
Some fields are marked optional. You can leave those blank and still finish; the count of what you have left to sign does not include them.
Signing can take a few seconds
Five to twenty seconds is normal, and longer on a slow connection. Do not click Sign twice — the button shows it is working, and clicking again does not speed it up. Your signature may also take a moment to appear on the notary's screen, and theirs on yours. Nothing has gone wrong.
Step 4 — Confirmation
When the notary has finished placing everything, they ask everybody who signed in the sitting to confirm — you, and each co-signatory who was on the call. A final confirmation box appears:
"I have reviewed all documents and am satisfied with my signed fields…"
Before you tick it, look through every document, not just the one on screen. This is the point at which you are agreeing to all of them.
- If you are happy, tick the box. The notary cannot close the session until you do.
- If you are not, say so and decline. You will be asked for a reason, the notary can change what needs changing, and they will ask you again. There is no limit and no penalty — an instrument you were rushed into is worth less than one you agreed to.
If the box is not visible yet, the notary has not finished. Wait, or ask them.
Co-signatories are asked too, about their own marks. Each of them answers for themselves — they are not approving your signature and you are not approving theirs. The notary's screen shows who has answered, and the act cannot be closed while somebody on the call has not, unless the notary explicitly closes without them and the record shows it.
A co-signatory who signed at an earlier sitting is not asked again. They answered then, about what they were looking at then.
Optional fields left blank do not hold anything up. If the notary placed a box marked optional and you chose not to use it, that is not something outstanding.
Step 5 — Notary applies their seal
The notary applies their registered digital seal and signature, then finalises the document. A cryptographic timestamp is permanently embedded at this point.
Step 6 — Session complete
The notary clicks Complete Session. The platform automatically:
- Generates your notarial certificate PDF
- Emails it to you, the notary, and any witnesses
- Archives the recording and audit trail for at least 6 years
Document delivery consent
If the notary has arranged for a physical copy of your document to be delivered after the session, you will see a pop-up during the session:
"Document Delivery — Consent Required"
It will show the recipient name and delivery address. Click Approve Delivery to agree, or Decline if you do not want physical delivery. This consent is recorded in the session audit trail. You cannot change your decision after clicking — if you need to adjust, let the notary know immediately.
If you approve, delivery is arranged automatically once the session is completed.
In-session chat
If the notary needs to send you a written message, they can open a chat panel. When they do:
- A chat window appears on your screen
- A notice reads: "This chat is monitored and recorded as part of the notarisation audit trail"
- All messages are stored permanently as audit evidence
You can read and reply while the chat is open. The notary closes it when they are done. You cannot start a chat yourself — only the notary can open it.
Session recording
Every session is recorded — camera and audio for all participants — from the moment the notary joins. You will see the notice at the top of the screen: "This session is being recorded for legal compliance and evidence purposes under the Notaries Public Act 2023."
The recording runs on the platform's servers, so it is not affected by brief connection drops on your side.
Recordings are not shared with participants — they are held for authorised legal or compliance use only, such as in a dispute or investigation.
If your notary hasn't started the session
There are two versions of this, and you may meet either one. The controls are the same in both.
- Your notary opened the session but never appeared in it. You are in the video room, waiting, with nobody on the other side.
- Your notary never opened the session at all. There is no room for you to join — your booking simply sits there past its start time. This is the more common of the two.
In the second case you will not see anything in a video room, because you cannot get into one. Everything happens on the booking itself, under Dashboard → Sessions, on the card for that appointment.
Nothing appears before your scheduled start time. These are remedies for a notary who is late, so they do not exist until they can be true.
Straight away — what we are doing
Once your start time passes, a panel appears on the booking:
Your notary hasn't started the session yet
It is 3 minutes past your scheduled start time. We are watching this and will step in if they do not arrive.
You do not have to do anything at this point. The platform is already tracking the booking and will act on its own if nobody turns up.
After about 5 minutes — send one reminder
A Remind notary button appears.
This is a one-time reminder, deliberately. Your notary may be finishing an earlier session that has over-run and still fully intend to hold yours; sending them a stream of messages would not bring them any sooner. We send one, once.
It reaches them by email, telling them their client is waiting and linking them straight to your booking. (Text-message reminders for notaries on Pro and above are built but not yet switched on; until they are, every reminder goes by email.)
Once sent, the button is replaced by confirmation that the reminder has gone, along with what happens next. There is no second reminder.
After about 10 minutes — keep waiting, or move on
Two buttons appear:
- Keep waiting — you are content to give them longer. Your booking stays as it is.
- Find another notary — we start looking for a replacement immediately.
If you choose to move on, the platform will:
- Release your booking from the current notary.
- Search for the next available notary who can take it.
- Reassign your appointment if a replacement is found — you will be notified by email and in-app with the new notary's details.
- Refund your notarisation fee in full if no suitable notary is available, and cancel the booking. The platform service charge, its VAT and the payment processing fee are not refunded.
All the documents you uploaded are preserved and carried over to the replacement booking. You do not need to re-upload anything or contact support.
Your new notary reviews your documents themselves
A replacement notary starts their document review from scratch. Any review the previous notary had already done does not carry over — being satisfied that a document is fit to notarise is a professional judgement each notary has to make for themselves. You may briefly see the review progress reset on your booking; that is expected.
If you do nothing at all
You are not required to choose. Roughly 15 minutes past your start time, if the notary still has not begun, the platform steps in on its own and does exactly what Find another notary would have done — reassigns you, or refunds your notarisation fee if nobody is free.
So closing the tab and coming back later is safe. You will not be left paid-up with nothing.
These are options, not deadlines
If you know your notary is running late and have been in touch with them directly, you can simply wait. Choosing Keep waiting tells us that is what you have decided.
If your notary is changed
Sometimes a notary cannot keep a booking — they are unwell, their account is suspended, or they have to declare a conflict of interest in your matter. When that happens the platform finds you another notary and confirms the session with them. You are not charged again, and your documents come with you.
You will be told by email and in-app. A notice also appears on the booking in Dashboard → Appointments, and it gives you a say.
What your price does
Nothing. You have paid, and that is the end of it. The replacement notary is paid what your original notary would have been — whether that is a little above or a little below their own usual rate. There is no top-up to find and no difference to claim back.
Your three options
| Option | What happens |
|---|---|
| That works for me | The notice goes away and the session goes ahead with the new notary. Nothing changes. |
| Wait for the notary I booked | Choose a new time and the booking goes back to your original notary. Nothing is charged again. |
| Cancel and refund me | The booking ends and your notarisation fee comes back in full. |
You do not have to answer. The session is already confirmed, so if you are happy with the change you can simply ignore the notice.
Waiting for your original notary
Offered when your notary came off the booking for a reason to do with timing — they were unavailable at that hour, they did not join, they ran out of reschedules. Pick a time they are free and the booking returns to them at the same price.
It is not offered when the reason was the matter itself rather than the hour: a notary who has declared a conflict of interest in your documents, or whose account is no longer active, cannot take your work at any time. In that case the notice says your original notary is not available for this matter, and your choices are to keep the notary assigned to you or to cancel and choose somebody else from search.
Cancelling instead
If you would rather not go ahead at all, your notarisation fee is refunded in full. This is not treated as you changing your mind, so no cancellation charge applies, however close to the session you decide — the disruption was not yours. The platform service charge, its VAT and the payment processing fee are not refunded, as on any refund.
Your new notary reviews your documents themselves
A replacement notary starts their document review from scratch, for the same reason described above. If the booking later goes back to your original notary, the review resets again. You may see the review progress on your booking change; that is expected.
If your connection drops
If you lose your connection mid-session, a red banner appears:
"Connection lost — Rejoin now"
Click Rejoin now. Your signing progress is saved — you will not need to start over. If you cannot reconnect, contact the notary directly or email [email protected].
Witnesses
If your document requires a witness, the notary invites them before the session. Witnesses join via a secure one-time link and do not need a NotariseIt account. They complete their own signing step during the session.
After the session
Your notarised certificate is available immediately:
- By email — sent automatically to your registered address
- On the platform — Dashboard → Documents
The certificate has a QR code that anyone can scan to verify it, or open https://www.notariseit.com/verify/<certificate-id> using the ID printed on the certificate — no account needed.
The page confirms the certificate, the document, and your notary's name, SCN and current licence standing. If that standing has changed since your session, the certificate still verifies — a notary's later circumstances do not unmake an act they validly performed. The two are shown separately for exactly that reason.
Free retrieval lasts 14 days — the session record does not expire
You can download the notarised documents and certificate from the session page free and instantly for 14 days after the session.
After that, nothing disappears. This page, your session record and your certificate stay exactly where they are. What changes is that the documents move to archive storage, so a download becomes a paid retrieval request rather than an instant one. Save the emailed copy and you will not need it — that email does not expire and costs nothing. See Documents & Certificates.
Your session audit trail
Every completed session carries a full timestamped record of what happened, visible to you on the session page. It is worth knowing this exists — it is the evidence behind your notarisation, and you can read it yourself.
The trail records, in order and with exact times:
- Session created, and the notary joining the room
- Any moment the audio or video degraded, and when it recovered
- When the recording started
- Identity verification being completed
- Every individual signing field event — who signed what, and when
- The notary applying their seal
- Your final confirmation
This is what makes a remote notarisation evidentially equivalent to an in-person one. If a notarised document is ever challenged, this trail — together with the session recording and the certificate's cryptographic hashes — is the record that answers the challenge.
Troubleshooting
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| Camera or mic blocked | See the Tech Check guide |
| Can't hear the other participant | Look for the red "Enable sound" banner at the top of the screen and click the button. If no banner appears, check that your speaker volume is up and your browser's site permissions allow sound for notariseit.com. |
| Signing fields visible but can't click Sign | An A/V hold is active — someone's connection or camera/mic is not fully ready. Wait for the amber or dark banner to clear. Nothing you have signed is lost. |
| You missed the session | Contact [email protected] — they will advise on rebooking and on what happens to the payment |
| Notary hasn't started your session after ~5 minutes | On the booking under Dashboard → Sessions, click Remind notary — one reminder only. It reaches them by email |
| Still not started after ~10 minutes | Keep waiting or Find another notary; if nobody suitable is free your notarisation fee is refunded in full |
| Notary never opened the session and you did nothing | At ~15 minutes the platform reassigns or refunds you automatically — nothing is required from you |
| Document flagged during session | You'll receive an in-app notification and email with instructions to re-upload |
| Connection dropped, can't rejoin | Contact your notary directly, then email [email protected] |
When more than one person is signing
Where you have named signatories, the notarisation is spread across several short sittings — yours, and one for each person who chose their own time. It is still one notarial act, conducted by the same notary throughout.
Three things follow, and all three surprise people:
You will not be present when the others sign. You are not required at their sittings and they are not required at yours. Only the person appearing and the notary have to be there.
The document fills up between the calls. Each person signs the same document, so by the time the last party appears it already carries everybody else's signature. What you can see in the meantime is a watermarked working copy — see Documents.
Nothing is notarised until the end. Your notary seals the document once, after the last signature, at that final sitting. Until then there is no notarised deed, however many signatures are on the page.
If your document has to be signed in a particular order
Some documents do. A guarantee that should follow the main agreement, or a deed where one person signs on the strength of another's signature already being there.
The platform does not enforce an order — anyone named on the document can sign whenever their session falls. What decides the order is the order of the sittings, so if it matters, arrange it:
Tell your notary before you book. They control the diary and can take the appearances in the sequence you need.
Ask a signatory to move their time. Each of them can reschedule their own session. If somebody has booked ahead of the person who should sign first, ask them to take a later slot — they can change it from their own page.
Tell the people you invited what the order is. They cannot see it — the platform gives them a time, not a reason. When you name each signatory at booking there is an optional "Anything you want to tell them?" box; whatever you write there travels with their invitation and sits at the top of their own page. "Please sign after Chinwe — she is booked for the 17th" is exactly what it is for.
It is a message, not a rule: nothing you write there stops anybody signing when their session falls. If the order genuinely matters, use the note and arrange the sittings with your notary.
Nobody is stopped from signing early
If a person's session falls earlier than you intended, they will be able to sign at it — the sequence is something you and your notary are arranging, not a rule the platform applies. Sort the times out before the first sitting rather than after.
The progress page
Every booking that is part of a larger notarisation carries its reference — a chip reading something like NI-2026-XXXXXXXX. Click it.
That page is where you find out where the document has got to: who has signed, who has not, what each outstanding person still has to do, and when they are booked to appear. It also shows the deadline and how long is left.
You are the only person who can chase anybody. The notary can conduct sessions but cannot make somebody attend, and the other signatories have no standing to press each other. The progress page exists so that chasing is possible, which is why it tells you the awkward details — who has not verified their identity, who has not paid — rather than a reassuring percentage.
Emails you will get in between
- A sitting has been held — one of the parties appeared and signed. It says who is still outstanding and what each of them owes.
- Somebody picked or moved a time — a signatory has booked their slot, or changed it.
- Day seven and day fourteen — the document is running out of time, with the same list.
None of them carries an attachment, and none of them is the notarised document. That arrives once, at the end, with the certificate.