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Signing a Document
Someone has named you as a signatory on a document they are having notarised. This guide explains what that means, what you will be asked to do, and roughly how long it takes.
You do not need a NotariseIt account. Everything happens through the private link in your invitation email. If you already have an account, you can use that instead — both doors stay open.
The short version
Open the link, confirm you are taking part, verify your identity (about five minutes), read the document, and choose a time. Then appear on a short video call and sign. Do the verification now, not on the day.
What being a signatory means
A notary public is confirming that a document was signed by the people who say they signed it. You are one of those people. Your signature goes on the document itself, and your name goes on the notarial certificate that travels with it.
This is different from being a witness. A witness watches somebody else sign and attests that they saw it happen; they take on no obligation under the document. A signatory executes it. If you think you have been named in the wrong role, say so before you sign — the person who invited you can change it, and the notary can refuse to proceed if it is wrong.
Why you were invited separately
The document needs more than one signature, and the people signing it are not always free at the same time. So the notarisation can be spread across several short sessions: the person who booked it appears at theirs, you appear at yours, and anyone else appears at theirs.
It is still one notarial act. The same notary conducts every session, the document fills up as each person signs, and nothing is notarised until the last signature is on it and the notary has sealed the document. That is why you may open the document and find other people's signatures already there, and why nothing you can see before the end is the finished deed.
Some notaries do not offer separate times. If yours does not, you will be asked to attend the same session as everybody else, and the time will already be set.
What you will be asked to do
| # | Step | When | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Get in — open the link, enter the code | As soon as you receive it | ~1 minute |
| 2 | Confirm you are taking part | Straight away | — |
| 3 | Verify your identity | Well before the session | ~5 minutes |
| 4 | Read the document | Before the day | Depends on the document |
| 5 | Choose a time, if you were given the choice | Within the first fortnight | ~1 minute |
| 6 | Appear and sign | At your session | 15–45 minutes |
The steps are not a strict order. You can read the document before verifying, or after. The one thing worth doing today is step 3.
Do step 3 today
A signatory who has not verified their identity cannot be admitted to the session. There is no way round it — the notary is legally required to be satisfied who signed, and a video call is not enough on its own.
If your verification fails on the day there is rarely time to fix it, and the session is lost for everyone who turned up to it. Verifying takes about five minutes and can be done from your phone the moment the email arrives.
The deadline everybody shares
The whole document has to be signed by everyone within thirty days of the first session — the one booked by the person who invited you. You will see that date on your own page.
It is a hard stop. If it passes, the document is not notarised, the sessions already held are not refunded, and the whole thing has to be booked again from scratch. That is why you will be reminded if you have not chosen a time.
If you do not want to sign
Say so, and say it early. There is a decline option on your page. Declining is not a failure and it does not need a reason — it tells the person who invited you that they need to make other arrangements, while there is still time for them to make them.
What you should not do is go quiet. A document waiting on somebody who is never going to sign it expires slowly, at everybody else's expense.
Where to go next
- Getting in — the link, the code, and what to do when one of them does not work
- Proving who you are — the methods, and what happens to what you send
- Reading the document — what you can see before the end, and why it is stamped
- Your session — choosing a time, and what happens on the call
- The attendance fee — whether you owe anything
- Your privacy — what is kept, for how long, and your rights