Illinois Notary Requirements

5 ILCS 312/6-102. Notarial acts. (a) In taking an acknowledgment, the notary public must determine, either from personal knowledge or from satisfactory evidence, that the person appearing before the notary and making the acknowledgment is the person whose true signature is on the instrument. (b) In taking a verification upon oath or affirmation, the notary public must determine, either from personal knowledge or from satisfactory evidence, that the person appearing before the notary and making the verification is the person whose true signature is on the statement verified. (c) In witnessing or attesting a signature, the notary public must determine, either from personal knowledge or from satisfactory evidence, that the signature is that of the person appearing before the notary and named therein. (d) A notary public has satisfactory evidence that a person is the person whose true signature is on a document if that person: (1) is personally known to the notary; (2) is identified upon the oath or affirmation of a credible witness personally known to the notary; or (3) is identified on the basis of identification documents. Identification documents are documents that are valid at the time of the notarial act, issued by a state agency, federal government agency, or consulate, and bearing the photographic image of the individual's face and signature of the individual.

14 Ill. Adm. Code 176.900 (Journal Requirements): a) Every notary public, whether or not also an electronic notary public, must record each notarial act in a journal at the time of notarization to comply with 5 ILCS 312/3-107 and this Subpart J. b) Each journal of a notary public, whether maintained on a tangible medium or in an electronic format, must contain all of the following information in any order: 1) The name of the notary public as it appears on the commission; 2) The notary public's commission number; 3) The notary public's commission expiration date; 4) The notary public's office address of record with the Secretary of State; 5) A statement that, upon the death or adjudication of incompetency of the notary public, the notary public's personal representative or guardian or any other person knowingly in possession of the journal must deliver or mail it to the Secretary of State; 6) The meaning of any abbreviated word or symbol used in recording a notarial act in the notarial journal; and 7) The signature of the notary public. c) If a notary public's name, commission expiration date, or address changes before the notary public stops using the notarial journal, the notary public shall add the new information after the old information and the date on which the information changed. d) An electronic journal kept by a notary public or an electronic notary public under 5 ILCS 312/3-107 must comply with the requirements of subsections (a) and (b) and must also: 1) Prohibit the electronic notary public or any other person from deleting a record included in the electronic journal or altering the content or sequence of such a record after the record is entered into the electronic journal except to redact personally identifiable information as required by Section 176.910(d); 2) Be securely backed up by the electronic notary public and the electronic notarization system provider whose electronic notarization system was used by the electronic notary, if applicable; and 3) Omit all personally identifiable information, as defined in Section 176.10. e) A notary public shall allow for the inspection of the journal or electronic journal as required by Section 176.950. f) Notwithstanding any other subsection of this Part to the contrary, a notary employed by an attorney or law firm is not required to keep a journal of notarizations performed during the notary's employment if the attorney or law firm maintains a copy of the documents notarized. No attorney or law firm shall be required to violate attorney-client privilege by allowing or authorizing inspection of any notarizations that are recorded in a notary's journal. Journals of notarizations performed solely within the course of a notary's employment with an attorney or law firm are the property of the employing attorney or firm. g) No notary public nor electronic notary public is required to keep or maintain a journal or otherwise record a notarial act or electronic notarial act in a journal if that act is performed by or on behalf of a candidate for public office and includes one or more of the following documents: 1) nominating petitions; 2) petitions of candidacy; 3) petitions of nominations; 4) nominating papers; or 5) nomination papers. (See 5 ILCS 312/3-107.) h) The exemption under subsection (g) applies regardless of whether the notarial act or electronic notarial act is performed on the documents described in subsection (g) before, on, or after the effective date of the amendatory Act of the 103rd General Assembly, and the failure of a notary public or an electronic notary public to keep a journal of or to otherwise record such an act does not affect the validity of the notarial act on that document and is not a violation of the Act. [5 ILCS 312/3-107]

14 Ill. Adm. Code 176.910 (Journal Entries and Prohibited Entries): a) Required Entries. Each entry shall contain at least the following information: 1) The name of the principal; 2) The name of each credible witness relied upon to verify the identity of the principal; 3) The name of any other person that signed for the principal; 4) The title or a description of the document notarized; 5) The date of the notarization; 6) Whether the notarization was conducted in person, remotely, or electronically; 7) The fee charged, if any; and 8) The physical location of the notary and the principal. b) Optional Entries. In addition to the entries required under 5 ILCS 312/3-107 of the Act and this Part, a journal may contain the signature of the individual for whom the notarial act is performed and any additional information about a specific transaction that might assist the notary public to recall the transaction. c) Prohibited Entries. A notary public must not record in the notary's journal the following: 1) An identification number that was assigned by a governmental agency or by the United States to the principal that is set forth on the identification card or passport presented as identification; 2) Any other number that could be used to identify the principal of the document; 3) A biometric identifier, including a fingerprint, voice print, or retina image of the principal; 4) An individual's first name or first initial and last name in combination with and linked to any one or more of the following data elements when the data elements are not encrypted or redacted: A) Social Security number; B) Driver's license number or a State identification card number; or C) Financial account information; and 5) An electronic signature of the person for whom an electronic notarial act was performed or any witnesses. [5 ILCS 312/3-107] d) Inadvertent or Accidental Entries. A notary public who inadvertently records information prohibited under subsection (c) must redact such information before providing public access to or copies of the journal. e) Fees. Each notarial fee charged should correspond to the notarial act performed. If a fee is waived or not charged, the notary public shall indicate so in the journal entry using notarizations such as "n/c", "0" (zero), or " - " (dash). Clerical and administrative fees, if charged, shall be separately itemized in the journal. f) Address. For journal entries, address means the city and state only. g) Transitional Provision. A notary public who holds a commission on July 1, 2023, may continue to use the notary public's journal until the completion of that journal or the expiration of that commission, whichever may occur first.

14 Ill. Adm. Code 176.920 (Form and Content of Journals Maintained on a Tangible Medium): a) A journal maintained on paper or any other tangible medium may be in any form that meets the physical requirements in this Section and the entry requirements in Section 176.910. b) The cover and pages inside the journal must be bound together by any binding method that is designed to prevent the insertion, removal, or substitution of the cover or a page. This includes glue, staples, grommets, or another binding, but does not include the use of tape, paper clips, or binder clips. c) Each page must be consecutively numbered from the beginning to the end of the journal. If a journal provides two pages on which to record the required information about the same notarial act, both pages may be numbered with the same number or each page may be numbered with a different number. Page numbers must be preprinted. d) Each line, or entry if the journal is designed with numbered entry blocks, must be consecutively numbered from the beginning to the end of the page. If a line extends across two pages, the line must be numbered with the same number on both pages. A line or entry number must be preprinted. e) The journal of a notary public must remain within the exclusive control of the notary public at all times. f) A notary public who performs multiple notarizations for the same principal within a single transaction may abbreviate the entry of those notarizations in the notary journal after first including all the information required by the Act. The abbreviated entry must indicate the type of transaction and the number of documents notarized as part of that single transaction. g) A journal maintained in a tangible format must be retained for a minimum of 7 years after the final notarial act chronicled in the journal. h) The retention requirements for this Part do not apply to notaries in the course of their employment with a governmental entity.

14 Ill. Adm. Code 176.930 (Form and Content of an Electronic Notarial Journal): a) A journal maintained in electronic format may be in any form that complies with this Section and the entry requirements in Section 176.910. b) A journal maintained in an electronic format must be designed to prevent the insertion, removal, or substitution of an entry. c) A journal maintained in an electronic format must be securely stored and recoverable in the case of a hardware or software malfunction. d) Entries from the notarial journal must be available upon request by the Secretary of State in a PDF format. e) The journal of a notary public shall remain within the exclusive control of the notary public at all times. f) A notary public who performs multiple notarizations for the same principal within a single transaction may abbreviate the entry of those notarizations in the notary journal after first including all of the information required by the Act. The abbreviated entry must indicate the type of transaction and the number of documents notarized as part of that single transaction.

14 Ill. Adm. Code 176.940 (Custody and Control of the Journal and Notification of a Lost, Compromised, Destroyed, or Stolen Journal): a) The notary public must maintain custody and control of the journal at all times during the term of the notary public's commission. When not in use, the journal must be kept in a secure location and accessible only to the notary public. A secure location includes the notary public's sole possession or a locked location to which only the notary public has access. b) Notification of a lost, compromised, destroyed, or stolen journal under 5 ILCS 312/3-107 must be made in writing or electronically the next business day after the date the notary public or personal representative or guardian discovers the loss or theft of the journal. The notification must include all of the following: 1) A statement of whether the journal is lost, compromised, destroyed, or stolen; 2) An explanation of how the journal became lost, compromised, destroyed, or stolen; 3) The date the notary public discovered that the journal was lost, compromised, destroyed, or stolen; 4) A statement that the journal has been destroyed or that the notary public does not possess the journal and does not know who possesses it or where it is located; and 5) A statement that, if the notary public subsequently acquires possession of the lost or stolen journal, the notary public shall file a written statement with the Secretary of State within 10 business days after the date the notary public reacquires possession of the lost or stolen journal, including a written explanation of how the journal was recovered.

14 Ill. Adm. Code 176.950 (Inspection of a Journal, Response to Subpoenas and Investigative Requests, and Public Information): a) In the notary's presence, any person may inspect an entry in the official journal of notarial acts during the notary's regular business hours, but only if: 1) The person's identity is personally known to the notary or proven through satisfactory evidence; 2) The person affixes a signature in the journal in a separate, dated entry; 3) The person specifies the month, year, type of document, and the name of the principal for the notarial act or acts sought; and 4) The person is shown only the entry or entries specified. b) If the notary has a reasonable and explainable belief that a person has a criminal or harmful intent in requesting information from the notary's journal, the notary may deny access to any entry or entries. c) Subpoenas and investigative requests. A request for inspection or certified copies of a journal made through an investigative request by law enforcement or by the Secretary of State or in a subpoena in the course of criminal or civil litigation, or administrative proceeding shall be complied with in the manner specified in the request or subpoena. d) If any portion of the audio-video recording of an electronic or remote notarization includes biometric information or includes an image of the identification card used to identify the principal, that portion of the recording is confidential and shall not be released without consent of the individual whose identity is being established, unless ordered by a court of competent jurisdiction or upon request by the Secretary of State. e) Failure of a notary public to promptly and adequately respond to a request for public information in accordance with this Part may be good cause for suspension or revocation of a notary public or electronic notary public commission or other disciplinary action against the notary.

14 Ill. Adm. Code 176.960 (Electronic Journal Record Retention and Depositories): a) A notary public must retain the electronic journal required and any audio-video recording created under 5 ILCS 312/6A-104 in a computer or other electronic storage device that protects the journal and recording against unauthorized access by password or cryptographic process. The recording must be created in an industry-standard, audio-visual file format and must not include images of any electronic record that was the subject of the electronic or remote notarization. b) An electronic journal must be retained for at least 7 years after the last electronic or remote notarial act chronicled in the journal. An audio-visual recording must be retained for at least 7 years after the recording is made. c) A notary public must take reasonable steps to ensure that a backup of the electronic journal and audio-visual recording exists and is secure from unauthorized use. d) Upon the death or adjudication of incompetency of a current or former notary public, the notary public's personal representative or guardian or any other person knowingly in possession of an electronic journal or audio-visual recording must: 1) Comply with the retention requirements of this Section; 2) Transmit the journal and recording to one or more depositories under subsection (e); or 3) Transmit the journal and recording in an industry-standard readable data storage device to the Illinois Secretary of State, Index Department at 111 E. Monroe St., Springfield, IL 62756. e) A notary public, guardian, conservator, or agent of a notary public, or a personal representative of a deceased notary public may, by written contract, engage a third person to act as a depository to provide the storage required by this Section. A third person under contract under this Section shall be considered a depository. The contract must: 1) Enable the notary public, guardian, conservator, or agent of the notary public, or the personal representative of the deceased notary public to comply with the retention requirements of this Section even if the contract is terminated; or 2) Provide that the information will be transferred to the notary public, guardian, conservator, or agent of the notary public, or the personal representative of the deceased notary public if the contract is terminated. f) The retention requirements for this Part do not apply to notaries in the course of their employment with a governmental entity.

5 ILCS 312/3-104 (MAXIMUM FEE): (a) Except as otherwise provided in this subsection (a), the maximum fee for non-electronic notarization in this State is $5 for any notarial act performed and up to $25 for any notarial act performed pursuant to Section 3-102 documents of conveyance. Fees for a notary public, agency, or any other person who is not an attorney or an accredited representative filling out immigration forms shall be limited to enumerated immigration-form caps, e.g., $10 per page for translation.... (e) All notaries public must provide itemized receipts and keep records for fees accepted for services provided.