Acceptable Identification

You must physically present a valid I.D.

Acceptable Forms

• • State-issued driver's license

  • State-issued identification card

  • U.S. passport issued by the U.S. Department of State

  • U.S. military ID

  • State, county and local government IDs

  • Permanent resident card, or "green card," issued by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

  • Foreign passport

  • Driver's license officially issued in Mexico or Canada

  • Digital driver's license

  • ID deemed acceptable to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security

  • Inmate ID issued by the State Department of Corrections or Federal Bureau of Prisons, if the inmate is in state or federal custody

  • Inmate ID issued by a county sheriff, if the inmate is in the custody of the county sheriff*

Credible Witness

• • Person must be known to both the Notary and the signer of the document.

Personal Knowledge

• • No identification is necessary if personally known by the Notary.

     Expired ID

• • • Florida also permits Notaries to accept expired IDs from a signer provided the expired ID was issued within the past five years and includes a serial identifying number. This includes driver's licenses and ID cards issued by U.S. states and territories, Canada, or Mexico; U.S. passports or foreign passports stamped by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS); U.S. military IDs; veterans health ID cards issued by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; inmate IDs issued after January 1, 1991 by the Florida Department of Corrections for inmates in custody; U.S. Bureau of Federal Prisons IDs for inmates in custody or ID cards issued by USCIS. 

**NOT ACCEPTABLE

Generally speaking, Social Security cards, birth or marriage certificates, credit cards, school IDs, library cards and temporary driver's licenses are not acceptable forms of ID for notarization purposes.

According to Online Sunshine, (5) A notary public may not notarize a signature on a document unless he or she personally knows, or has satisfactory evidence, that the person whose signature is to be notarized is the individual who is described in and who is executing the instrument. A notary public shall certify in the certificate of acknowledgment or jurat the type of identification, either based on personal knowledge or other form of identification, upon which the notary public is relying. In the case of an online notarization, the online notary public shall comply with the requirements set forth in part II of this chapter.

(a) For purposes of this subsection, the term “personally knows” means having an acquaintance, derived from association with the individual, which establishes the individual’s identity with at least a reasonable certainty.

(b) For the purposes of this subsection, the term “satisfactory evidence” means the absence of any information, evidence, or other circumstances which would lead a reasonable person to believe that the person whose signature is to be notarized is not the person he or she claims to be and any one of the following:1. The sworn written statement of one credible witness personally known to the notary public or the sworn written statement of two credible witnesses whose identities are proven to the notary public upon the presentation of satisfactory evidence that each of the following is true. That the person whose signature is to be notarized is the person named in the document. That the person whose signature is to be notarized is personally known to the witnesses. That it is the reasonable belief of the witnesses that the circumstances of the person whose signature is to be notarized are such that it would be very difficult or impossible for that person to obtain another acceptable form of identification. That it is the reasonable belief of the witnesses that the person whose signature is to be notarized does not possess any of the identification documents specified in subparagraph 2.; and. That the witnesses do not have a financial interest in nor are parties to the underlying transaction; or. Reasonable reliance on the presentation to the notary public of any one of the following forms of identification, if the document is current or has been issued within the past 5 years and bears a serial or other identifying number. A Florida identification card or driver license issued by the public agency authorized to issue driver licenses. A passport issued by the Department of State of the United States. A passport issued by a foreign government if the document is stamped by the United States Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. A driver license or an identification card issued by a public agency authorized to issue driver licenses in a state other than Florida or in a territory of the United States, or Canada or Mexico. An identification card issued by any branch of the armed forces of the United States. A veteran health identification card issued by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. An inmate identification card issued on or after January 1, 1991, by the Florida Department of Corrections for an inmate who is in the custody of the department. An inmate identification card issued by the United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Prisons, for an inmate who is in the custody of the department. A sworn, written statement from a sworn law enforcement officer that the forms of identification for an inmate in an institution of confinement were confiscated upon confinement and that the person named in the document is the person whose signature is to be notarized; or. An identification card issued by the United States Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.