Last updated 2026-08-19
TL;DR
Delaware has no standalone remote online notarization board. The Governor commissions notaries. The Secretary of State's notary program runs electronic and remote acts. You need an active Delaware commission, then electronic notary authority, plus accepted communication technology. Confirm current fees and forms on the official site. Sessions are short. Commission timing is not guaranteed.
Who is the remote online notarization board in Delaware?
There is no remote online notarization board in Delaware. The Governor commissions notaries public. The Department of State, through the Secretary of State's notary program, runs applications, electronic notary authority, and remote online notarization delaware practice. If a vendor form asks for the "Delaware RON board," the honest answer is the Secretary of State, with the commission coming from the Governor.
That mismatch trips new applicants. Some states really do run notaries through a board. Delaware does not. Title 29, Chapter 43 is the statute that creates the office and sets the term and duties.[3][11]
Treat the official notary site as the only application desk that matters. Print the current instructions. Skip the Facebook threads about a national notary board. No private directory can issue or save a Delaware commission.
You verify a Delaware notary through the state's own lookup. If the state site and a platform dashboard disagree, the state wins.
People also mix up the county recorder with the commissioning authority. New Castle, Kent, and Sussex Counties keep land records. They do not issue your commission.[10]
If you are comparing commissioning shops, the remote online notarization path in Connecticut is a different office and a different statute. Do not copy another state's checklist onto a Delaware filing.
Do you need a license for remote online notarization in Delaware?
Yes. Remote online notarization in Delaware is a notarial act done by a commissioned Delaware notary who also holds electronic notary authority and uses accepted communication technology. A software login is not a license.[2][4]
You start as a regular notary public. Then you add electronic authority. Then you pick technology the Secretary of State accepts. Skip a step and the act is just a video call.
Out-of-state RON is a different officer. A Florida or Arizona notary can often notarize for a signer who happens to sit in Wilmington, because many RON statutes tie the act to the notary's location. That still is not a Delaware commission number. If a Delaware court, agency, or recorder wants a Delaware officer, an out-of-state certificate can bounce. Ask the receiving office.
Get the Delaware commission if the work is Delaware-facing. Real estate that will hit a Delaware recorder, plus court and agency forms, are the usual reason. If you only need one personal affidavit, hire someone already set up. Building a commission to handle your own family's papers wastes your time, and you generally cannot notarize for yourself.
Delaware does not hand out a third career card that says "RON licensee." It is still the notary public office, with an electronic add-on.
How do you get a Delaware notary commission before you do RON?
You apply through the Secretary of State's notary program. The Governor issues the commission. Current forms, identification rules, and the application fee live on the official site. Confirm them there. Fees move. I will not invent a number and hope it aged well.[1][3]
Delaware notary public commissions run for 2 years under Title 29, Chapter 43 of the Delaware Code.[3][11]
Read the statute for oath, official signature, and name-change rules. Delaware has long run without a notary surety bond. That surprises people who trained in a bond state. Do not buy a Delaware bond because a national vendor bundled one into a kit. If the state checklist does not list a bond, skip it.
Education is the other national myth. Plenty of states now make you sit a class before the first commission. Delaware's traditional paper commission has not been a heavy education state. That can change. Confirm the current checklist. If the state does not require a class, a $200 "pre-licensing academy" is optional at best.
Here is what I would actually do. Create the official account, complete the state's own application, keep a PDF of every screen, and wait. Order a physical stamp only after the commission is real. Ordering engraved stamps mid-application is how people end up with the wrong expiration date on steel.
What extra step turns a Delaware notary into an electronic or remote notary?
Electronic notary authority is a separate filing with the same Department of State. It is not a new career license. The electronic notary program page is the checklist that counts.[2]
You register the technology you will use. You adopt an electronic official stamp. You follow the statute on journals and on certificates for electronic records.[4]
Remote online notarization is the subset where the signer is not in the room. The statute talks about communication technology, identity proofing, credential analysis, and an audio-visual recording. Those are not optional product features. They are the conditions that replace in-person appearance.[4][8]
| Item | Paper notary | Electronic / remote |
|---|---|---|
| Commission | Governor via the Secretary of State | Same commission first |
| Extra authority | None | Electronic notary authority |
| Signer appearance | In the room | Communication technology if Chapter 43 conditions are met |
| Official stamp | Physical | Electronic official stamp |
| Session recording | Not typical | Audio-visual file retained (confirm the period) |
National Association of Secretaries of State materials describe RON as a notarial act completed when the notary and the signer are in different locations and communicate by audio-visual technology over the Internet.[8] Delaware then writes the local conditions into Title 29, Chapter 43.[4]
Pick one accepted platform and stay there for the first year. Two platforms means two journals, two recording repositories, and two ways to botch a certificate. Month-to-month is fine until you have volume. Annual enterprise plans are a waste if you have four signers.
If you want the Delaware statute printouts and a filing order in one stack, RONPath's $99 one-time State RON Add-On Kit is built for that paper path. The kit does not replace the Secretary of State. Nothing does.
How much does remote online notarization cost in Delaware?
There is no single remote online notarization delaware price. You have three bills: the state, the technology, and what you charge the signer.
State side: confirm the current notary application fee and any electronic notary fee on the official notary site. I am not going to invent a figure. If a blog still recites a 2018 number, throw the post out.[1][2]
Technology side: identity proofing, the live session, and recording storage are what you pay a vendor for. Prices move by plan and by volume. Compare two accepted vendors. Do not pay a third party to "register you nationally."
Signer side: Delaware can cap what a notary charges. Read Chapter 43 and any Secretary of State fee notice before you publish a menu.[3][4] Platforms also set consumer prices when the signer books through their marketplace. Your posted fee and the checkout fee are not always the same number.
Here is my honest first-year spend, conceptually: the state filings (confirm the live amounts), a device you already own if the camera is decent, one vendor plan, and optional errors-and-omissions insurance if you will touch real estate. I would not budget a new laptop, a neon studio, or a multi-state package.
Waste of money: engraved desk sets, "certified RON instructor" upsells, and rush processing sold by anyone who is not the state. The state does not sell rush through Instagram.
For a feel of how other states split filing fees from vendor fees, the Connecticut cost breakdown is a comparison, not a Delaware quote.
How long does remote online notarization take in Delaware?
Two clocks run here. The commissioning clock and the session clock.
Commissioning is not a published guarantee I can repeat here. Processing changes with volume. Confirm current expectations on the official site or by asking the notary program. Anyone who sells you a guaranteed Delaware approval date is guessing.[1]
Electronic authority adds a second wait. Same rule. Confirm. Do not schedule paying clients until both the commission and the electronic authority are actually issued.
The session is the part people mean when they ask how long remote online notarization takes in Delaware. Once the signer passes identity proofing, a straightforward single-document act often fits in 10 to 30 minutes. Multi-document real estate packages run longer. Failed knowledge-based questions, bad lighting, and a signer who did not have the unsigned document ready are what blow up the calendar.
Identity proofing can fail in the first five minutes. Then there is no notarial act. Budget a backup in-person plan for signers who bounce off online identity systems. That is not a Delaware quirk. It is how these systems work.[8]
Book 45 minutes for a first-time personal signer and 90 minutes for a first closing package, then shrink the holds after you see your own pattern. Nobody has a clean public dataset for average Delaware session length. Vendor marketing averages are not your Tuesday.
What identity and recording rules apply to a Delaware remote session?
Personal appearance is still the default. Remote appearance is allowed only when the statute's technology and identification conditions are met.[4]
The Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts, which Delaware enacted, is the model a lot of this language tracks. The uniform act lets a remotely located individual appear by communication technology, and it says "the recording must be retained for a period of at least 10 years after the recording is made."[7] Read the Delaware text in Chapter 43 and confirm the retention period that actually applies to you.[4]
Identification for a remote signer is not "they showed me a license on camera." Expect credential analysis plus identity proofing, then the live comparison. If you cannot identify the person, you refuse. The statute gives you that refusal right for a reason.
Federal electronic records law sits underneath the state notary statute. The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act says "a signature, contract, or other record relating to such transaction may not be denied legal effect, validity, or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form."[6][9] That sentence does not deputize you. It stops people from tossing a record just because it is electronic.
Delaware's Uniform Electronic Transactions Act says the same idea in state law: "A record or signature may not be denied legal effect or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form."[5]
Keep the recording where the vendor says it lives, and know how you will pull it if the vendor dies. Confirm repository access on day one. Ten years is longer than most startups last.
Can you notarize for someone outside Delaware if you are a Delaware RON notary?
Yes. A Delaware notary who is located in Delaware can generally perform a remote notarial act for a signer in another state, if the Chapter 43 remote conditions are met. The certificate should reflect a Delaware notarial act.[4][7]
Foreign countries are stricter. The model act adds extra findings when the signer is outside the United States. Read that part before you agree to notarize for someone abroad. If you cannot make the findings, you do not do the act.
The reverse is also true. A signer sitting in Dover can use an out-of-state remote online notary. Whether a Delaware court or recorder will take that certificate depends on the document type and that office's practice. Ask the receiving office. Do not take a platform's "accepted in all 50 states" banner as a recording opinion.
For real estate, the county recorder is the office that can waste your afternoon. New Castle County publishes recorder information you should read before you promise a seller anything.[10] Kent and Sussex are separate shops. A package that records in Georgetown is not a Wilmington package.
If your clients are national, look at how Florida and Arizona commission remote notaries. Those are high-volume RON states. Delaware is not trying to be them.
What technology does Delaware actually accept for RON?
Only use communication technology that satisfies Delaware's statute and that the Secretary of State will actually accept when you register as an electronic notary.[2][4]
A generic consumer video meeting is not a RON platform. It does not do credential analysis. It does not keep a notarial journal. It does not apply your electronic official stamp. I would not improvise a closing on a chat app.
What the stack has to do, in plain terms: present the document, identify the signer, let you see and hear them live, apply the notarial certificate and electronic stamp, and keep an audio-visual recording. NASS describes that remote audio-visual model at the national level.[8] Delaware then decides which vendors clear its gate.[2]
Ask the vendor three questions in writing. Are you accepted for Delaware electronic notaries today? Where do recordings live, and for how many years? Who is the official journal keeper, you or me?
If they dodge, walk. A pretty interface is not a statutory repository.
Hardware: a current laptop camera is fine for most people. Add a wired headset. Do not buy a $1,200 "notary studio kit."
What papers and records do you keep after a Delaware remote notarization?
Keep more paper than the platform screen suggests.
Save the commission certificate, the electronic notary authorization, the vendor contract, and a current copy of Title 29, Chapter 43.[3][4] Save every notarial certificate template you actually used.
Journals: follow the Delaware journal rule in Chapter 43. Electronic acts usually leave a deeper trail than a paper holiday acknowledgment. If the statute requires a journal entry, make it the same day. Do not assume the vendor screen is your legal journal unless the statute and the Secretary of State program say it is.[4]
Recordings: the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts requires retention of the remote audio-visual recording for at least 10 years.[7] Confirm Delaware's enacted period. Ten years outlasts most personal email accounts. Put the retention date somewhere you will still see it.
Stamps: your physical stamp and your electronic official stamp are different tools. Do not overlay a scan of the wet stamp on a PDF and call it an electronic official stamp.
If a document will be recorded, ask the county whether they want a paper printout of the electronic record, an e-recorded file, or either. Recorders are practical. They will tell you.[10]
What gets people rejected or in trouble with Delaware?
The usual failures are boring.
Doing a remote act before electronic authority is issued. Using a consumer video app. Skipping identity proofing because you "know them." Notarizing your own signature. Notarizing a document in which you are a named party. Letting someone else use your stamping credentials. Losing the recording.
Name mismatches kill recordings and court filings. If the commission says Jonathan and the certificate says John, fix it through the state, not with a nickname on the PDF.[1][3]
Another mess: charging a fee the state does not allow, or splitting fees with a non-notary in a way that looks like you sold the seal. Read the fee and misconduct pieces of Chapter 43.[3][4]
Stay out of "I can notarize any state because the internet is federal" talk. ESIGN keeps electronic records from being thrown out for being electronic.[6] It does not commission you in 50 states.
Complaints go to the Department of State, not to a fictional board. If someone is threatening you with a "RON board hearing," ask for the statute. Then call the notary program and ask how complaints actually work.
How does Delaware compare with other states on RON?
Delaware is a small commissioning environment. You will deal with one state notary program and three county recorders. That is simpler than California or Illinois, where volume and local recording habits are a different sport.
It is also not Georgia. Do not import another state's education hours, bond amount, or fee cap into your Delaware pricing sheet.
What is the same everywhere: the signer still has to be identified, the notary still has to be a commissioned officer, and the certificate still has to be complete. NASS keeps a national picture of which states allow RON.[8] Use that for orientation. Use Title 29 for the act you are about to perform.[4]
Keep one Delaware-only checklist and a second folder for foreign-state certificates you receive. Mixing them is how a Kent County rejection happens.
Mortgage work adds investor overlays. Some secondary-market guides accept RON when state law allows it. Those guides change. Read the current investor rule for that loan, not a 2019 press release. Industry groups such as the Mortgage Bankers Association track RON policy at a national level.[12] They do not commission you.
What should you confirm with the Delaware Secretary of State before you spend money?
Confirm five things on official pages before you spend a dollar.
One, the current application path and fee for a notary public commission.[1] Two, the current electronic notary path and any extra fee.[2] Three, the text of Title 29, Chapter 43, including remote appearance, journal, stamp, and fee language.[3][4] Four, whether your chosen vendor is accepted right now, not last year. Five, what the receiving office (recorder, court, agency) will take.
RONPath publishes this as a reference, not as a law firm and not as a signing service. If you want the Delaware add-on kit after you have read the statute yourself, start at /start. No one can honestly guarantee approval or a processing date. Anyone who does is selling comfort, not a commission.
Print the statute, apply once, and ignore the rest of the internet until the commission arrives.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a Delaware RON board I apply to?
No. Delaware has no standalone remote online notarization board. The Governor commissions notaries public. The Secretary of State's notary program runs applications and electronic notary authority. Use the official notary site, not a vendor's nickname for a board that does not exist.
Do you need a license for remote online notarization in Delaware?
Yes. You need an active Delaware notary public commission, then electronic notary authority, and you must use accepted communication technology. A platform account is not a license. Confirm current forms on the Secretary of State's notary site before you apply. Timing is not guaranteed.
How much does remote online notarization cost in Delaware?
There is no single price. Confirm the live state application and electronic notary fees on the official notary site. Technology vendors charge separately. What you may charge a signer can be capped by Chapter 43 or a Secretary of State notice. Do not trust old blog figures.
How long does remote online notarization take in Delaware?
The remote session itself often runs 10 to 30 minutes after identity proofing, longer for multi-document packages. Commission and electronic-authority processing are separate and are not a guaranteed number of days. Confirm current processing with the Secretary of State. Failed identity checks can end a session immediately.
Does Delaware require a notary bond for RON?
Delaware has long commissioned notaries without a surety bond. Confirm the current application checklist on the official notary site before you buy anything. A national vendor bond for Delaware is often a wasted add-on. If the state does not list a bond, do not purchase one just to feel official.
Can a notary from another state RON a Delaware deed?
Sometimes the out-of-state act is valid where that notary is commissioned, but a Delaware recorder or title desk can still reject the package. Ask the receiving county before you promise a seller anything. If the office wants a Delaware officer, you need a Delaware commission and electronic authority.
Does Delaware require a journal for remote acts?
Follow Title 29, Chapter 43 on journals. Electronic and remote acts usually leave a deeper trail than a paper acknowledgment. Do not assume the vendor screen is your legal journal unless the statute and the Secretary of State program say so. Make required entries the same day as the act.
Which platforms can I use for Delaware electronic notarization?
Only communication technology that meets Chapter 43 and that the Secretary of State accepts when you register as an electronic notary. A generic video chat is not enough. Ask the vendor in writing whether they are accepted in Delaware today, where recordings live, and who keeps the journal.
Do I need errors-and-omissions insurance in Delaware?
The state does not use E&O as a substitute for a commission. It is optional. I'd buy a modest policy if I were doing real estate RON. I would not buy the most expensive platform add-on on day one. Confirm what any policy actually excludes, especially identity-proofing failures.
Can I remotely notarize for a signer who is outside the United States?
Only if you can meet the extra findings in the remote-appearance statute for a signer abroad. If you cannot make those findings, refuse. Read Chapter 43 before you book the call. A platform that lets the signer join from another country does not complete the legal test for you.
How do I apostille a remotely notarized Delaware document?
An apostille authenticates the notary's commission, not the wisdom of the deal. The document still has to be a proper Delaware notarial act. Confirm current apostille filing steps with the Secretary of State. Do not assume every remote certificate is apostille-ready. Name and commission details must match the state's record.
Can I charge more for RON than for a paper notarization?
Only if Delaware's fee statute or a Secretary of State fee notice allows it. Read Chapter 43 before you publish a menu. Platform checkout prices are a separate contract with the signer. Confirm the live cap. Do not copy another state's $25 or $50 figure onto a Delaware invoice.
Sources
- Delaware Code Title 29, Chapter 43, Subchapter I: Title 29, Chapter 43 creates the Delaware notary public office, including appointment and term rules.
- Delaware Code Title 29, Chapter 43, Subchapter II: Chapter 43 sets the rules for notarial acts, electronic records, and remote appearance by communication technology.
- Delaware Code Title 6, Chapter 12A (Uniform Electronic Transactions Act): Delaware's UETA says a record or signature may not be denied legal effect solely because it is in electronic form.
- Cornell LII, 15 U.S.C. § 7001 (ESIGN): ESIGN says a signature or contract may not be denied legal effect solely because it is in electronic form.
- Uniform Law Commission, Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts: RULONA, enacted in Delaware, requires the remote audio-visual recording to be retained at least 10 years.
- GovInfo, United States Code Title 15 § 7001: The official U.S. Code text of ESIGN § 7001 is the federal electronic records rule under notary practice.
- New Castle County, Recorder of Deeds: Delaware land records are recorded at the county level, not by the notary commissioning program.
- Justia, 29 Del. C. § 4301: Delaware statute on appointment of notaries public includes the 2-year commission term.
- Mortgage Bankers Association, Remote Online Notarization: MBA tracks national RON policy for mortgage documents, which is an investor overlay on top of state notary law.