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• All applicants for appointment or reappointment to a Notary commission will be required to attend a mandatory three-hour Notary education course approved by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This necessary training must be completed within six months prior to the date of application.
  
  
• Applications for reappointment must be filed at least two months prior to the expiration of a commission.
  
  
• Notaries must now follow more stringent standards for identifying document signers. A new definition of 'satisfactory evidence' specifies characteristics that an ID card or credible witness must now possess before either can be used to identify a signer. And a new definition of 'personal knowledge' sets parameters for determining whether a signer is indeed personally known.
  
  
• There are new requirements for your official register of notarial acts, an already compulsory element of Notary recordkeeping. The new law mandates that Notaries maintain exclusive custody and control of the register, that all individual notarial acts be recorded separately and in chronological order and that a Notary may not relinquish the register to an employer upon termination or resignation.
  
  
• The Notary bond requirement has been increased to $10,000.
  
  
• Employers are expressly prohibited against appropriating the fees of employee Notaries. It will also be incumbent upon all Notaries who charge fees to conspicuously post or provide to signers the maximum Notary fees permissible by law.
  
  
• The new law also eliminates the need for Notaries to use an embosser seal, but introduces new requirements regarding the safekeeping and disposal of the inking seal stamp.
  
  
• The one-year residency requirement for Notary commission applicants has been abolished. Likewise, out-of-state residents are permitted to become Pennsylvania Notaries as long as they work within the Commonwealth.
  
  
• Mandatory regulations have been established for the performance of electronic notarizations. A Notary's electronic signature must match the name identified on the commission exactly and may be registered with the county. While electronic notarizations do not require the use of an official seal, the standard components of the seal must appear in the electronic record.
  
  
• The Secretary of the Commonwealth is authorized to suspend the commission of a Notary, issue a written reprimand or impose a civil fine of $500 for misconduct by the Notary.
  
  

All requirements take effect July 1, 2003, and you must know every pertinent facet of this comprehensive new statute before its new rules are imposed.