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National Notary Association

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TX Senate Bill 693

Legislation

State: Texas

Effective: September 01, 2025
Chapter: TBD

Summary

Senate Bill 693 institutes mandatory training for Notary commission applicants and penalizes Notaries who knowingly fail to require the personal appearance of signers.

Affects

Adds Section 406.0091 to amends Sections 406.006, 406.009, 406.011, 406.014, and 406.023 of the Texas Government Code.

Changes

Notary Training

  1. Requires an applicant for a first-time or subsequent Notary commission to successfully complete an education requirement.
  2. Directs the Secretary of State to adopt rules for Notary education that (a) may not require a person to complete more than two hours of education for appointment or two hours of continuing education for reappointment; (b) must require that the Secretary of State establish and offer education and continuing education courses for a reasonable price; (c) must prohibit any person other than the Secretary of State from providing education or continuing education courses; and (d) may not require a person appointed as a Notary Public before September 1, 2025, to complete education requirements required for initial appointment as a Notary on or after that date.
  3. Provides that no later than January 1, 2026, the Secretary of State must adopt education rules.
  4. Clarifies that the training requirement applies to applicants who apply for a Notary commission on or after January 1, 2026.

Personal Appearance

  1. Clarifies that a person personally appears before a Notary if: (a) for a notarization other than an online notarization, the person physically appears before the Notary at the time of the notarization in a manner that permits the Notary and the person to see, hear, communicate with, and provide proof of identification to each other; and (b) for an online notarization, the person appears at the time of the notarization by an interactive two-way video and audio conference technology that meets the standards adopted for online notarization under Government Code 406.104.
  2. Provides that a Notary Public who performs any notarization with knowledge that the signer, grantor, maker, or principal for whom the notarization is performed did not personally appear before the Notary at the time the notarization is executed commits a Class A misdemeanor.
  3. Clarifies that it is an affirmative defense to prosecution that the person who personally appeared before the notary public knowingly presented an apparently valid proof of identification identifying the person as the signer, grantor, maker, or principal for whom the notarization was purported to be performed, regardless of the identity of the person

Other Provisions

  1. Requires a Notary to retain notarial records required under Government Code 406.014(a) until the 10th anniversary of the date of notarization.
  2. Provides that "good cause" for taking action against the commission of a Notary includes failure to keep notarial records required by Government Code 406.014(a) until the 10th anniversary of the date of the notarial act.

Analysis

It has been a trend for states to enact a mandatory training requirement for Notaries Public. In recent months, the seller impersonation deed fraud pandemic has also highlighted the need for Notaries to receiving training. Senate Bill 693 institutes a 2-hour training requirement for both new and renewing Notary commission applicants, and also penalizes Notaries who knowingly fails to require the signer to personally appear at the time of the notarial act. The NNA applauds Texas for the training requirement, but we wonder if 2 hours is sufficient to train a Notary all they need to know to notarize documents properly and recognize deed, elder, Notary impersonation, and AI frauds prevalent today. The training requirement only applies to applicants who apply for a Notary commission on or after January 1, 2026. Senate Bill 693 became law without the Governor’s signature, so we wonder just how supportive the executive branch is of this new requirement.

Read Senate Bill 693.

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