State Notary Agent®
The Florida Notary Public Directory
Fla. Stat. §117.05(5) gives a notary exactly three routes to identify a signer, and no others:
There is no fourth option. A notary who identifies a signer some other way has performed a defective notarization, no matter how certain they were.
Under §117.05(5), the identification must be current or issued within the last five years, and must contain a photograph and signature. Acceptable documents include:
What is not on the list, and gets turned away constantly: expired licenses, Social Security cards, birth certificates, credit cards, employee badges, student IDs, library cards, photographs of an ID on a phone, and photocopies. A birth certificate proves a birth, not that the person holding it is the person named.
The credible witness route in §117.05(5) exists for the person in a hospital bed whose wallet is at home, or the elderly signer whose license lapsed years ago. It is real, and it is more demanding than most people expect.
Either one credible witness personally known to the notary, or two credible witnesses who themselves present acceptable identification, must each swear in writing that:
That last condition is the one that fails in practice. The adult child arranging a parent's deed is a party in interest and cannot be the credible witness. Bring a neighbor.
A current Florida driver license or ID card, another state's license or ID, a U.S. passport, a USCIS-stamped foreign passport, a U.S. military or armed forces ID, a VA veteran health ID, a USCIS-issued ID card, or — for an inmate — a Florida Department of Corrections ID. It must carry a photograph and signature.
Only within the statutory window — the identification must be current or have been issued within the last five years. An older expired document is not acceptable evidence of identity.
No. Neither is on the §117.05(5) list, and neither carries a photograph. They prove a fact about a person; they do not prove that the person presenting them is that person.
Florida allows credible witnesses: either one witness personally known to the notary, or two witnesses who present acceptable ID. Each must swear in writing that they personally know you, that obtaining ID would be very difficult or impossible for you, and that they have no financial interest in the transaction.
No. For an in-person notarization the notary must be presented with the physical identification document. Photographs and photocopies are not acceptable. Remote online notarization handles identity differently, through credential analysis and identity proofing.
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