Does North Dakota Require a Notary Journal? Only for Remote Acts (2026)
Not for in-person work. North Dakota adopted the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts in its optional-journal form: a notary may keep a journal, and nothing requires it for traditional, in-person notarizations. Remote notarizations are the exception; for those, the statute requires a journal. And North Dakota sets the format for any journal that exists.
Last updated: August 2026.
What North Dakota law covers
North Dakota's notarial acts law (North Dakota Century Code chapter 44-06.1) governs commissions, conduct, and notarial acts, including remote ones. Section 44-06.1-16.1 carries the journal rules: a journal is required for notarial acts performed for remotely located individuals, a notary keeps only one journal at a time for tangible records, a journal is retained ten years after its last act, a lost or stolen journal is promptly reported to the Secretary of State, and when a commission ends the notary keeps the journal and tells the Secretary of State where it is. For in-person paper work, keeping a journal stays the notary's choice.
The case for keeping one anyway
A journal answers the question that arrives years after a signing: did this person appear before you, and how did you know who they were? An entry with the date, the document, the ID checked, and the signer's own signature answers it with evidence. The journal is your own record; North Dakota sets no rules for who may see a voluntary record, and in a dispute it can be subpoenaed like any business record.
What format works in North Dakota
The statute sets the format for a journal: on paper, "a permanent, bound register with numbered pages"; kept electronically, a permanent, tamper-evident format complying with the Secretary of State's rules (N.D.C.C. § 44-06.1-16.1). The Secretary of State's guidance matches: permanently bound, with pre-numbered spaces. Loose printed pages are not a bound register. Capture each act with the date, time, document, signer, identification, and fee, in the order the acts happen.
Questions North Dakota notaries ask
Do North Dakota signing agents need a journal for loan signings? Not by statute. Real estate documents are also the ones most likely to be questioned later, which makes loan signings the acts most worth recording.
Does remote notarization change anything? Yes. A journal is required for notarial acts performed for remotely located individuals, retained ten years after the last act in it. For in-person work, keeping a journal remains your choice.
Should signers sign my North Dakota journal? Nothing requires it. A signature in your record is direct evidence the person appeared before you.
The honest note from us
Prep & Print Notary Journal sells a $19 app that prints filled-in journal pages, and a North Dakota journal kept on paper must be a permanent, bound register with numbered pages. Printed pages are not that. If you are commissioned in a state that leaves the journal format to you, the app is at prepandprintnotary.com. North Dakota notaries who keep a journal: buy the bound book or a compliant electronic journal.
Update, September 2026: we make a bound edition now. The Prep & Print bound journal is on Amazon — permanently bound, one signing per two-page spread, preprinted page and entry numbers, signature and thumbprint boxes, in five cover colors.
Every state's rule is on one page: Notary Journal Requirements by State.
Sources: N.D. Cent. Code § 44-06.1-16.1 (journals); North Dakota Secretary of State notary journal page. General information, not legal advice.
