Texas names the two sides better than any other office we read. “Public records fall into two main categories: recordable and non-recordable documents.” That one sentence decides whether you need a notary at all.

It is the same rule as the federal-versus-state split, one level down. The authority that issued the document is the authority that vouches for it. A notary is a witness to a signature, not an issuing authority, so a notary cannot stand in for one.

The mistake that costs a month

Somebody takes a birth certificate to a notary, has a photocopy stamped, and mails it to the Secretary of State. It comes back unprocessed. Two things went wrong, and either one was enough on its own.

First, the notary was not allowed to do it. California answers the question in its own handbook, in a straight yes-or-no form:

Second, a photocopy is not a document. California states that the document must be signed by a California public official or be an original notarized or certified document, and that a photocopy is not acceptable. Pennsylvania says the same from the other end: “Photocopies of notarized or certified documents may not be certified by the Secretary of the Commonwealth.”

So the notary stamp did not fix the photocopy. It made the file worse, because now the state office has a notarial certificate attached to something the notary had no authority to certify. Texas rejects that on sight: “Documents containing the term “Notario Publico”, or additional statements by a notary acting beyond their authority will be rejected.”

Pennsylvania reduces the whole thing to nine words: “Birth certificates do not need to be and should not be notarized.”

What a notary may and may not certify

A notary commission is a short list of powers, set by state law, and copy certification is barely on it. California’s statute lists the duties. Copies appear once: “To certify copies of powers of attorney under Section 4307 of the Probate Code.” Powers of attorney, and nothing else.

Texas writes its list as a sentence:

Note the qualifier Texas attaches to copy certification. A notary may certify a copy “if the document is not filed with a state, county, or city office or agency”. That is the recordable test again, worded as a permission rather than a ban.

And the thing a notary certifies is narrower than people expect. Every California notarial certificate carries this line by law:

Identity, and nothing else. Not that the diploma is real. Not that the letter is true. That is why a notary can never replace the issuing office on a record the government already holds.

If it does need a notary, what the state wants

A signature alone is often not enough. Texas wants the document to say what it is, in the signer’s own words, before the notary certificate goes on:

Pennsylvania names the documents that need it: “Diplomas, transcripts and criminal record checks must be notarized by a Pennsylvania notary public prior to requesting an apostille or certification.” Read that list twice. Pennsylvania wants a criminal record check notarized. Texas puts state-issued and sheriff-signed background checks in the recordable column, where a notary is forbidden. Two state offices, opposite instructions, both correct for their own state. This is why we do not publish one national rule.

Where it goes after the notary

The state office certifies the notary, not you. So the notary’s own commission has to be provable to that office, and some states put a county in between. Skipping that county step is the second most common return.

New York is the clearest example of the county step: “Notarized documents must be certified by the County Clerk of the County where the notary is certified to notarize.” The same page then draws the vital-record line exactly where this page draws it. A certificate from a local or county office needs the county clerk first. One issued by the state does not: “Birth, Death, and Marriage certificates issued by the New York State Department of Health and bearing the signature of the Director of Vital Statistics or NYS Registrar may be submitted for Apostille or Certificate of Authentication and do not require a County Clerk certification.”

California has its own version, and it catches people who ordered from a city clerk rather than the county recorder:

The federal route has no notary in it at all

Everything above is state law. A federal document leaves that system entirely. There is no notary step, no county clerk, and no Secretary of State. The Texas office says so on its own page, and names the document people ask about most:

An FBI Identity History Summary goes to the U.S. Department of State, Office of Authentications, 600 19th Street NW, Washington, DC 20006, on form DS-4194, at $20 per document. Those figures come from our 2026-08-04 reading of the State Department’s own page. Nothing on the notarization route applies to it. If a service asks you to have your FBI report notarized, that is a paid step with no office behind it.

The full federal-or-state test is on its own page: does my document go to the federal government or my state?

What we do, and what we do not do

We do not notarize anything and we do not obtain anybody’s records. We are not a signing service and we have no notaries. The customer holds the document already, or orders it themselves from the office that issued it, and we handle the authentication leg. That is the whole product and it is why there is no retrieval line on our price list.

For a vital record that means you order the certified copy. States release those only to the registrant or immediate family, usually behind a notarised statement of identity, so acting as your agent there would buy us legal exposure to save you a ten-minute order. Ask for it to be shipped straight to us and we will send you the link and the address.

Every source on this page

Common questions

Does a document have to be notarized before it can be apostilled?

It depends on who issued it. A document the government issued and holds, such as a birth certificate or a court record, must not be notarized. Texas calls these recordable and states that they cannot be notarized or turned into certified copies by a notary public. A private document, such as a diploma copy, an affidavit or a power of attorney, must be notarized, because the state office certifies the notary’s signature and without one there is nothing for it to certify.

Can a notary certify a copy of my birth certificate?

No, and the mistake is expensive. The California notary handbook answers it directly: certified copies of birth, fetal death, death and marriage records may be made only by the State Registrar, by local registrars during their term of office, and by county recorders. Order a certified copy from the issuing office instead. A notarized photocopy is returned unprocessed and you have lost the notary fee and about a month.

What does a notary actually certify?

The identity of the person who signed, and nothing else. The disclosure California puts on every notarial certificate says the notary verifies only the identity of the individual who signed the document and not the truthfulness, accuracy or validity of that document. A notary cannot make a private paper true, official or recent.

Where does the notarized document go next?

To the Secretary of State of the state where the notary is commissioned, and in some states through the county first. New York requires a notarized document to be certified by the County Clerk of the county where the notary is commissioned before the Department of State will act. California, Texas and Pennsylvania take a notarized original directly. Check the state, because it varies.

Does an FBI background check need to be notarized?

No. It is a federal document and no notary and no state touches it. The Texas Secretary of State states that its office does not apostille or authenticate any documents issued by the federal government or agencies, such as an FBI background check, and points to the Office of Authentications at the U.S. State Department instead.

Can I get my birth certificate notarized at a bank to save time?

No. It saves nothing and it costs you the trip. The notary is not permitted to certify a copy of a vital record in the first place, and the state apostille office will not accept a photocopy. Pennsylvania puts it in one line: birth certificates do not need to be and should not be notarized.

Read next

• The apostille guide, which office handles which document
• Birth certificate apostille, the certified copy route in full
• Apostille or legalization, the destination-country test that comes first
• Federal or state?, the split one level up
• Is there a same-day federal apostille?, no, and why
• What this industry gets wrong, every repeated claim set against its source