A notary is a public officer or a clerk who validates documents that pertain to business and legal documents, such as deeds, powers-of-attorney, contracts, foreign and domestic business authorization agreements. They often verify if the signatures on these documents are authentic and whether the agreements between signers are legal and legitimate.
Besides authenticating official documents, the work of a notary is both clerical and analytical in practice. They usually work in an office setting as the keeper of official documents. Since they are authenticated by the state they are obligated to report any issues that prevent them from notarizing a document. Notaries are often consulted on whether a document meets the state legal standard that they will be filed in. Some additional tasks may include a treasury function where they would collect fees, issue receipts or refunds, maintain financial records. Other tasks may include clerical and secretarial work, such as answering phone calls, customer service, proofreading documents, data entry, maintaining files and preparing reports.
Although it is not a requirement, it is highly preferable that notaries have a bachelor's degree in any field. However, political science or some knowledge of it is considered to be very helpful for the notary in training. Notary candidates must be 18 and over in order to begin applying for certification. They should possess good judgment and morals, and should never have been convicted of a felony. It is very important for the candidate to have a clean record. Otherwise, they don't stand a chance in receiving notary certification.
Begin the course of study based on your state's requirements. Most states require training sessions either in person or home and Internet based class sessions. They are usually three to six hours long and topics of study include state notary laws, prevention of notarization errors, maintenance of a notary journal and conducting proper notarizations. If the candidate passes the examination, they will then undergo a background check and fingerprint analysis. If everything checks out well, then the candidate will have to submit an application to become a notary and pay a fee for the certification.