Yes. If you are being admitted to practice law in New York, your Application for Admission Questionnaire must be signed and notarized before you submit it to the Appellate Division. It is one of the few steps in the admission process that requires a notary.
What has to be notarized
On the questionnaire, you swear (or affirm) that your answers are true and you authorize the Appellate Division’s Committee on Character and Fitness to investigate your background. That statement is subscribed and sworn to before a notary public, you sign it in front of the notary, who then completes the jurat and affixes their stamp.
Out-of-state applicants: the Designation of Agent
If you do not live or work full time in New York, you also complete a Designation of Agent addendum, appointing the Clerk of the Appellate Division to accept legal process on your behalf. That page must be notarized too. Out-of-state candidates are exactly the people who have the hardest time finding a New York notary.
Can you notarize it online?
Online notarization lets a commissioned New York notary verify your identity and swear you in over secure video, so you can complete the notarized pages from any state without traveling. This is especially helpful for out-of-state applicants completing the Designation of Agent. Follow your Appellate Division department’s instructions and confirm the accepted notarization method for your filing.
How to get it done
Have your application pages ready, but do not sign until you are in front of the notary. Then verify your signature over video and receive your notarized pages. You can notarize online here, or contact NotarEase NYC if you have questions.
Why the notarization is not a formality here
On the admission questionnaire you are swearing that your answers are true and complete, and you are authorizing an investigation into your background. The Committee on Character and Fitness is deciding whether you are fit to be trusted with other people’s affairs, and the sworn statement is the foundation the rest of that review sits on.
Which is why the mechanics matter more than they would on an ordinary form. A notarial certificate completed incorrectly, or a signature the notary did not actually witness, is a defect on the one document in your file that is specifically about your honesty.
The mistake to avoid: do not sign it early
This is the single most common problem, and it is the easiest to prevent.
The statement is subscribed and sworn to before a notary, which means you sign it in the notary’s presence. Applicants routinely complete the entire questionnaire at home, sign it, and then look for a notary. At that point the notary has two choices: refuse, or sign a certificate saying something that is not true. Any notary willing to do the second one is not a notary you want on this document.
Fill everything in. Leave the signature line blank. Sign in front of the notary.
The jurat, and what a correct one looks like
What you need here is a jurat rather than an acknowledgment, and the distinction is real. An acknowledgment says you appeared and confirmed you signed. A jurat says you appeared, you swore the contents are true, and you signed in front of the notary.
A completed jurat carries the venue, meaning the state and county where the act took place, the date, the notary’s signature, and the notary’s seal or stamp. Check all four before you leave the appointment. A missing county or a smudged seal is a returned application, and returned applications are measured in weeks rather than days.
Out of state applicants and the designation of agent
If you are not living or working full time in New York, you also complete the designation of agent addendum, appointing the Clerk of the Appellate Division to accept legal process on your behalf. That page is notarized as well.
Out of state candidates are exactly the people who find this hardest, because the whole file is going to a New York court and they are somewhere else entirely, often studying for or recovering from the bar exam. This is the situation remote notarization was made for.
Confirm the method before you book
Requirements are set by the Appellate Division department where you are seeking admission, and they are the authority on what they will accept, not us and not a forum thread.
Read the instructions that came with your application. If they do not address electronic notarization explicitly, ask the department in writing and keep the answer. Two minutes of asking beats a returned file, and admission timelines are unforgiving in a way that ordinary paperwork is not.
What to have ready for the appointment
The completed pages, unsigned. Valid unexpired photo identification, and check the expiration date now rather than at the session, because expired identification is the most common reason an appointment cannot be completed. A quiet place with a working camera and a stable connection if you are notarizing online.
Know how many pages need notarizing before you start. The questionnaire and the designation of agent are separate notarial acts, and knowing the count in advance means the quote you get is the price you pay.
Where we fit, and where we do not
We are a New York notary service. We can verify your identity, administer the oath and complete the jurat properly, in person across the five boroughs or online from any state, usually within minutes of you asking.
What we cannot do is tell you how to answer a question on the questionnaire, advise you on what to disclose, or tell you whether something in your history needs explaining. That is legal advice, and a notary is prohibited from giving it. For those questions, talk to your law school’s admissions counsel or an attorney who handles character and fitness matters. On a file that is entirely about candor, that is the right advice to take from us.
Other admission documents that may need a notary
The questionnaire is the one everybody knows about. Depending on your department and your circumstances, other pages in the file can require notarization too, and applicants discover them late.
Affidavits explaining a gap in employment, a change of name, or a matter you disclosed. Statements from employers or supervisors. A request for accommodation. Amendments filed after your original submission, if something in your circumstances changes while the application is pending.
Read the full instruction packet once, cover to cover, and mark every page that carries a notarial block. Notarizing four pages in one appointment is one errand. Discovering the fourth page a week later is another appointment and another delay.
Keep your own copy
Before anything is submitted, scan the complete notarized file and keep it somewhere you will still have access to in five years, which for most graduating students means not the law school email account.
You may be asked about this application again, on a later bar admission in another state, on a judicial clerkship form, or on a licensing questionnaire years from now. Consistency between what you said then and what you say later is the whole point of a character and fitness review, and you cannot be consistent with a document you no longer have.
A commissioned New York notary can swear you in online in minutes, from any state. Notarize online →
This page is general information, not legal advice, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the New York courts. Always follow the official instructions provided with your Application for Admission and confirm requirements with the appropriate Appellate Division department.