The Colorado Notary Public commission is granted by the Colorado Secretary of State under the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (RULONA), C.R.S. § 24-21-501 et seq. The gate is a package, not a test-center sitting: no more than 90 days before applying, a new applicant must successfully complete training and pass the open-book examination administered by the Secretary of State (8 CCR 1505-11, Rule 2.1.3), and a renewing notary must do the same, on renewal training, no more than 90 days before renewing (Rule 2.1.4). Training counts only from an approved vendor, an approved course provider, or the Secretary of State (Rule 2.1.5); the Secretary of State’s own online training and examination are free. The commission runs four years. No numerical passing score is published in the official sources for this requirement, and none is printed here.
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What this commission is
A Colorado notary public is an individual commissioned to perform a notarial act by the Secretary of State — the statute’s own definition, at C.R.S. § 24-21-502(8). The Secretary of State’s Notary Program commissions, regulates, and disciplines Colorado notaries under two instruments that work together: RULONA itself (Title 24, Article 21, Part 5, enacted by Senate Bill 17-132 and effective July 1, 2018, when it repealed the former Notaries Public Act), and the Secretary of State’s Notary Program Rules at 8 CCR 1505-11. The Secretary of State describes the office in its General FAQs: a notary public is a person commissioned to serve the public as a neutral witness — a verifier, an authenticator, an impartial agent for the state, a public recorder of acts, and an unbiased, official witness — and the Notary Handbook adds the sentence that organises the whole office: while notarizing, a notary is responsible not to a customer or a supervisor, but to the people of the State of Colorado through the Secretary of State.
The notarial acts the law names are taking an acknowledgment; administering an oath or affirmation; taking a deposition or other sworn testimony; taking a verification on oath or affirmation; witnessing or attesting a signature; certifying a copy; and noting a protest of a negotiable instrument — the last of these reserved, by C.R.S. § 24-21-505(5)(b), to a notary who is an employee of a financial institution acting in the course and scope of that employment. Since July 1, 2018, the route to perform those acts has run through training and an examination for new and renewing notaries alike: the statute makes having passed the examination one of the qualifications for a commission (C.R.S. § 24-21-521(3)(f)), the examination statute builds the test on a state course of study (C.R.S. § 24-21-522), and the rules place both halves inside a single 90-day window before the application or renewal is filed. The examination is the Secretary of State’s own — an online, open-book test taken through the Secretary of State’s eLearning system — and the training half may be taken from the Secretary of State free of charge or from a Secretary of State–approved vendor or course provider. The companion Colorado Notary Public Exam Guide sets out the law, the route, and the package in detail.
The commission at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Commission | Notary public, commissioned by the Colorado Secretary of State under the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (RULONA), C.R.S. § 24-21-501 et seq.; term of four years from the date the applicant is approved (C.R.S. § 24-21-521(6); Secretary of State Applying and Renewing FAQs) |
| Administering authority | Colorado Secretary of State, Notary Program. PassProfessor is independent, is not affiliated with the Secretary of State, and is NOT a Secretary of State–approved notary training vendor or course provider |
| Governing materials | C.R.S. § 24-21-501 et seq. (RULONA); the Notary Program Rules, 8 CCR 1505-11; the Official Notary Handbook published by the Secretary of State (current edition read for this page: revised April 24, 2024). The Handbook states its own status: it is a guide to best practices based on RULONA, and any incongruity between the Handbook and the statute is decided in favor of the statute |
| The gate (statutory package) | C.R.S. § 24-21-522: an applicant who does not hold a commission in this state must pass an examination administered by the Secretary of State or an entity approved by the Secretary of State, based on the course of study the Secretary of State or an approved entity offers regularly, covering the laws, rules, procedures, and ethics relevant to notarial acts. C.R.S. § 24-21-521(3)(f) makes having passed that examination a qualification for the commission itself |
| The window (current rule) | No more than 90 days before applying for a commission, a new applicant must successfully complete training and pass the exam administered by the Secretary of State; no more than 90 days before renewing a commission, a notary must successfully complete the renewal training and pass the exam (8 CCR 1505-11, Rules 2.1.3–2.1.4). Credit is granted only for courses offered by an approved vendor, an approved course provider, or the Secretary of State (Rule 2.1.5). A certificate of successful completion of an approved course of instruction expires 90 days from the date of issuance and must bear the statement that it is valid for a period of 90 days from the date of issuance (Rule 3.3.2–3.3.3) |
| Examination | The Secretary of State’s online, open-book examination, taken through the Secretary of State’s eLearning portal (the “Colorado Notary Public Examination – RULONA”). The Secretary of State’s examination page states that the test tests familiarity with Colorado Notary Law and the procedures and guidelines covered in the required training, that it should take about 30 minutes to complete, and that notes and the Handbook may be used during the test. Its content, by rule, is the applicant’s understanding of notary duties contained in RULONA (Title 24, Article 21, Part 5), Title 38, Article 30 (Titles and Interests), Title 1, Article 40 (Initiative and Referendum), and the Official Notary Handbook (Rule 2.1.7) |
| Passing standard | No numerical passing score is published in the statute, the Notary Program Rules, the Secretary of State’s examination page or FAQs, or the Notary Handbook, in the sources read for this page, and none is printed here. No question count and no attempt limit are published in those sources either |
| Training and examination charges | The Secretary of State’s online training and examination are free (Secretary of State Notary Public Training page; Applying and Renewing FAQs). A contractor or vendor training program may charge a fee (C.R.S. § 24-21-522(2)); vendor charges are the provider’s, and no vendor price is published in the sources read |
| Application | All notary filings are submitted via the Secretary of State’s online electronic filing system (8 CCR 1505-11, Rule 2.1.2; C.R.S. § 24-21-521(1)). The application must carry the applicant’s legal name, matching the government-issued identification (Rule 2.1.1). The application uploads are: the Affirmation form signed and notarized, both sides of acceptable identification, the notary training certificate, the notary exam certificate, and, for a non-U.S. citizen, both sides of the permanent resident card or visa (Secretary of State Applying and Renewing FAQs; registration or renewal checklist, revised June 13, 2025) |
| Application fee | Colorado fee: $10.00 online for a notary public application and $10.00 for a renewal (Secretary of State Notary Public Fee Schedule). Processing is within three to five business days (Applying and Renewing FAQs) |
| Affirmation | Before issuance of a commission, the applicant takes the statutory affirmation in the presence of a person qualified to administer an affirmation in this state — that the applicant has carefully read the notary law of this state and will faithfully perform all notarial acts in conformance with the law (C.R.S. § 24-21-521(5)). The Secretary of State’s checklist requires the form signed in front of a notary, with no blank or unfilled spaces, the applicant’s name exactly as on the identification, and the notarizing officer using “Notary public” as their title |
| Bond | No bond is required. The Secretary of State’s General FAQs state the position directly: a notary does not have to be bonded in Colorado; a bond and errors and omissions insurance are options a notary may consider, not commissioning requirements |
| Qualifications | At least 18 years of age; a citizen or permanent legal resident of the United States or otherwise lawfully present in the United States; a resident of Colorado or having a place of employment or practice in Colorado; able to read and write English; not disqualified under C.R.S. § 24-21-523; and having passed the examination required under C.R.S. § 24-21-522(1) (C.R.S. § 24-21-521(3)) |
| Renewal | Every four years; renewal may be filed up to 90 days before the commission expiration date, with renewal training and the examination completed no more than 90 days before renewing (Rule 2.1.4; Applying and Renewing FAQs). An expired commission is renewed by filing a renewal with fresh training and examination certificates — the Secretary of State directs former Colorado notaries not to apply as new notaries — at the same $10.00 fee |
What the training and examination cover
Neither the statute nor the Notary Program Rules publishes topic weights for the examination, and this page prints none. The examinable scope is published, and it is exact. By statute, the examination must be based on the course of study, and the course must cover the laws, rules, procedures, and ethics relevant to notarial acts (C.R.S. § 24-21-522). By rule, the Secretary of State’s open-book examination tests the applicant’s understanding of notary duties contained in four sources: RULONA (Title 24, Article 21, Part 5, C.R.S.); Title 38, Article 30 (Titles and Interests); Title 1, Article 40 (Initiative and Referendum); and the Official Notary Handbook published by the Secretary of State (8 CCR 1505-11, Rule 2.1.7). The rules also publish the curriculum an approved vendor’s course must be based on (Rule 3.2.1): RULONA including the physical presence requirement, the duty not to notarize a blank document, the duty to use a notarial certificate, disqualifying interest, application procedures, resignation requirements, the duty to maintain a journal of notarial acts, revocation proceedings, liability, identification of signers, the role of the notary, and official misconduct — together with widely accepted best practices, including notarizations for the elderly. The areas below follow the Handbook’s own organisation, because the Handbook is the Secretary of State’s plain-language statement of the same law.
The office itself: definitions, qualifications, and authority — RULONA §§ 24-21-502, 24-21-504, 24-21-521; Handbook, “What is a Notary?” and “What are a Notary’s Powers?”
The Handbook opens with the vocabulary the rest of the law runs on: notarial act and notarial officer, acknowledgment, verification on oath or affirmation, official stamp and stamping device, record and signature, and the definition that frames the office — a notary public is an individual commissioned to perform a notarial act by the Secretary of State. The authority section carries the office’s first prohibition: a notarial officer shall not perform a notarial act with respect to a record in which the officer has a disqualifying interest — where the officer or the officer’s spouse, partner in a civil union, ancestor, descendant, or sibling is a party to or named in the record, or where the officer or the officer’s spouse or civil union partner may receive, directly and as a proximate result of the notarization, any advantage, right, title, interest, cash, or property exceeding the fee properly received — and an act performed in violation is voidable (C.R.S. § 24-21-504). The qualifications are the route’s threshold, stated at C.R.S. § 24-21-521(3) and in the table above, and the commission itself confers no immunity or benefit of a public official or employee (§ 24-21-521(7)).
The acts, one by one — Handbook, “Oaths and Affirmations,” “Acknowledgments,” “Signature Witnessing,” “Copy Certifications,” and “Notices of Dishonor / Protests”
The Handbook teaches each act with its own RULONA checklist, and the distinctions among them are the examination’s working material. An acknowledgment is the individual’s declaration before the officer that they signed the record for the purpose stated and, in a representative capacity, with proper authority. A verification is the declaration on oath or affirmation that a statement in the record is true. Signature witnessing is the officer’s attestation of the signing itself. A copy certification carries its own determination — that the copy is a full, true, and accurate transcription or reproduction — and its own bars: a notary shall not certify a copy of a record that can be obtained from a clerk and recorder of public documents, the Secretary of State, the State Archives, or an office of vital records, nor a copy of a record that states on its face that it is illegal to copy it (C.R.S. § 24-21-505(4)). For each of the acknowledgment, verification, and witnessing acts, the officer must determine, from personal knowledge or satisfactory evidence, that the individual appearing has the identity claimed and, where the act requires it, that the signature is the individual’s (§ 24-21-505(1)–(3)). Personal appearance is the default the curriculum names first: if a notarial act relates to a statement made in, or a signature executed on, a record, the individual shall appear personally before the notarial officer (§ 24-21-506) — the remote layer that qualifies that default is a separate registration, addressed below as a boundary only.
Identification — C.R.S. § 24-21-507; Handbook, identification material and Appendix B, Credible Witness Guide
Personal knowledge means the individual is personally known to the officer through dealings sufficient to provide reasonable certainty that the individual has the identity claimed. Satisfactory evidence has two routes: identification by a passport, driver’s license, or government-issued nondriver identification card that is current or expired not more than one year before performance of the notarial act, or by another form of government identification, current or expired not more than one year, that contains the individual’s signature or a photograph of the individual’s face and is satisfactory to the officer; or the verification on oath or affirmation of a credible witness personally appearing before the officer, who is known to the officer or whom the officer can identify on the first route’s documents. The officer may require additional information or identification credentials. The one-year expiry window on identification documents is the detail candidates most often misstate — it is Colorado’s figure, not the three-year figure some other states publish, and the two are never merged on this page. The credible-witness route is worked in the Handbook’s Appendix B, including a sample credible witness statement.
Certificates, the official stamp, and the stamping device — C.R.S. §§ 24-21-515 to 24-21-518; Handbook, “Notarial Certificate or Notarization,” “Official Stamp,” and “Official Signature”
A certificate of a notarial act is sufficient if it meets the certificate requirements and is in one of the statutory short forms at C.R.S. § 24-21-516 — acknowledgment in an individual capacity, acknowledgment in a representative capacity, verification on oath or affirmation, witnessing or attesting a signature, and certifying a copy of a record — or in another form Colorado law, or the law of the jurisdiction of performance, permits, or sets forth the officer’s actions sufficiently. By executing a certificate, the officer certifies compliance with the determination requirements; the officer shall not sign the certificate until the notarial act has been performed; and for a tangible record the certificate must be part of, or securely attached to, the record, and for an electronic record affixed to, or logically associated with, it (§ 24-21-515). The official stamp must be rectangular and contain only the outline of the seal and, printed within it, the notary’s name as it appears on the certificate of commission, the notary’s identification number, the notary’s commission expiration date, the words “STATE OF COLORADO,” and the words “NOTARY PUBLIC” — and it must be capable of being copied together with the record; a notary shall not provide, keep, or use a seal embosser (§ 24-21-517). The Secretary of State’s stamps FAQ states the working rule: the stamp must be clearly applied under or near the official signature on every notary certificate. The stamping device is the notary’s own responsibility: the notary is responsible for its security and may not allow another individual to use it; on resignation, revocation, or expiration the device must be disabled so it is unusable; and a lost or stolen device is reported to the Secretary of State in writing within thirty days of discovery (§ 24-21-518).
The journal — C.R.S. § 24-21-519; 8 CCR 1505-11, Rule 4; Handbook, “Notary Journal”
Colorado requires the journal; it is not a recommendation. A notary public shall maintain a journal chronicling all notarial acts performed, and shall retain it for ten years after the performance of the last notarial act chronicled in it. An entry is made contemporaneously with the act and contains seven items: the date and time of the act; a description of the record, if any, and the type of act; the full name and address of each individual for whom the act is performed; the signature or electronic signature of each such individual; a statement if identity is based on personal knowledge; if identity is based on satisfactory evidence, a brief description of the identification method and the type of credential presented, if any; and the fee, if any, charged. A tangible journal is a permanent, bound register with numbered pages; an electronic journal is in a permanent, tamper-evident format complying with the Secretary of State’s rules. The journal stays in a secure area under the notary’s exclusive control; the Secretary of State may audit or inspect it without restriction and the notary shall surrender it on written request; a certified peace officer acting in an official investigation may inspect it without restriction; and on written request from a member of the public identifying the parties, the document type, and the month and year, the notary may supply a certified copy of the line item. Loss or theft is reported to the Secretary of State in writing within thirty days. At the end of a commission the notary retains the journal and informs the Secretary of State where it is located, or transmits it to the State Archives, or leaves it with the notary’s firm or employer in the regular course of business with the written notice the statute requires — the journal rule at 8 CCR 1505-11, Rule 4 works the employer-possession duties — and the statute’s one alternative, at § 24-21-519(10)(c), allows the firm-or-employer document file to stand in place of a journal where it contains all the required information and is retained in the regular course of business. The Secretary of State’s stamps and journals FAQ states that alternative and still recommends the journal as best practice.
Refusal, prohibitions, and discipline — C.R.S. §§ 24-21-508, 24-21-523, 24-21-525; Handbook, “What Does the Notary Law Prohibit?” and “Consequences of Violating the Notary Law”
A notarial officer may refuse to perform a notarial act if not satisfied that the individual executing the record is competent or has the capacity to execute it, or that the individual’s signature is knowingly and voluntarily made — and may refuse, more generally, unless refusal is prohibited by a law other than RULONA itself (§ 24-21-508). The prohibited-acts section is the office’s ethics code in list form: a commission does not authorize assisting persons in drafting legal records, giving legal advice, or otherwise practicing law; acting as an immigration consultant or expert; representing a person in an immigration proceeding; or receiving compensation for any of those; a notary shall not engage in false or deceptive advertising; a notary other than an attorney licensed to practice law in Colorado shall not use the term “notario” or “notario publico,” and shall carry the prescribed “I am not an attorney licensed to practice law in the State of Colorado” statement, in each language used, in any advertisement of notarial services; a notary shall not withhold access to or possession of an original record provided by a person seeking a notarial act; and a notary shall not perform any notarial act with respect to a record that is blank or contains unfilled blanks in its text (§ 24-21-525). The discipline section, § 24-21-523, lists eleven grounds on which the Secretary of State may deny, refuse to renew, revoke, suspend, or condition a commission — from failure to comply with RULONA and material misstatement in the application, through the conviction grounds, failure to discharge any duty, false or misleading advertising, violation of a Secretary of State rule, another state’s adverse notary action, a court finding of unauthorized practice of law, and performing a notarial act while not currently commissioned — with investigation on a signed complaint, timely notice and hearing under the State Administrative Procedure Act, nondisciplinary action including a letter of admonition where a proceeding is not warranted, and the rule that a person whose commission has been revoked may not apply for or receive a commission. The rules add a training consequence: the Secretary of State may require a notary who has committed misconduct meriting a disciplinary proceeding to retake and successfully complete the training and exam (8 CCR 1505-11, Rule 2.1.6).
Fees, kept in their two schedules — C.R.S. § 24-21-529 as currently administered; 8 CCR 1505-11, Rule 2.4; Handbook, “Fees”
Candidates conflate the State’s charges with the notary’s charges, and Colorado publishes them in different places for a reason. The State’s charges are the commissioning charges in the table above: $10.00 to apply, $10.00 to renew, the Secretary of State’s training and examination free. The notary’s charges are the per-act maxima in the Secretary of State’s General FAQs: the maximum fee allowed for a notarization is $15 per document, including receiving evidence of the signer’s identity, administering an oath or affirmation if applicable, and applying the signature, certificate, and stamp; the maximum fee for an electronic notarization or a remote notarization is $25; and charges for other services should be itemized separately. The current Notary Program Rules add the itemization duty that gives that schedule its working form (Rule 2.4): a notary who charges for a notarial act, or for any additional service provided at the time of the act, must inform the customer of the charges before performing the act and provide a written document listing the specific fee or fees charged — which may be a closing statement, itemized invoice, receipt, transaction summary, or similar document — and a notary who fails to provide that itemization faces the rule’s presumption that the amount charged exceeded the statutory fee limit in C.R.S. § 24-21-529. The itemization rules do not apply to acts performed by an employee of a title company as part of title insurance or closing and settlement services (Rule 2.4.3).
The route, in order
Step 1 — Confirm the qualifications, including the examination qualification
The threshold is C.R.S. § 24-21-521(3): at least 18 years of age; a citizen or permanent legal resident of the United States or otherwise lawfully present in the United States — the Secretary of State verifies lawful presence for each applicant (§ 24-21-521(4)); a resident of Colorado or having a place of employment or practice in Colorado; able to read and write English; not disqualified under § 24-21-523; and having passed the examination required under § 24-21-522(1). The disqualification grounds the Applying and Renewing FAQs name are the conviction grounds: never convicted of a felony; not convicted of a misdemeanor involving dishonesty in the past five years — the rules define that phrase to include fraud, dishonesty, bribery, perjury, larceny, theft, robbery, extortion, forgery, counterfeiting, embezzlement, and misappropriation (8 CCR 1505-11, Rule 1.8); and never having had a notary commission revoked. No attorney exemption from the training or the examination appears in the statute, the rules, or the Secretary of State’s pages read for this route: the examination qualification at § 24-21-521(3)(f) is written for an applicant, without a professional carve-out, and the attorney references elsewhere in RULONA concern only the “notario” and advertising rules at § 24-21-525.
Step 2 — Complete approved training, inside the 90-day window
No more than 90 days before applying, a new applicant must successfully complete training (8 CCR 1505-11, Rule 2.1.3), and credit is granted only for courses offered by an approved vendor, an approved course provider, or the Secretary of State (Rule 2.1.5). There are two ways to get the training certificate, in the Secretary of State’s own framing: the Secretary of State’s free online training through its eLearning system, or an approved vendor — the Secretary of State publishes the vendor list, with approval numbers, course formats, and the statement that it does not endorse or recommend any approved vendor. The statute’s architecture governs what the training is: the Secretary of State or an approved entity offers the course of study regularly, the course covers the laws, rules, procedures, and ethics relevant to notarial acts, and a contractor may charge a fee for its training program (C.R.S. § 24-21-522(2)) — the Secretary of State’s own online training charges none. Completion means a certificate: a certificate of successful completion expires 90 days from the date of issuance and must carry the statement that it is valid for a period of 90 days from that date (Rules 3.3.2–3.3.3), and the Secretary of State’s checklist requires a training certificate from a state-approved trainer issued within the last 90 days, showing the vendor’s name, the student’s name, the course name, the date of completion, the 90-day validity note, and, for vendor training, the accreditation seal.
Step 3 — Pass the Secretary of State’s open-book examination, inside the same window
The examination is the second half of the same package and the same 90 days: Rule 2.1.3 requires the new applicant to complete training and pass the exam administered by the Secretary of State within that window. The Secretary of State’s examination page states its published character completely. The test is the State of Colorado online notary exam; it tests familiarity with Colorado Notary Law and the procedures and guidelines covered in the required training; it should take about 30 minutes to complete; and it is an “open book” test — notes and the Handbook may be used. It is taken through the Secretary of State’s eLearning portal: create or use an account, select the “Colorado Notary Public Examination – RULONA” under Notary Training, and launch the test; after passing, the certificate is printed from the completion page — and it is the certificate, showing that the candidate passed, that the application accepts. The checklist’s two warnings belong to this step: the exam certificate must be issued by the Secretary of State’s office within the last 90 days, and applicants must not attach printouts of the exam questions. No question count, time limit, attempt limit, or numerical passing score is published in the statute, the rules, the examination page, the FAQs, or the Handbook, and this program states none: what is published is the examination’s basis — the four sources at Rule 2.1.7 — and its open-book, online form inside the Secretary of State’s own system.
Step 4 — Take the affirmation, and read the notary law the affirmation names
Before issuance of a commission, the applicant takes the affirmation at C.R.S. § 24-21-521(5) in the presence of a person qualified to administer an affirmation in this state: the applicant solemnly affirms, under the penalty of perjury in the second degree, that they have carefully read the notary law of this state and, if appointed and commissioned, will faithfully perform, to the best of their ability, all notarial acts in conformance with the law. The Secretary of State’s New Notary Commission page makes reading the current notary law — Title 24, Article 21, Part 5 — its own step in the route, and the checklist disciplines the form: signed by the applicant in front of a notary, with no blank or unfilled spaces, the applicant’s name exactly matching the identification, and the notarizing notary using “Notary public” as their title. The affirmation is therefore not a signature formality: its text is a sworn statement that the law the examination tests has been read, which is one more reason the training, the examination, and the affirmation belong to one package.
Step 5 — Apply online, with the four uploads and the $10.00 Colorado fee
All notary filings go through the Secretary of State’s online electronic filing system (8 CCR 1505-11, Rule 2.1.2), with the application in the applicant’s legal name exactly as it appears on the government-issued identification (Rule 2.1.1). The Applying and Renewing FAQs list the filing: the Affirmation form signed and notarized; both sides of acceptable identification; the notary training certificate; the notary exam certificate; and, for a non-U.S. citizen, both sides of the permanent resident card or visa. The $10.00 application fee is paid online by credit or debit card. The application should be processed within three to five business days, and approval arrives by email with the notary ID: a notary may start notarizing when the approval email arrives, then logs in to print the Notary Commission Certificate and obtains an official stamp and a journal. A rejected application carries its own clock: it must be corrected and approved within 90 days of payment, or the applicant starts over and pays again. The FAQs also name the common rejection reasons, and they are filing failures, not knowledge failures — the applicant’s name not matching the identification, identification that is not current, exam questions attached instead of the exam certificate, a blank affirmation, the wrong affirmation (the remote notary affirmation is a different form), a non-compliant stamp on the affirmation, the wrong title used by the notarizing notary, and blanks left on the affirmation.
Step 6 — Hold the four-year term, and renew on fresh training and a fresh examination
The commission runs four years from the date the notary is approved. The term’s working duties are the practice sections above: the certificate and rectangular stamp on every act, the journal with its seven contemporaneous entries and its ten-year retention, the identification determinations, the refusal criteria, and the change filings — the statute requires notice to the Secretary of State within thirty days after a change of name, business address, or residential address, with a sample of the handwritten official signature on a name change (C.R.S. § 24-21-530), and the FAQs apply the same thirty-day discipline to signature and telephone changes. Renewal is not a paperwork-only event in Colorado: a notary may renew up to 90 days before the commission expires, and no more than 90 days before renewing the notary must successfully complete the renewal training and pass the exam administered by the Secretary of State (Rule 2.1.4), filing online with a fresh notarized affirmation, identification, training certificate, and exam certificate at the same $10.00 fee. The Secretary of State’s position on an expired commission is stated plainly in its FAQs: file a renewal, with the same fresh certificates, at the same fee as a new commission — and do not apply as a new notary if you have been a notary in Colorado before. Two registrations sit on top of the base commission as separate layers, each with its own training and examination, and neither is part of this package’s gate: electronic notarization, which requires a notice of intent and the Secretary of State’s approval before a notary may electronically notarize (Rule 2.2), and remote notarization, which only a currently commissioned Colorado notary with Active status may register for, after first taking the Secretary of State’s separate remote notary training and exam (Notary Handbook, “Remote Notarization”; remote notary application fee $10.00 on the Secretary of State’s fee schedule).
What makes this gate demanding
The demand is not a published pass mark — the Secretary of State publishes none in the sources for this requirement — and it is not a test-center sitting, because Colorado does not structure the gate that way. The demand is compression and closure. Compression: training, examination, affirmation, and application must all land inside one 90-day window that the current rules state three ways — the application rule (no more than 90 days before applying or renewing), the certificate rule (a training certificate expires 90 days from issuance), and the checklist rule (both certificates issued within the last 90 days) — so a candidate who trains in one season and applies in another has not made progress; they have made a second start. Closure: the examination is closed onto a published syllabus of four sources — RULONA, the titles and interests article, the initiative and referendum article, and the Official Notary Handbook — and the course that precedes it covers the same ground, so course and examination are one body of law encountered twice, the second time as a test. That body of law is detailed at the points where practice fails: the one-year expiry window on identification documents, the seven journal entries made contemporaneously and the ten-year retention, the thirty-day clocks for a lost stamp or journal and for name and address changes, the rectangular stamp’s five contents and nothing else, the prohibition on notarizing a blank record, and the exact wording of the advertising disclaimer. The open-book form changes the skill being tested rather than removing it: with the Handbook and notes beside them, the candidate’s task is to find and apply the right rule accurately and quickly — the examination page’s own guidance is that the test should take about 30 minutes — which rewards a candidate who knows where the law lives and punishes one who must learn its organisation during the sitting. Around the package sit two administrative disciplines that end candidacies without testing knowledge at all: certificates, not recollection, are what the application accepts; and the affirmation’s sworn statement that the applicant has carefully read the notary law is itself part of the filing.
The credential at work
The Colorado commission is held across the state’s real estate closings, lending and title counters, law offices, banks, healthcare and government offices, and the petition and recording paperwork the initiative and referendum article represents — anywhere a signature must be acknowledged, sworn, verified, or witnessed before a commissioned public official rather than a party to the transaction. It is a four-year, statewide public appointment, verifiable in the Secretary of State’s electronic database, and it carries the modern layers the Handbook governs: electronic notarization of electronic records with a Document Authentication Number as the notary’s electronic signature, and remote notarization by real-time audio-video communication for a notary located in Colorado — each a separate approval or registration on top of the base commission, not part of the initial gate. The journal, the stamp, and the certificate discipline that the training and examination test are the daily instruments of that work, which is why the gate is built from RULONA and the Handbook rather than from general notary lore.
What the PassProfessor program will cover
Preparation built on the package as Colorado structures it. This gate is approved training and the Secretary of State’s own open-book examination, drawn from a published four-source syllabus — and the program in the works prepares in that shape: study and practice organised by the Handbook’s sections and the rule’s syllabus, in the order the law presents them, from the definitions and qualifications through the acts and their checklists, identification, certificates and the stamp, the journal, refusal, prohibitions, discipline, and fees. Because the examination is open-book, practice is built for the skill the sitting actually tests: locating the governing rule in RULONA, the rules, or the Handbook and applying it to a described act, at the pace the Secretary of State’s own guidance describes.
Written from the primary sources. The program is written from the Secretary of State’s own publications — the Notary Handbook (revised April 24, 2024), the Notary Public Examination and Training pages, the Applying and Renewing and General FAQs, the application checklists, and the fee schedule — and from the governing law: RULONA at C.R.S. § 24-21-501 et seq. and the Notary Program Rules at 8 CCR 1505-11 in their current text. Where a figure in circulation cannot be verified in those sources — a question count, an attempt limit, a numerical passing score — the program prints none and says so, because the Secretary of State’s published position is the position that governs a candidate’s filing.
The whole candidate, not only the test-taker. Around the practice, the program carries the route as the Secretary of State publishes it — the qualifications and the conviction grounds, the 90-day window stated in its three forms, the two certificate routes (the Secretary of State’s free eLearning training and examination, or an approved vendor’s training with the Secretary of State’s examination), the affirmation signed before a notary with no blanks, the online application and its $10.00 Colorado fee, the three-to-five-business-day processing guidance, the rejection-correction clock, and the renewal rule that requires fresh training and a fresh examination every four years — because on this route the sequence and filing failures are as final as a failed examination.
Preparation only — and distinct from the state training. This is preparation for a training-and-examination requirement administered by the Colorado Secretary of State. PassProfessor is not affiliated with the Secretary of State, is NOT a Secretary of State–approved notary training vendor or course provider, and completing this program does not satisfy Colorado’s training requirement, is not reported to the Secretary of State or to any approved vendor, and does not substitute for the approved training, the Secretary of State’s examination, the affirmation, or the application.
Tell me when enrollment opens. The Colorado Notary Public program is in the works and enrollment is not yet open. Leave an email address and PassProfessor will write to you when the program is ready — and only about this program.
Frequently asked questions
Who commissions a Colorado notary public?
The Colorado Secretary of State. RULONA defines a notary public as an individual commissioned to perform a notarial act by the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of State’s Notary Program administers the commission under C.R.S. § 24-21-501 et seq. and the Notary Program Rules at 8 CCR 1505-11.
What exactly must a first-time applicant complete before the commission can issue?
Approved training and a pass on the Secretary of State’s examination, both inside the governing window: no more than 90 days before applying, a new applicant must successfully complete training and pass the exam administered by the Secretary of State (8 CCR 1505-11, Rule 2.1.3), with training credit only from an approved vendor, an approved course provider, or the Secretary of State. The applicant must also meet the qualifications at C.R.S. § 24-21-521(3) — which include having passed the examination — take the statutory affirmation before issuance, and file the online application with the training certificate, the exam certificate, acceptable identification, and the notarized affirmation.
How long do I have between training and applying?
Ninety days, stated three ways in the current official materials. The rule: no more than 90 days before applying (Rule 2.1.3). The certificate: a certificate of successful completion of an approved course of instruction expires 90 days from the date of issuance (Rule 3.3.2). The checklist: the training certificate and the exam certificate must each have been issued within the last 90 days when the application is filed. A six-month figure appears in superseded versions of the Notary Program Rules and is not the current rule.
What is the passing score on the examination?
No numerical passing score is published in the official sources for this requirement — RULONA, the Notary Program Rules, the Secretary of State’s examination page and FAQs, and the Notary Handbook state none — and this page prints none. What those sources publish is the examination’s form and basis: an online, open-book test administered by the Secretary of State, based on the course of study and testing the applicant’s understanding of notary duties in RULONA, Title 38, Article 30, Title 1, Article 40, and the Official Notary Handbook. Figures published by unofficial sources are not the Secretary of State’s published standard and are not used here.
How many questions are on the examination, and how long does it take?
No question count is published in the official sources read, and none is stated here. The Secretary of State’s examination page states that the test should take about 30 minutes to complete, that it tests familiarity with Colorado Notary Law and the procedures and guidelines covered in the required training, and that it is an open-book test on which notes and the Handbook may be used.
Is the examination really open-book? What does that change?
Yes — the Notary Program Rules describe the Secretary of State’s open book examination (Rule 2.1.7), and the examination page confirms that notes and the Handbook may be used during the test. What it changes is the skill tested: not memorisation of the Handbook, but command of it — knowing which rule governs a described act, finding it, and applying it accurately at the pace the Secretary of State’s own guidance describes.
What does the State charge?
The Secretary of State’s online training and examination are free. The Colorado application fee is $10.00, and renewal is $10.00, on the Secretary of State’s Notary Public Fee Schedule; a change of record and a duplicate certificate are free. Training taken from an approved vendor carries that provider’s own charges, which the Secretary of State’s sources read do not publish — the statute provides that a contractor may charge a fee for its training program. The remote notary application, for commissioned notaries who later register for that separate layer, is also $10.00.
Is a bond required?
No. The Secretary of State’s General FAQs state that a notary does not have to be bonded in Colorado. A bond is described there as a layer of protection a notary may want to consider, with errors and omissions insurance as another option — neither is a commissioning requirement, and no bond figure is part of this route.
I am an attorney. Am I exempt from the training or the examination?
No exemption appears in the official sources read. The qualifications at C.R.S. § 24-21-521(3) — including having passed the examination required under § 24-21-522(1) — are written for an applicant generally, and neither the examination statute nor the Notary Program Rules states an attorney carve-out from training or testing. The attorney references in RULONA concern the “notario” and advertising rules at § 24-21-525, which except attorneys licensed in Colorado from those specific prohibitions; they are not examination relief.
How long is the commission, and how does renewal work?
Four years from the date the notary is approved. Renewal may be filed up to 90 days before expiration, and it repeats the gate rather than waiving it: no more than 90 days before renewing, the notary must successfully complete the renewal training and pass the exam administered by the Secretary of State (Rule 2.1.4), then file online with a fresh notarized affirmation, identification, training certificate, and exam certificate at the $10.00 renewal fee. An expired commission is handled the same way, as a renewal filing — the Secretary of State directs anyone who has been a Colorado notary before not to apply as a new notary.
Must a Colorado notary keep a journal?
Yes. A notary public shall maintain a journal chronicling all notarial acts performed, with entries made contemporaneously containing the seven items C.R.S. § 24-21-519(3) lists, retained for ten years after the last act chronicled in it. The statute’s single alternative is the firm-or-employer document file at § 24-21-519(10)(c), where the employer’s retained record contains all the required information — and the Secretary of State’s FAQ, while stating that alternative, recommends recording every notarization in a journal as best practice.
What may a commissioned notary charge for an act?
The Secretary of State’s published maxima: $15 per document for a notarization, including receiving evidence of the signer’s identity, administering an oath or affirmation if applicable, and applying the signature, certificate, and stamp; and $25 for an electronic notarization or a remote notarization. Charges for other services should be itemized separately — and the Notary Program Rules (Rule 2.4) require a notary who charges to inform the customer before the act and provide a written itemization of the fees charged.
May a Colorado notary notarize for a relative, or on a record the notary has an interest in?
Not where the interest is disqualifying. A notarial officer shall not perform a notarial act on a record in which the officer has a disqualifying interest — the officer or the officer’s spouse, partner in a civil union, ancestor, descendant, or sibling is a party to or named in the record, or the officer or the officer’s spouse or civil union partner may receive a benefit beyond the proper fee as a proximate result of the notarization. An act performed in violation is voidable (C.R.S. § 24-21-504).
Is PassProfessor affiliated with the Secretary of State, or an approved training vendor?
No on both points. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the Colorado Secretary of State, and it is not a Secretary of State–approved notary training vendor or course provider. The program confers no commission, satisfies no training requirement, and reports nothing to the State.