The New York Notary Public examination is the written examination of the New York State Department of State, Division of Licensing Services, that most applicants must pass before the Secretary of State can commission them as a notary public. It is a multiple-choice examination with one hour allowed, drawn from license law and the duties and functions of a notary public as outlined in the Department’s official Notary Public License Law booklet. The Department reports every result as passed or failed only — it publishes no numerical passing score and no question count — a passing result is valid for two years, and the New York State examination fee is $15.
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What this commission is
A New York notary public is a public officer commissioned by the Secretary of State, through the Department of State’s Division of Licensing Services, with jurisdiction co-extensive with the boundaries of the state: once commissioned, a notary may act anywhere in New York, not only in the county of residence where the commission is filed. Administering oaths and affirmations, taking affidavits, and receiving and certifying acknowledgments and proofs of instruments such as deeds, mortgages, and powers of attorney are the office’s daily work. It is a regulated office: a notary who is not a lawyer may not practise law, fees for the core acts are fixed by law at $2.00, and since January 25, 2023 every notary — including one who performs only traditional in-person acts — must keep a journal of all notarial acts and retain it for 10 years.
New York’s gate to that office is unusual, and this page states it at the top because so much third-party material gets it wrong: the examination is a pure pass/fail gate with a single published source. There is no education course to complete first. There is no published blueprint with topic weights to game. And there is no published score to aim at: the Department’s own instructions state that all results are reported as either passed or failed and that you will not get a numerical score. What there is, is a book: the Notary Public License Law booklet, from which the examination’s topics are drawn. Preparation is therefore a defined task — master the booklet, in full, to a standard you cannot measure against a published cut line. The companion New York Notary Public Exam Guide sets out its contents, the route, and the sitting in detail.
The examination at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Examination | New York Notary Public written examination — New York State Department of State, Division of Licensing Services |
| Commission | Notary public, commissioned by the Secretary of State; jurisdiction co-extensive with the boundaries of New York State; notaries are commissioned in their counties of residence |
| Format | Multiple choice. The Department of State does not publish a question count for this examination, and this page prints none |
| Length | 1 hour to complete the examination; the allotted time begins at the conclusion of the instructions |
| Content | License law, general terms, and information related to the duties and functions of a notary public, as outlined in the Notary Public License Law booklet. The Department publishes no topic weights |
| Scoring | All results are reported as either passed or failed; candidates do not receive a numerical score. The Department publishes no numerical passing score, and this page prints none |
| Examination fee | New York State fee: $15, charged by the Department of State — check or money order payable to the Department of State, or MasterCard or Visa; cash is not accepted; non-refundable, with a $20 returned-check fee |
| Result validity | Examination results are valid for a period of two years only |
| Languages | Offered in Spanish, Haitian-Creole, Italian, Korean, Russian, and Chinese; notify an exam proctor on reporting if you wish to take it in one of these languages |
| Identification | A current, government-issued, photo-bearing signature identification from the Department’s published list (driver’s license, state-issued identification, military ID, United States passport, and the other listed forms) |
| What else to bring | Two #2 pencils — not provided at the exam site. Arrive at least 15 minutes before the start time |
| Exemption | A current member of the New York State Bar, or a Unified Court System court clerk appointed after taking a Civil Service promotional examination in the court clerk series of titles, may be appointed without an examination — but not without the application fee |
| Administrator | New York State Department of State, Division of Licensing Services. PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with the Department of State |
What the examination covers
The Department describes the content in one sentence — license law, general terms, and information related to the duties and functions of a notary public, as outlined in the Notary Public License Law booklet — and publishes no finer breakdown and no weights. The booklet is therefore the syllabus: a law book, not a textbook, containing the Executive Law provisions that govern the office, related provisions of other laws, the Department’s regulations, a professional-conduct section, and a definitions section. The areas below follow the booklet’s own organisation.
Appointment and qualifications
Executive Law sections 130 and 131 and their companions: who appoints and commissions notaries, the four-year term, residency and place-of-business rules, the oath and signature filing, application and reappointment procedures and fees, certificates of official character, and the disqualifications the booklet collects. Candidates skim this part most; appointment mechanics are exactly the settled, citable law a multiple-choice paper is built from.
Powers and duties
Executive Law sections 134 through 138 and 142-a, with section 135 at the centre: what a notary is authorised to do throughout the state — administer oaths and affirmations, take affidavits and depositions, receive and certify acknowledgments and proofs, and demand acceptance or payment of, and protest, bills of exchange — together with the position of notaries who are attorneys, fraud in office, the advertising rules, electronic notarization under section 135-c, notarial fees, and the required statement as to authority.
Acknowledgments and real property instruments
The Real Property Law provisions the booklet reprints — definitions, acknowledgments and proofs within the state, the requisites of acknowledgments, proof by subscribing witness, the certificate of acknowledgment or proof, and the uniform certificate forms — with special notes from banking, civil practice, domestic relations, and public officers law. Acknowledgment practice is where most working notaries spend most of their acts, and the treatment is correspondingly detailed.
Restrictions, violations, and professional conduct
The boundaries: the Judiciary Law provisions reserving the practice of law to attorneys, misconduct and removal from office, and the Penal Law provisions on forgery, issuing a false certificate, and official misconduct — alongside the professional-conduct guidance: the caution against executing an acknowledgment of a will’s execution, the condemnation of taking acknowledgments without the person’s actual personal appearance before the notary, proper oath administration, and the law-practice activities a non-lawyer notary may not engage in.
The Department’s regulations — Title 19 NYCRR, Part 182
Sections 182.1 through 182.11: definitions; requirements for notarial acts; additional requirements for electronic acts; satisfactory evidence of identity; credential analysis; identity proofing; communication technology; recordkeeping and reporting — the journal duty that since January 25, 2023 applies to every notary, with records kept for 10 years; applications, registrations, and renewals; and fees, including the $25.00 an electronic notary may charge per electronic act. This modern layer postdates much of the preparation material in circulation.
Definitions and general terms
The booklet’s definitions section supplies the vocabulary the examination’s “general terms” are drawn from — acknowledgment, jurat, attestation clause, and the rest of notarial practice’s named instruments and procedures. On a paper whose description expressly includes general terms, definitions are examinable content, not background reading.
The route, in order
Step 1 — Confirm you must take the examination, and that you are eligible
Most applicants must pass the examination before applying. Two groups may be appointed without it, in the Department’s exact scope: a current member of the New York State Bar, and a Unified Court System court clerk appointed after taking a Civil Service promotional examination in the court clerk series of titles. Neither group is exempt from the application fee, and no education course is required of anyone. Eligibility, as the Department’s frequently asked questions state it: at the time of appointment, a citizen or permanent resident alien of the United States who is either a resident of New York or has an office or place of business in New York State. The booklet adds the standard the Secretary must be satisfied of — good moral character, the equivalent of a common school education, and familiarity with the duties of a notary public — and the criminal-history position: generally, a person convicted of a felony cannot be appointed, and certain misdemeanors are disqualifying, though an executive pardon, a certificate of relief from disabilities, or a certificate of good conduct may allow consideration.
Step 2 — Study the booklet
The booklet is available from the Division of Licensing Services and is the examination’s stated source. Study it as law: the sections, the fee figures, the prescribed forms, and the prohibited conduct. The companion guide works through it part by part.
Step 3 — Sit the examination
Outside New York City, the examination is a walk-in event: no pre-registration, seats limited and first-come, first-served, dates and times subject to change, and late arrivals not admitted — check the Department’s website for the current schedule before travelling. New York City is different: sittings at 123 William Street are scheduled in advance by email request to the Exam Unit, and only candidates who receive the emailed confirmation are to report. Wherever you sit: bring current government-issued photo identification from the Department’s list, the $15 fee in an accepted form (no cash), and two #2 pencils; arrive at least 15 minutes early. Phones and other electronic devices must be turned off, and dictionaries, books, and other reference materials are not allowed — nor are visitors, guests, or children. The examination is multiple choice, one hour from the conclusion of the instructions.
Step 4 — Receive the result, and mind the two-year clock
Results are notified by mail, in the Department’s own form: passed or failed, with no numerical score. A passing result is valid for two years only — apply inside that window or the examination must be taken again. A candidate who fails may retake the examination on another date and time of their choice.
Step 5 — Apply for the commission
The application is made online through NY Business Express, after downloading, completing, and scanning the Oath of Office form for upload; the application includes an oath of office which must be sworn and notarized. The applicant selects the commission type (traditional notary or electronic notary) and pays the $60 New York State initial application fee, which is non-refundable. Notaries are commissioned in their counties of residence: after approval, the Secretary of State provides the commission record and the notary’s signature to the appropriate county clerk, who maintains that record for public verification of the official signature. An online applicant receives a printable identification card by email, showing name, address, county, and commission term. The term is four years; renewal carries the same $60 fee.
What makes this examination demanding
The demand is the absence of every signal candidates usually steer by. With no published passing score, no practice result can be measured for margin; the only rational response is to prepare the whole booklet. With no published question count and no topic weights, no weak area can be priced and skipped: appointment procedure, acknowledgment forms, fees, advertising limits, electronic notarization, and Penal Law consequences all sit in one short law book, and any of it can carry the sitting. The material is statutory text, where distinctions are exact — one fee figure against another, a duty stated as required against the same duty stated as permitted. And the sitting is a one-hour, no-materials event with a first-come seat outside the city: arrive late, under-identified, or without pencils and you do not sit at all.
The credential at work
The New York commission is one of the state’s most widely held public appointments, because the work it authorises sits inside transactions that cannot proceed without it: real estate closings, loan signings, powers of attorney, and affidavits. Employers in banking, law, real estate, healthcare, and government routinely require or reward it. The electronic notary commission extends the same office into remote online notarization under Executive Law section 135-c, built on the same License Law this examination tests.
What the PassProfessor program will cover
Practice in the examination’s own shape. The program in the works practises in the sitting’s shape: timed sets inside the real one hour, taken with no materials, drawn across the whole booklet rather than a weighted subset — because the Department publishes no weights, the program invents none.
Written from the primary source. The program is written from the Department’s own publications — the booklet, its examination instructions and schedules, and its notary frequently asked questions — and teaches the booklet in its own organisation. Where the Department does not publish a figure — a passing score, a question count — the program prints none and says so, rather than repeating the figures that circulate elsewhere.
The modern office, not the remembered one. The program covers the law as it now stands: the journal every notary has kept since January 25, 2023 and its 10-year retention, electronic notarization under section 135-c and the end of remote ink notarization after January 31, 2023, and the $2.00 traditional and $25.00 electronic fee positions.
The whole candidate, not only the test-taker. Around the practice, the program carries the route as the Department publishes it — the exemption in its exact scope, the walk-in and New York City scheduling systems, the identification list and exam-center policies, the two-year validity of a passing result, the Oath of Office and NY Business Express application, and the county clerk’s record — because on this route the administrative failures are as fatal as the knowledge failures.
Preparation only. This is preparation for an examination administered by the New York State Department of State. PassProfessor is not affiliated with the Department of State or the Division of Licensing Services, and nothing in the program substitutes for the examination, the application, or any commission requirement.
Tell me when enrollment opens. The New York 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
What is the passing score for the New York Notary Public examination?
The Department of State does not publish one. Its examination instructions state that all exam results are reported as either passed or failed and that you will not get a numerical score. Figures presented elsewhere as this examination’s passing score are not figures the Department publishes, and this page does not repeat them.
How many questions are on the examination?
The Department of State does not publish a question count. Its instructions describe the examination as multiple choice with one hour allowed, and that is the description this page uses.
What does the examination cost?
The New York State examination fee is $15, charged by the Department of State — check or money order payable to the Department of State, or MasterCard or Visa; cash is not accepted; the fee is non-refundable, with a $20 returned-check fee. The separate initial application fee for the commission is $60.
Do I need to take a course before the examination?
No. The Department’s published requirements contain no education course requirement: an application and fee, a passing examination result (unless you are within the published exemption), and the residency rule. Preparation is advisable; a mandated course is not part of the route.
Who is exempt from the examination?
An individual who is currently a member of the New York State Bar, or a court clerk of the Unified Court System appointed to that position after taking a Civil Service promotional examination in the court clerk series of titles. The exemption is from the examination only — the application fee still applies.
How do I get a seat — is there registration?
Outside New York City, no pre-registration: sittings are walk-in, first-come, first-served, and late arrivals are not admitted. In New York City, you schedule by email request to the Exam Unit and report only if you receive the emailed confirmation. Check the published schedule before travelling either way.
What must I bring?
Current government-issued photo identification from the Department’s list; the $15 fee in an accepted form (no cash); and two #2 pencils, which are not provided. Arrive at least 15 minutes early. Books, dictionaries, and other reference materials are not allowed at the exam center.
How long is a passing result good for?
Two years only — the commission application must be completed inside that window.
What happens if I fail?
You are notified by mail, and you may retake the examination on another date and time of your choice, under the same sitting rules.
In what languages is the examination offered?
Spanish, Haitian-Creole, Italian, Korean, Russian, and Chinese — notify an exam proctor when you report if you wish to take it in one of these languages.
Where do I apply after passing, and what does the county clerk do?
Online through NY Business Express (application DOS-0033), uploading a completed, scanned Oath of Office form and paying the $60 fee. After approval, the Secretary of State provides the commission record and your signature to the county clerk of your county of residence, who maintains that record so the public can verify your official signature.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with the Department of State?
No. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the New York State Department of State or its Division of Licensing Services. The program confers no commission and reports nothing to the Department.