The Maryland Notary Public commission is a four-year, statewide public appointment under Title 18 of the State Government Article: the Governor appoints and commissions notaries public on the approval the statute prescribes, and the Secretary of State administers the program through its Notary Division. Since October 1, 2021, an initial applicant must have completed the course of study and passed the examination offered under § 18-102 — a package delivered by providers authorized by the Secretary of State, in which the examination contains at least 20 questions in a multiple-choice format and the applicant must correctly answer at least 80 percent of the questions in order to be issued a Certificate of Passing. A renewal applicant completes the course of study; no renewal examination is imposed by the statute. This guide states the package, the route, and the standard exactly as the official sources publish them.
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The commission at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Commission | Notary public under Md. Code, State Government Article, Title 18; appointed and commissioned by the Governor on the approval prescribed by § 18-101; term of four years (§ 18-103(c)(1)); authority throughout Maryland, exercised while the notary is physically present in the State |
| Administering authority | Maryland Secretary of State, Notary Division — applications, the authorized-provider list, and program administration. PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with the Secretary of State, and is not an authorized course of study and examination provider |
| Governing materials | State Government Article, Title 18 (Subtitle 1, Notaries Public; Subtitle 2, Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts); COMAR Title 01, Subtitle 02, Chapter 08 (notary regulations, including Regulations .14–.16 on authorized providers and course and examination standards); the Handbook for Maryland Notaries Public issued by the Secretary of State |
| Qualifications | Section 18-102(a): at least 18 years old; of good moral character and integrity; a resident of the State or having a place of employment or practice in the State; for an initial applicant, completion of the course and a pass on the examination under § 18-102(b); for a renewal applicant, completion of the course; if living in the State, a resident of the senatorial district from which appointed; if living outside the State, a resident of a state that allows Maryland residents working in that state to serve as notaries public in that state |
| The initial gate (statutory package) | Course of study AND examination, both offered under § 18-102(b) and delivered by a Secretary of State–authorized provider (virtual or in-person, per COMAR 01.02.08.15C). The provider issues a Certificate of Completion for the course and a Certificate of Passing for the examination; electronic copies of both are submitted with the online application (Secretary of State, New Notary Applicant information) |
| Course content | COMAR 01.02.08.16A: the course of study shall include the Maryland Notary Public laws, regulations, ethics, procedures, and the Handbook for Maryland Notaries Public, and every topic shall be fully covered. No course hour count is published in the statute, COMAR, or the Secretary of State pages read, and none is printed here |
| Examination standard (COMAR, exact published form) | COMAR 01.02.08.16F: “The examination shall contain at least 20 questions that are clearly stated in a multiple-choice format, and each applicant must correctly answer at least 80 percent of the questions in order to be issued a Certificate of Passing under Regulation .15E of this chapter.” Each question contains four multiple-choice answers with only one correct answer (Regulation .16G); the provider maintains a bank of at least 50 different test questions (Regulation .16E); an electronic examination is administered on a secure operating system (Regulation .16H); the testing system provides immediate scoring notifying the applicant of passing or failure at the conclusion of the examination session (Regulation .16I). No examination time limit is published in those sources, and none is printed here |
| Retest | COMAR 01.02.08.15E: the provider shall give a Certificate of Passing to each applicant who scored at least 80 percent or better on the examination, and for applicants who score below 80 percent the provider shall provide an opportunity to retest; an applicant is qualified to retest if they completed the course of study but failed to score at least 80 percent. No attempt cap is published in the sources read |
| Application | Online, through the Secretary of State’s online application system, on forms prepared by the Secretary of State and sworn to by the applicant (§ 18-103(a)); a resident application bears or is accompanied by the written approval of a Senator representing the applicant’s senatorial district and subdistrict (or the Secretary of State’s written approval where approval authority has been delegated); an out-of-state application bears or is accompanied by the written approval of a Maryland State Senator |
| Application fee | Maryland fee: $25 application fee to the Secretary of State (Secretary of State, New Notary Applicant information; the fee changed to $25 effective January 22, 2024). The Handbook for Maryland Notaries Public is ordered from the Secretary of State for $30. Course and examination charges are the authorized provider’s own and are not published as a state fee in the sources read |
| Oath and clerk fees | Within 30 days after the Secretary of State’s notice of appointment, the notary qualifies before the clerk of the circuit court and pays the prescribed fees (§ 18-103(d)); the Secretary of State’s process states the clerk’s charges as $10.00 for the commission and $1.00 registration fee, separate from the application fee. Failure to qualify within the time required: the appointment and commission are revoked (§ 18-103(d)(5)) |
| Bond | No surety bond requirement appears in the commissioning provisions of Title 18 or in COMAR 01.02.08, in the sources read |
| Attorney position | No attorney exemption from the course or the examination appears in § 18-102, COMAR 01.02.08, or the Secretary of State pages read — the initial-applicant requirement runs to initial applicants as the statute states it, and no exemption is imported from another state |
| Renewal | Renewal applicants complete the course of study and submit the Certificate of Completion with the online renewal application (§ 18-102(a)(4)(ii); Secretary of State, Renewal Applicant information). The renewal period begins 60 days before expiration, and a commission may be renewed up to 30 days after its expiration date; after that point the applicant must re-apply for a new commission (Secretary of State, Notary FAQ). The oath is taken before the clerk of the circuit court on each new commission, within the same 30-day discipline |
A Maryland notary public is a public officer of the State, commissioned to perform notarial acts anywhere in Maryland — the Secretary of State’s guidance is explicit that a commissioned notary may notarize anywhere in the State regardless of the county of commission, and may act only while physically present in Maryland. The office sits inside a two-layer legal structure. The statute, Title 18 of the State Government Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland, governs appointment, qualifications, application, term, and discipline in its first subtitle, and carries the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts in its second. The regulations, COMAR Title 01, Subtitle 02, Chapter 08, govern the working detail the Secretary of State administers: the fees a notary may charge, the authorized course-of-study and examination providers, and the standards their courses and examinations must meet. The Secretary of State’s Handbook for Maryland Notaries Public is the program’s own text, and COMAR builds the mandated course and examination directly on it.
Reading the verified facts
Every fact in the table above is stated as the State states it in its own publications, because candidates for the Maryland package are ill-served by the approximations that circulate about it — and Maryland attracts a particular approximation, the standalone “state notary exam,” which the State does not run. Three reading disciplines govern this guide. First, the figures given are the State’s figures: the course scope, the examination floor and standard, the retest rule, and the fees are reproduced from the primary documents named in this file’s INTERNAL section, and where those documents do not publish a figure — an examination time limit, a course hour count, a topic weight, a certificate-validity period — this guide prints none rather than borrowing one from a provider’s delivery terms or a secondary summary. Second, one sentence on the Secretary of State’s own FAQ page conflicts with the statute on renewal, and this guide follows the statute and says so in its INTERNAL section rather than silently splitting the difference: § 18-102(a)(4)(ii) imposes the course alone on a renewal applicant, the renewal page requires the Certificate of Completion alone, and the guide teaches that position. Third, the companion PassProfessor program this guide accompanies is in the works and unbuilt: nothing in this guide describes a question bank, a course, or an enrollment that exists today, and PassProfessor is not an authorized provider — its preparation confers neither certificate the application requires.
The route, step by step
Step 1 — Confirm the qualifications, and order and review the Handbook
The threshold is § 18-102(a): at least 18 years old; of good moral character and integrity; a resident of Maryland or holding a place of employment or practice in Maryland; if living in Maryland, a resident of the senatorial district from which appointed; if living outside Maryland, a resident of a state that allows Maryland residents working in that state to serve as notaries public there. No category of applicant is excused from the initial package in the sources read — there is no attorney exemption in § 18-102, COMAR 01.02.08, or the Secretary of State’s pages — so every initial applicant plans for both the course and the examination. The Secretary of State’s first published step is the text itself: order the Handbook for Maryland Notaries Public ($30 from the Secretary of State) and review it. COMAR requires the provider’s instructions to tell the applicant how to access the current Handbook, because the course covers it and the examination is sourced from its sections.
Step 2 — Complete the course of study with an authorised provider
Choose a provider from the Secretary of State’s published list of authorised course of study and examination providers, effective October 1, 2021. COMAR sets what the provider must be and must do: an authorised provider meets the qualification criteria of Regulation .14, including at least three years’ demonstrated experience and knowledge in developing and administering a course of study and examination and demonstrated proficiency with Maryland notary law, regulations, ethics, policies and procedures, and the Handbook; it offers the course virtually or in person — virtual including a synchronous or asynchronous online course — accessibly to all Maryland applicants and renewal applicants; it builds its question bank within 45 days after authorisation; it keeps the course and examination current, updating them to reflect changes to the notary law, regulations, procedures, and ethics within 60 days of being notified of the changes by the Secretary of State’s Office; and for every applicant who completes the course of study, it gives a Certificate of Completion at the end of the course (Regulation .15). The certificate is a filing item: an electronic copy is submitted with the online application, so completion means the certificate in hand.
Step 3 — Pass the provider’s examination and receive the Certificate of Passing
The examination is the second half of the same provider package, built to Regulation .16: at least 20 questions, clearly stated in a multiple-choice format, each with four answers and only one correct, drawn from a provider bank of at least 50 different questions so that repeat applicants do not receive a statistically sufficient number of previously attempted questions, sourced from each Handbook section covering the laws, regulations, ethics, and procedures, with each question relevant to those requirements, and designed so each applicant receives a mix of questions of comparable difficulty to every other applicant. The passing standard is COMAR’s, in COMAR’s words: each applicant must correctly answer at least 80 percent of the questions in order to be issued a Certificate of Passing under Regulation .15E. Scoring is immediate — the testing system notifies the applicant of passing or failure at the conclusion of the examination session. An applicant who completed the course but scored below that standard is qualified to retest, and the provider shall provide an opportunity to retest. On a pass, the provider gives the Certificate of Passing, and its electronic copy joins the Certificate of Completion in the application that follows.
Step 4 — Apply online, with both certificates, your identification, and your Senator’s determination
The application is filed online through the Secretary of State’s system, on the Secretary of State’s forms and sworn to by the applicant, with the $25 Maryland application fee. The Secretary of State’s checklist of what an applicant needs is part of the route’s discipline: the legislative district of residence, found through the Maryland General Assembly’s lookup; a copy of a driver’s licence or other valid government-issued identification, with an MVA Change of Address Card where the address on the identification does not match the application; contact information for three references; and copies of the Certificate of Completion and the Certificate of Passing. The name on the commission must match the name on the government-issued photo identification — nicknames cannot be used — and the home address is required and verified, because a Maryland resident is commissioned in the county of residence; an applicant living outside Maryland but working in Maryland is commissioned in the county of employment or practice, selecting the county of most regular work and explaining the Maryland work where there is no physical Maryland work address. On submission, the Secretary of State receives the application the next business day and reviews it for completion and a valid home address; a background check follows, directed at whether convictions and civil judgments were accurately disclosed — the Secretary of State states plainly that an applicant who did not accurately report information about their criminal record will be denied. The determination to approve or deny is then made by the applicant’s State Senator, or by the Secretary of State where the Senator has delegated approval authority; where the Secretary of State determines, references are emailed directly and must respond before the application proceeds, while a determining Senator may contact references by mail, phone, or email. The Secretary of State publishes the new-application determination range on its applicant page, and its FAQ adds the practical pacing note: determinations the Secretary of State makes usually take two to three business days, while a Senator’s determination is the Senator’s own timetable — the published guidance is to check the application’s status at least once every two weeks where a Senator determines.
Step 5 — Qualify before the clerk of the circuit court within 30 days
Approval starts the route’s hardest clock. The approved applicant is notified by email and instructed to appear at the Clerk of the Circuit Court in the county of commission; within 30 days of that notification the notary takes the oath of office before the clerk and pays the clerk’s charges — $10.00 for the commission and $1.00 registration fee, separate from the application fee — as § 18-103(d) requires qualification within 30 days after the notice of appointment. The statute’s own fee text, § 18-103(e)(3), states the two clerk charges as $1 for qualifying and registering and $11 or a lesser amount as prescribed by the Secretary of State for the commission issued; the Secretary of State’s published $10.00 commission charge is that prescribed lesser amount, and the applicant-facing total is the $11 the Secretary of State’s FAQ states. The consequence of missing the window is stated without qualification in both the statute and the Secretary of State’s process: the appointment and commission of a notary who fails to qualify and pay the fees within the time required are revoked, the clerk returns a revoked commission to the Secretary of State with a certification of the failure, and an applicant whose commission is revoked for failure to appear must reapply with a new application and another application fee — subject only to the statute’s provision that the Secretary of State may reinstate an appointment and commission for good cause shown. After the clerk swears the notary in, the commission is delivered by email, and the holder is an official Notary Public for the State of Maryland. Maryland issues no commission number: a notary is identified by name, county of commission, and expiration date, and that identification trio is what the stamp and the search records carry.
Step 6 — Hold the four-year term, and renew on the course of study
The commission runs four years, statewide, under a staggered system for expiration and renewal that the Secretary of State adopts by regulation (§ 18-103(c)(2)), with the term’s working duties as the course taught them: a certificate on every act, the contemporaneous journal with its prescribed entries and ten-year retention, the stamp discipline, the COMAR fee limits, and the duty to keep current email, street address, and business phone number with the Secretary of State, whose program has been paperless — all applications and communications electronic — since January 1, 2021. Renewal opens 60 days before expiration and remains available up to 30 days after the expiration date; beyond that point, a new commission application is required. The renewal education item is the course of study alone: the renewal applicant completes the course with an authorised provider, receives the Certificate of Completion, and submits its electronic copy with the online renewal application and the $25 fee; the determination on a renewal is made by the Secretary of State, and the oath before the clerk of the circuit court — taken on every new commission — inside the same 30-day discipline and for the same clerk’s charges, begins the new term. No renewal examination is imposed by § 18-102(a)(4)(ii), and none is described on the Secretary of State’s renewal page.
The examinable scope in full
COMAR publishes no topic weights for the examination, and this guide prints none. What COMAR publishes is the examinable scope and the sourcing rule, and both are exact. The course of study shall include the Maryland Notary Public laws, regulations, ethics, procedures, and the Handbook for Maryland Notaries Public, and every topic shall be fully covered so each participant can comply with those requirements (Regulation .16A). The examination’s design must offer each applicant a mix of questions of comparable difficulty, sourced from each of the Handbook’s sections covering the laws, regulations, ethics, and procedures (Regulation .16B), and each question must be relevant to the requirements of the Maryland notary public laws, regulations, ethics, procedures, and/or the Handbook (Regulation .16D). The provider’s instructions must themselves be comprehensive — explaining the education requirements, how to apply for examinations, when examinations are given, the cost of the course and examination, and the passing requirements, and notifying the applicant how to access the current Handbook (Regulation .16C). The areas below work that scope in the order a candidate meets it, naming the Handbook’s parts where the Secretary of State’s own FAQ names them.
The office and the commission: Title 18, Subtitle 1
The opening ground is the commission itself: who may hold it, and on what terms. The qualifications in § 18-102(a) — age, character and integrity, the residence-or-employment connection, the senatorial-district residence rule for an applicant living in the State, and the reciprocal-residence rule for an applicant living outside it — are examinable law, not application trivia, because the course covers the laws that govern the office and the application tests them in operation. Around the qualifications sit the appointment mechanics of § 18-101, the application, term, renewal, and revocation provisions of § 18-103, and the discipline standard of § 18-104 as the Secretary of State states it: on behalf of the Governor, the Secretary of State may deny, refuse to renew, revoke, suspend, or impose conditions on a commission for any act or omission demonstrating that the individual lacks the honesty, integrity, competence, or reliability to act as a notary public — including failure to comply with Title 18 or its regulations; a fraudulent, dishonest, or deceitful misstatement or omission in the application; a conviction of a felony or of a crime involving fraud, dishonesty, or deceit; a finding against, or an admission of liability in, a proceeding or disciplinary action based on fraud, dishonesty, or deceit; failure to discharge any duty required of a notary public; use of false or misleading advertising or representation that the notary holds a duty, right, or privilege the notary does not hold; and denial, refusal to renew, revocation, suspension, or imposition of conditions by another state. In the guide this area is taught as the commission’s constitution: each qualification is presented with the application item that evidences it and the discipline ground that mirrors it, so the candidate learns the office as one structure rather than as a checklist followed by a penalty list.
Identification, competence, and refusal — Handbook Part IV
The Secretary of State’s FAQ directs candidates to Part IV of the Handbook for proper identification, competency and awareness, and duress, and those three subjects are the examination’s judgement core. A Maryland notary is an officer of the State who should notarize for anyone who makes a lawful request unless the notary determines the person lacks competency or awareness or is under duress; the most frequent reasons to deny a notarization, as the Secretary of State publishes them, are that the signer cannot be satisfactorily identified, does not appear competent or aware, or is under duress — and a notary may also refuse where the notarization would result in an illegal or improper act or where the notary knows the transaction is fraudulent. Identification itself is recorded, not merely performed: the journal entry for each act must state whether identity rested on personal knowledge, and, where it rested on satisfactory evidence, must briefly describe the method of identification and the credential presented, including its issuance and expiration dates and its identification number. The guide teaches this area as a single decision chain — appear, identify, judge competence and voluntariness, act or refuse, record — and drills the chain at its failure points: the credential that does not match, the signer whose awareness is in doubt, the request whose purpose is improper, because those are the situations the Handbook’s part exists to govern and the examination’s scenario items are built from them.
Certificates and the acts themselves — Handbook Parts VII and VIII
Since October 1, 2020, Maryland law requires a certificate for each and every notarial act, with a different type of notarial certificate for each type of act; where the record carries no certificate, the notarial officer must affix one by securely attaching it to the record, and the candidate must know what is being asked in order to affix the correct certificate. The Secretary of State’s guidance draws the boundary of the notary’s hand with equal clarity: a notary is not authorised to review a personal document for accuracy and completeness and should not be editing or completing a document on a signer’s behalf — the only part of a document the notary completes is the notarial certificate explaining the notary’s action — while correcting an error in the state and county on a pre-printed certificate is acceptable, the certificate always listing Maryland as the state and the county where the notary is located at the time of the notarization, not the county of commission unless the two coincide. Part VIII addresses each type of notarial act, including the power, effective October 1, 2020, to certify a copy of a record in someone’s possession, and the rule that the type of document is not relevant — what matters is that the notary is performing one of the duties of a notary public. Two prohibitions frame the whole area: a notary may not perform a notarial act on a record to which the notary or the notary’s spouse is a party or in which either has a direct beneficial interest — § 18-203(b), with an act in violation voidable — the Secretary of State additionally recommending refraining for immediate family members beyond the spouse and for any matter of personal involvement; and no other professional licence confers notarial authority, the law’s notarial officers being a notary public of the State, a judge, clerk, or deputy clerk of a court of the State, or a magistrate appointed by a court of the State. A commissioned Maryland notary, for completeness, may act for a person in a matter involving a corporation of which the notary is an employee, where the notary is not a party to the instrument. The guide teaches certificates as the act’s legal residue: for each act type, the certificate’s required content, the venue rule, and the attachment rule are presented together, because an act correctly performed and incorrectly certified is, under the post-2020 rule, an incomplete act.
The stamp and the journal
The working instruments are prescribed in detail, and the detail is examinable. The official stamp — an ink stamp or embosser, or an electronic device or process, in every case capable of being copied together with the record to which it is affixed or with which it is logically associated, and a public seal for the purposes the Criminal Law Article states — must include the notary’s name as it appears on the commission, the words “Notary Public,” and the county (or Baltimore City) in which the notary was commissioned, with the commission expiration date included unless it is part of the notarial certificate or affixed to or logically associated with the record. The device is the notary’s own property and responsibility even if an employer purchased it — an employer-bought stamp remains in the custody and control of the notary named on it, and the notary is strongly encouraged to take it on leaving the employer; no other individual may use it to perform a notarial act; a lost or stolen device is promptly reported to the Secretary of State, by email, with the commissioned name, address, county of commission, and the date of loss or theft, attaching any police report; and the device is disabled — destroyed, defaced, damaged, erased, or secured against use in a manner that renders it unusable — on resignation, revocation, or expiration of the commission, or on the expiration of any date set forth in the device. The journal is mandatory in form as the Secretary of State states it: each notary maintains a journal chronicling each notarial act, each entry made contemporaneously with the act and containing the date and time; a description of the record, if any, and the type of notarial act; the full name and address of each individual for whom the act is performed; the personal-knowledge statement or the satisfactory-evidence description, with the credential’s issuance and expiration dates and identification number; the fee charged, or an indication that no fee was charged; and an indication whether the individual appeared in the notary’s physical presence or remotely by communication technology. The journal is retained for ten years after the performance of the last notarial act contained in it. In the guide, stamp and journal are taught as custody and record disciplines with their clocks attached — the prompt report, the ten-year retention, the contemporaneous entry — because examination items in this area test the clock and the custody rule as often as the contents list.
Fees a commissioned notary may charge — COMAR 01.02.08.02
The fee schedule is regulation text, effective in its current form January 22, 2024, and it is stated here exactly as COMAR publishes it because fee items are a standing examination subject and a daily practice limit. A notary may demand and receive no more than $8 for the performance of a notarial act, or $30 for the performance of a remote notarial act. For more than one copy of the same record signed at the same time by the same person or persons, the notary may receive $8 for notarizing each signature on the original or first copy and $4 for each signature on each additional copy. Reproductions of a notarized record or a journal entry, by photocopying or other means, are capped at $2 for each copy furnished; certifying a copy of a record in the notary’s journal is $6; and travel, where required for the performance of a notarial act, is reimbursed at the prevailing Internal Revenue Service mileage rate for business travel plus a fee not to exceed $5. The guide keeps this schedule visibly separate from the State’s own charges — the $25 application fee, the $30 Handbook, the clerk’s $10 and $1 — and from any provider’s course charges, because conflating the three schedules is the single most common fee error in circulation about Maryland, and the examination’s fee items are built to catch it.
Electronic and remote notarization — Handbook Parts IX and X, as a boundary
Two later layers sit on top of a current commission, and this guide treats both as boundaries rather than as part of the initial gate. Electronic notarization, lawful under the Maryland Uniform Electronic Transactions Act of 2000, still requires the personal appearance of the signer in the notary’s physical presence when electronically affixing the signature. Remote notarization, lawful since October 1, 2020, allows appearance by communication technology instead, and runs through the Secretary of State’s remote notary process: the commissioned notary completes the remote notary notification form through the online filing system — the form is no longer available in paper — selects one or both remote types (remote acts on electronic records using an authorised remote online notary vendor, and/or remote acts using other communication technology), and, where an authorised vendor is selected and the form is complete, receives an email confirming authorisation; the Secretary of State maintains the list of authorised remote online notary vendors and publishes the list of notaries authorised to perform remote notarizations, and the Secretary of State does not endorse a specific commercial brand of communication technology platform. The journal’s appearance entry — physical presence or remote by communication technology — is the point where the remote layer touches the base commission’s daily record, and the guide teaches it there. Neither layer changes the initial applicant’s course-and-examination package, and neither is presented here as a second examination.
The examination inside the package: format, scoring, and what follows
Read the examination as COMAR builds it, not as a test-center paper, and its shape is precise. It is the provider’s examination, administered as the second half of the mandated package, virtually or in person as the provider offers the course — an electronic examination runs on a secure operating system the provider supplies. Its floor is at least 20 clearly stated multiple-choice questions; its bank is at least 50 different questions, so repeat applicants do not receive a statistically sufficient number of previously attempted questions; its design equalises difficulty across applicants and sources questions from each Handbook section on the laws, regulations, ethics, and procedures; every question is relevant to those requirements and carries four answers with exactly one correct. Its standard is the Certificate-of-Passing standard in Regulation .16F, quoted verbatim in this guide’s table, and its result is immediate: the testing system notifies the applicant of passing or failure at the conclusion of the session. What follows a pass is documentary, not ceremonial — the provider issues the Certificate of Passing, and that certificate, with the Certificate of Completion, becomes a filing item in the online application. What follows a score below the standard is equally documentary: the applicant, having completed the course, is qualified to retest, and the provider shall provide the retest opportunity. Nothing in COMAR or on the Secretary of State’s pages publishes an examination time limit, an attempt cap, or a validity period for either certificate, and a candidate who encounters any of those figures in circulation should locate it where it belongs — in an individual provider’s delivery terms or in a secondary summary — and not mistake it for a state standard.
Preparation errors this guide is written to prevent
The recurring errors are structural, and they repeat across candidacies. Candidates prepare for a standalone state examination that Maryland does not run — studying to a test-center model, hunting for a state sitting date and a state-set time limit, while the actual gate is a provider package whose standards are COMAR’s and whose text is the Handbook. Candidates study the Handbook unevenly against a sourcing rule that reaches each of its sections, giving the familiar acts extended hours while the discipline grounds, the fee regulation, and the stamp and journal clocks go unlearned. Candidates conflate the three money schedules — the State’s application and Handbook charges, the clerk’s qualification charges, the commissioned notary’s COMAR fee caps, and a provider’s own course price — into one blurred figure, and meet fee items built to punish exactly that blur. And candidates neglect the route itself: the district-and-Senator lookup, the address verification against the identification, the three references whose responses can hold a delegated determination, the disclosure duty whose breach denies the application before knowledge is ever tested, and the thirty-day oath window whose breach revokes a commission already granted. Every section of this guide is aimed at one of those four errors: the package is given in its COMAR form, the scope is given at its full sourcing breadth, the schedules are kept apart, and the route is given in order with its clocks named.
After the examination
The Maryland commission is held across the State’s banks and credit unions, law offices, title and settlement companies, real estate closings, healthcare and government offices, and the everyday counters where a signature must be acknowledged, sworn, verified, or witnessed before a public officer rather than a party. The Secretary of State’s own FAQ puts the scale plainly: there are over 80,000 notaries in Maryland, findable at banks, law offices, and other local establishments. It is a four-year, statewide appointment, exercised only while the notary is physically in Maryland — where the record will be used is irrelevant to the authority to notarize it — and since the 2020 and 2021 changes it carries the modern layers the Handbook governs: a certificate on every act, copy certification, electronic notarization on personal appearance, and remote notarization by communication technology through authorised vendors. Hold the two certificates in the file where they belong: the Certificate of Completion and the Certificate of Passing are the application’s proof items, the providers transmit course and examination data to the Secretary of State on request, and the commission itself, once the oath is taken, is delivered by email and evidenced by name, county of commission, and expiration date — Maryland issuing no commission number. Note also what the pass starts: the approval determination, and behind its email the thirty-day qualification clock, which runs whether or not the candidate is watching it.
A preparation plan that respects the package
Build the plan on COMAR’s sourcing rule, not on habit. Open with the Handbook itself, whole, because the examination is sourced from each of its sections covering the laws, regulations, ethics, and procedures — a plan that samples the Handbook prepares for a shorter examination than the one the provider is required to build. Work the statute and the regulations alongside it: Title 18, Subtitle 1 for the commission’s structure and Subtitle 2 for the acts, COMAR .02 for the fees, and COMAR .14 through .16 for the package’s own standards, so the standard being prepared for is understood in the words that impose it. Convert every area into worked multiple-choice items early — the examination’s questions each carry four answers with one correct, and reading without answering rehearses recognition for an event that tests selection against the published Certificate of Passing standard. Keep the three money schedules on separate cards from the first day. Reserve the route for deliberate study of its own: the qualifications, the two certificates as filing items, the application checklist, the determination, and the thirty-day oath discipline, rehearsed as a sequence with dates attached. Close the plan by returning to the identification-and-refusal chain and the journal’s entry contents, because sittings inside this package are most often decided at the points where judgement and record meet. The companion Maryland Notary Public program page describes the preparation program itself, which is in the works; this guide stands on its own as the route, scope, and standard reference for the Maryland Notary Public package.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a Maryland state notary exam at a test center?
No. Maryland offers the course of study and examination under § 18-102(b) through entities the Secretary of State approves, and an authorised provider administers the examination as part of the mandated course package. The statute, COMAR, and the Secretary of State’s pages describe no separate state sitting, and this guide describes none.
What is the passing standard, in the State’s own words?
COMAR 01.02.08.16F: “The examination shall contain at least 20 questions that are clearly stated in a multiple-choice format, and each applicant must correctly answer at least 80 percent of the questions in order to be issued a Certificate of Passing under Regulation .15E of this chapter.” The certificate the standard earns is the Certificate of Passing under Regulation .15E, whose own text gives it to each applicant who scored at least 80 percent or better on the examination.
Why does the guide say “at least 20” instead of giving a fixed number of questions?
Because that is what COMAR publishes: a floor. The provider’s bank must hold at least 50 different questions, the examination presented must contain at least 20, and a given provider’s examination may present more. A fixed paper length stated as a state standard would be invented, and figures in circulation that present one provider’s sitting as the State’s format are that provider’s terms.
How long do I have to finish the examination?
No examination time limit is published in COMAR or on the Secretary of State’s pages read for this guide, and none is stated here. Regulation .16 governs the examination’s content, format, bank, and scoring; it sets no clock. If a provider sets a sitting length for its own delivery, that length is the provider’s term.
Do renewing notaries take the examination again?
No. Section 18-102(a)(4)(ii) requires a renewal applicant to have completed the course offered under § 18-102(b) — the course alone — and the Secretary of State’s renewal page requires the Certificate of Completion alone with the renewal application. One sentence in the Secretary of State’s FAQ qualifications list says otherwise; the statute and the renewal-specific pages govern, and this guide follows them.
Does Maryland exempt attorneys from the course or the examination?
No exemption appears in the sources read: § 18-102 states the initial-applicant requirement without an attorney exception, and no attorney exemption appears in COMAR 01.02.08 or on the Secretary of State’s notary pages. Other states’ exemptions are not Maryland law.
What are the two certificates, and who issues them?
The authorised provider issues both. The Certificate of Completion goes to every applicant who completes the course of study (Regulation .15D); the Certificate of Passing goes to each applicant who meets the examination standard (Regulation .15E). Electronic copies of both are submitted with a new applicant’s online application; a renewal application carries the Certificate of Completion.
What happens on a score below the standard?
The applicant is qualified to retest — Regulation .15E defines the qualification as having completed the course of study while failing to score at least 80 percent — and the provider shall provide an opportunity to retest. The result itself is immediate: the testing system notifies the applicant of passing or failure at the conclusion of the examination session (Regulation .16I). No attempt cap is published in the sources read.
Why does a State Senator decide a notary application?
Because § 18-101 builds the appointment that way: the Governor appoints and commissions a resident applicant on approval of the application by a Senator representing the applicant’s senatorial district and subdistrict, unless the Senator has delegated approval authority to the Secretary of State — in which case the Secretary of State approves and determines. An out-of-state applicant’s appointment rests on the approval of the Secretary of State and a member of the Senate of Maryland. The application process therefore starts with the legislative district and Senator lookup.
What does the whole route cost, in State charges?
Only the State’s own charges are stated here, and separately: $25 application fee to the Secretary of State; $30 for the Handbook for Maryland Notaries Public; and, at qualification, $10.00 for the commission and $1.00 registration fee to the Clerk of the Circuit Court. An authorised provider’s course and examination charges are the provider’s own and vary by provider; no total is stated, because no official source publishes one.
When does the thirty-day oath clock run, and what does missing it cost?
From the notice of appointment: § 18-103(d)(3) requires qualification before the appropriate clerk of the court within 30 days after the Secretary of State issues the notice, and the Secretary of State’s process runs the 30 days from the approval email directing the applicant to the Clerk of the Circuit Court. Missing it revokes the appointment and commission (§ 18-103(d)(5)); the Secretary of State’s process then requires a new application and another application fee. The statute’s one relief is reinstatement by the Secretary of State for good cause shown (§ 18-103(d)(7)).
Where do this guide’s facts come from?
From the State’s own publications — the Secretary of State’s Notary Division pages (applicant, renewal, FAQ, and remote notary information), COMAR Title 01, Subtitle 02, Chapter 08, in particular Regulations .02, .14, .15, and .16, and State Government Article, Title 18, in particular §§ 18-101, 18-102, and 18-103 — recorded in this file’s INTERNAL section. Facts that could not be verified from those sources were omitted.