The primary purpose of the Notary is to confirm that the person signing is actually the person they say they are. In order to do this the Notary need to see a primary form of identification that has been issued by a government agency. The identification should have the following features.

Physical Description

Issue Date/Expiration Date

Photograph

Signature and Serial Number

Here are some examples of acceptable identification:

• A driver's license or identification card, issued by the California Department of Motor Vehicles
• Passport
• Other State-approved identification consisting of any of the following, provided it also contains a photograph, description of the person, signature of the person and an identifying number
• A passport issued by a foreign government, provided that it has been stamped by U.S. Immigration or Naturalization Service or the U.S. citizenship and Immigration Services
• A driver’s license issued by another state or by a Canadian or Mexican public agency authorized to issue drivers’ licenses
• An identification card issued by another state
• A military identification card
• An inmate identification card issued by California Department of Corrections, if the inmate is in custody.

Here are some examples of UNACCEPTABLE identifucation

• Birth certificates
• Expired State Drivers Licenses or State Identification Cards Expired
• Passports that have been expired more than 5 years
• Social Security cards

For certain types of documents, credible witnesses (2 people who personally know the signer, will attest to their identification and have acceptable identification of their own) may be used when the signer does not possess an acceptable form of identification. All parties whose signatures are to be notarized must be present and have acceptable identification.