Personal Knowledge
There is personal knowledge of the identity of a customer if the individual is personally known to the notary through dealings sufficient to provide reasonable certainty that the individual is who he or she claims to be.
Credible Witness
The credible witness must be personally known to the notary and must personally know the customer. Both the customer and credible witness must appear in person before the notary. The credible witness is required to complete a verification on oath or affirmation.
Satisfactory Evidence
A notary has satisfactory evidence of the identity of an individual appearing before him or her if the notary can identify the individual using the following means:
- Passport or passport card issued by the United States Department of State or a foreign government, which is current and unexpired and uses letters, characters and a language that is read, written and understood by the notary
- Driver’s license or non-driver identification card issued by a U.S. state or territory, and a state or territory of Canada or Mexico (which uses letters, characters and a language that is read, written and understood by the notary)
- Must be current and unexpired
- Identification card issued by any branch of the U.S. armed forces
- Inmate identification card issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections for an inmate who is currently in the custody of the Department
- Identification card issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
- Social Security card
- Medicare card
- Pennsylvania state and state-related university identification card
- Another form of government identification which is current, contains the signature or photograph of the individual and is satisfactory to the notary
The customer may be required to provide additional information and identification to the notary’s satisfaction.