Here is the short answer. A mobile notary is a regular notary who drives. Same commission from the Secretary of the Commonwealth, same 4-year term, same rules, same cap on the act itself. The only difference is the direction of travel, and that difference is the entire service.
Here is what actually changes, and what does not.
What is exactly the same as the notary at the bank
- The commission. Virginia issues 1 kind of notary commission. There is no separate mobile licence to look for.
- The law. Section 47.1-15 applies identically: no drafting, no completing, no selecting, no explaining, and never notarizing when the signer is not present.
- The cap on the act. Section 47.1-19 sets $10 for a paper act and $25 for an electronic one, for everybody in the state.
- The stamp. The notarial certificate on your document looks the same and carries the same weight.
What is different
The notary comes to the document instead of the document coming to the notary. That sounds small until you list who cannot easily leave the building: somebody in a hospital bed, somebody in a nursing facility, an owner who cannot close the shop, a family spread across 3 addresses trying to sign 1 packet.
The second difference is hours. A branch closes at 5 and does not open Sunday. A notary who travels sets their own schedule, which is why finding a notary open on a Sunday is a question with a real answer instead of a shrug.
What a mobile notary is not
- Not a lawyer. A notary cannot tell you which document you need or what a clause means. That is legal advice and it is prohibited. Our list of what a Virginia notary cannot do is short and worth 2 minutes before you book.
- Not a witness service by default. Some documents need subscribing witnesses on top of the notary, and the notary usually should not be one of them. A Virginia will is the classic example.
- Not a way around the rules. The signer still has to be present, aware, and holding current ID. Travelling loosens nothing.
- Not able to certify a vital record. A certified copy of a birth, death, or marriage certificate comes from the Virginia Office of Vital Records, never from a notary's stamp.
What actually happens at the table
The visit itself is short and it is the same 4 steps every time, whether it is a kitchen table in Suffolk or a hospital room in Portsmouth.
- The notary checks the document is complete. Every page, no blanks waiting to be filled in later.
- The notary identifies each signer. Current photo ID, name checked against the document.
- The notary watches the signature happen, or hears the signer acknowledge a signature as their own, depending on which kind of notarization the document calls for.
- The notary completes the certificate, signs, seals, and records the act in a journal.
That last step is newer than most people realise. Virginia now requires a notary to journal every act, paper ones included, and to keep those records for 5 years. It is why a notary may ask for a little more detail than you expect, and it is a protection for you rather than paperwork for its own sake.
Everything that can go wrong goes wrong at steps 1 and 2, which is why the short list of what to have ready matters more than anything else on this page.
Where they actually go
Kitchen tables, offices, hospital rooms, nursing and assisted living facilities, hospice, rehab centres, job sites, and the occasional parking lot when somebody is between shifts. Around here that means Suffolk first, then Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Isle of Wight and further out by arrangement.
Facilities are the ones worth planning for. Nearly all of them have visiting rules, and whether the hospital has a notary of its own is a different question from whether a visitor can get in at 8pm.
What it costs, plainly
The act is capped by statute. The travel is the variable, it has to be actual and reasonable, and Virginia expects your agreement before the trip rather than after it. A quote you cannot check is a quote worth questioning, and the arithmetic is broken down in what a notary costs in Virginia.
When it is worth it, and when it is not
If you have 1 simple form, you can drive, and a branch is open, use the branch. Nobody beats free.
It earns its money when the signer cannot travel, when the document is on the list banks refuse, when it is an evening or a weekend, when several people have to sign the same packet in different places, or when it is paperwork you only ever want to do once. That last group is most of the work: powers of attorney, the paperwork a bank will not take unnotarized, deeds, vehicle titles, and travel consent forms.
Whatever the document, what the visit needs from you fits on 1 short list, and it is in what you need to get something notarized. Bring that and the appointment takes minutes.