• The Secretary of State’s four regional offices (Fresno, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco) can only authenticate a California notary public’s signature if the county clerk/recorder (on the notary public’s stamp) first authenticates the signature.
• The customer must take the notarized document to the county clerk/recorder for certification.
• Then submit the certified document to one of the four regional offices for authentication.
• Having a document certified at the county level is only required for authentication at our regional offices.
• The Secretary of State's Sacramento office can authenticate documents notarized by a California notary public without being certified at the county level.
• The customer must identify the country of destination when the documents are submitted to the Secretary of State. If documents are submitted by mail to the Sacramento office, a letter identifying the country of destination must accompany the documents. To facilitate the processing of documents submitted by mail, please include a self-addressed envelope.
• Documents can be hand delivered to any office location for over-the-counter processing between the hours of 8:00 am and 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday (excluding holidays) or mailed to the Sacramento office. Regional offices do not process mailed in documents. Office locations are as follows:

Sacramento (Secretary of State) Office
Street Address:
Notary Public Section
1500 11th Street, 2nd Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 653 -3595

Mailing Address:
Notary Public Section
Post Office Box 942877
Sacramento, CA 94277-0001

Regional Offices
Fresno:
1315 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 203
Fresno, CA 93721
(559) 445 -6900

Los Angeles:
300 South Spring Street, Room 12513
Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 897 -3062

San Diego:
1350 Front Street, Suite 2060
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 525 -4113

San Francisco:
455 Golden Gate Avenue, Suite 14500
San Francisco, CA 94102-7007
(415) 557 -8000

• When submitting documents to any of our offices for over-the-counter processing, no appointment is necessary. Customers are served on a “first come first serve” basis.
• Documents submitted for over-the-counter processing are normally processed within an hour. The average processing time for documents submitted by mail is approximately two weeks.
• There is a $20.00 processing fee (per signature authenticated) and a $6.00 special handling fee (per public official for documents submitted over the counter). Payments for documents submitted:
• By mail to Sacramento can be made by check or money order.
• Over-the-counter in Sacramento can be made by check, money order, cash, or credit card (Visa or MasterCard).
• Over-the-counter in any of the four regional offices can be made by check, money order, or credit card (Visa or MasterCard). Regional offices are not able to accept cash.
• Checks or money orders should be made payable to the Secretary of State.

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