The last time you saw a notary public in person, they were probably wearing a robe and solemnly stamping your signature on official documents. You don’t need to be that formal when faxing notary documents.
Can you fax an original document?
Not exactly, and it’s worth being honest about what fax actually does. A fax sends a picture of your paper, not the physical page you fed into the machine. The recipient gets a legible copy on their end. For most administrative work, like medical records, insurance claims, HR paperwork, and most notary submissions after signing, that image is what the recipient actually needs. That’s why fax has stayed useful for decades.
There is a narrow class of situations where the physical paper matters. Chain-of-custody legal exhibits (evidence that has to be tracked as the same physical item from collection to court) and wet-ink deed recording (some counties still require the original signed deed on file) both fall in this category, along with a handful of court filings that demand the paper itself. Fax is not a substitute for those. You need a courier, hand-delivery, or in-person filing.
A practical test: if the recipient just needs to read a legible copy of what you signed, fax is safe. If they need to physically hold the sheet of paper you signed, faxing won’t get you there.
What the notary’s stamp actually does
The seal in the corner of the page is a public officer’s testimony that they watched you sign it and confirmed you were who you said you were. That is the whole job. The notary is not vouching for the truth of what the document says, only that you signed it in front of them. That is why receiving agencies ask for one: it upgrades the signature from a claim to a witnessed act.
The notarized documents that actually get faxed
Most notarized paperwork that lands on a fax intake is ordinary friction: an affidavit for a divorce filing at a county clerk who still lists a fax number and no email upload, a notarized release so a relative can collect medical records, an out-of-state power of attorney a bank wants on file before it will move funds. The stamp has already made the document what the recipient needs. Fax is just the last mile into an office that has not changed its intake since 1998.
When the receiving side tells you what they accept, take it literally. “Faxed copy of the notarized affidavit is fine” means fine. “Original by mail” means the fax will be ignored no matter how clean the transmission was.
Signatures for travel and cross-border filings
Consular filings, international adoptions, and some foreign property paperwork ask for a notarized signature or a notarized copy of a passport photo page. The consulate’s own instructions decide what counts. Fax sometimes appears on the accepted-methods list next to courier, and sometimes does not. Read the checklist before you assume. When an attorney abroad is involved, ask them what the local court or registry treats as filed. The answer varies more than most travel guides let on.
How to fax notary documents
Since you’ll only be doing this occasionally, find yourself a one-time-use online fax service, such as payperfax.com, that won’t require you to register for an account or commit to a subscription. Upload your document scan to the service and enter the fax number you wish to fax the document to. It would be a good idea to use a cover page to address the document to exactly the right person. Review any costs and send it off.
Once the document has been properly sent, how will I know that it was received by the recipient
After you have sent the document, you will receive a confirmation by email. This will act as a formal receipt telling you when exactly the fax was received.
If you want to be extra careful, call up the receiving party and verbally confirm that they received the fax.
PayPerFax handles single notarized affidavits without a subscription or an account setup, domestic or international. If you are a solo attorney or a paralegal at a small firm who sends notarized affidavits on the same terms as estate and real-estate work, our fax service for law firms is priced for exactly that volume.