AnalysisPreviously, South Dakota allowed non-residents to become Notaries, but the law did not formally permit it. Now, House Bill 1030 expressly contains this authorization. The amendments to the seal statute streamline the statute and clarify that the commission expiration date must not appear within the seal; this is intended to spare the Notary the expense of replacing the seal each time the commission expires. One substantive change is the repeal of a “grandfather clause” that allowed Notaries to use an official seal that contained a commission expiration date until their current commissions expired. The law now requires the commission expiration date to be either written by hand or imprinted with a separate stamp or device below the seal’s imprint — if a space is not otherwise provided for this date to be written in.
Read House Bill 1030.