The Cancún Signing and the Homemade Platform

Conditionally, yes. Missouri's remote online notarization law allows a commissioned, RON-endorsed notary to notarize for a signer who is not physically in Missouri, so the seller's location in Mexico is not by itself a barrier, and Diane is located in Missouri as the statute contemplates. But two things must be in place. First, the act must be performed through a remote online notarization provider that meets the Secretary of State's requirements and is approved or registered for that purpose. A friend's homemade platform does not satisfy the statute, and any notarization performed on it is defective. Second, the RON endorsement carries an additional $25,000 surety bond on top of the $10,000 general notary bond. If the provider or the bond is missing, she must decline and refer the title company to a compliant provider.

Satisfactory evidence means a current, government-issued identification bearing a photograph and signature that the notary can actually evaluate. A Mexican passport can qualify in principle as government-issued photo identification, but Diane cannot verify what she cannot read, and 'a passport is a passport' is not an identity analysis. Her realistic options: use the platform's identity-proofing, which performs credential analysis and identity verification and may accommodate a foreign passport; obtain an English translation or a second form of identification she can read; or decline the engagement. If she proceeds without understanding the document and the signer later turns out to be an imposter, both her certificate and the recorded deed are exposed. She should note in her journal exactly what identification she reviewed.

Deleting the recording and skipping the journal are both violations. Missouri's RON rules require an electronic journal entry for each remote act, capturing at minimum the date and time, the type of notarial act, the signer's name and address, the identification reviewed, the fee charged, and a reference to the recording, and they require the notary to retain the audio-video recording and the journal for the statutory period, currently ten years. Storage costs are not an exception. The recording is the evidence that the signer appeared, was identified, and acted voluntarily; if the deed is later challenged, its absence undermines the notarization and exposes Diane to discipline, a bond claim, and personal liability. If she cannot meet the retention requirement, she should not take the engagement.