Contributed By: North Shore Pharmacy
A few months ago a customer came in around 6:30 on a Tuesday evening, visibly frustrated. She had one document needing one signature notarised, due the following morning, and had spent her lunch break discovering that her bank’s notary works Monday to Thursday, until four, and had already left for the day.
She asked, without much hope, whether we happened to know anywhere open.
We did not. Not at 6:30 on a Tuesday in Huntington. That bothered me enough to do something about it.
North Shore Pharmacy now has a notary public on premises, available seven days a week — weeknights until 8pm, Saturday until 6pm, and Sunday mornings. Walk in, get it stamped, go.
Why this is harder than it should be
Notarisation is a small formality. A notary confirms you are who you say you are, witnesses your signature, and applies a seal. Five minutes of work, and New York caps what any notary may charge for it at $2 per notarial act under Executive Law § 136.
Getting access to those five minutes is the problem.
Banks have notaries, usually only for account holders, usually only in business hours, and only when the right employee is in. Shipping and print stores charge well above the statutory rate. Law offices want an appointment. Mobile notaries will come to your house — genuinely useful — for a travel fee that can run many times the cost of the notarisation itself, because the travel fee is not what the statute caps.
None of those work for a person with a job, a deadline and one piece of paper.
A worked example of what this actually costs
Say you are executing a power of attorney that needs three signatures notarised.
Here, that is three notarial acts at the statutory $2 each: $6, walk-in, no appointment.
A mobile notary charges the same statutory $2 per act — they are bound by the identical cap — but adds a travel fee, which the statute does not cap. At a fairly typical $75 call-out, the same three signatures come to $81.
The notarial work is identical in both cases. The entire difference is travel, and travel is the part you avoid by walking through a door that is already open until 8pm.
One related figure worth knowing: electronic notarisation is capped separately at $25 per act. That is remote online notarisation, a different service from the in-person one described here, and the higher cap is why it is worth knowing which you are being offered.
And notarisations arrive at the worst moments. You are closing on a house. You are sending a child abroad and the consent form is due. You are transferring a title. You are handling a parent’s affairs and a power of attorney has to be executed properly. These are rarely calm situations, and they almost never fall neatly inside banking hours.
What we can notarise
Most everyday documents:
- Affidavits and sworn statements
- Powers of attorney and healthcare proxies
- Real estate documents, deeds and closing paperwork
- Parental and travel consent forms for minors
- Vehicle title transfers and bills of sale
- Insurance and claim forms
- School, employment and licensing forms
- Contracts, agreements and loan documents
You do not need an account with us. You do not need to be a pharmacy customer at all.
What a notary can and cannot do
This is worth being precise about, because the limits are not obvious and they are where problems start.
A notary verifies identity and witnesses signatures. That is the job in full.
A notary who is not an attorney may not give legal advice or draft legal documents. In New York this is not a matter of professional caution — it is written into the notary licence law, on penalty of removal from office. We cannot tell you which form you need, what a clause means, or whether an agreement is a good idea. If a notary offers to do any of that, they are doing something they should not.
If you are unsure about the document itself, that conversation belongs with an attorney, and it is worth having before you arrive rather than after.
Acknowledgment or jurat — the distinction that decides your evening
New York notaries perform two main acts, and they are not interchangeable. Knowing which one your document needs explains every piece of advice that follows.
An acknowledgment is the notary confirming that you are who you say you are, and that you acknowledge having signed the document. Deeds, powers of attorney and most real estate paperwork take acknowledgments.
A jurat is the notary administering an oath — you swear the contents are true — and then witnessing your signature. Affidavits and sworn statements take jurats. You can usually spot one from the wording above the signature line: “Sworn to before me this ___ day of ___”.
Here is the practical difference. For an acknowledgment, New York permits you to have signed beforehand and then appear to acknowledge that you executed it. For a jurat, the oath and the signature must both happen in front of the notary — so a document you signed at the kitchen table cannot be salvaged, and you will be printing a fresh copy.
Which is the entire reason the advice is simply to bring everything unsigned. Working out which box your form falls into, under time pressure, at a counter, is nobody’s idea of a good evening — and unsigned is correct either way.
What to bring, and the one thing people get wrong
1. The document, complete but unsigned.
This is the one. For affidavits, sworn statements and anything carrying a jurat, New York requires the signature and the oath to happen in front of the notary. Sign it at home and you will be starting over with a fresh copy.
There is a technical nuance — for an acknowledgment, a signer may sign beforehand and then appear to acknowledge that they executed the document — but working out which category your form falls into is not a good use of your evening. Bring everything unsigned. It is the rule that never backfires.
2. Valid government-issued photo ID.
A New York driver licence, state ID, passport or military ID. It must be current, and the name on it has to match the name on the document. A maiden name on the ID and a married name on the deed is a real problem, and it is better discovered now than at the counter.
3. Every required signer, in person.
New York requires personal appearance. We cannot notarise for someone who is not here, over the phone, or by mail. If two people sign, both must be present, each with their own ID.
If your document also calls for a witness separate from the notary, bring one. A notary cannot serve as both, and neither can anyone named in the document.
Where this goes wrong
The document arrives already signed
The most common by a wide margin, and often unfixable on the spot if the form is a sworn statement. Bring it unsigned.
The name on the ID does not match the document
Marriage, divorce, an anglicised spelling, a middle initial that appears on one and not the other. A notary cannot paper over a mismatch. Check both before you leave the house.
Blank fields
A notary cannot complete your document for you, and notarising a form with blanks in it invites exactly the kind of dispute the seal is supposed to prevent. Fill everything in except the signature.
Assuming a witness is included
Some documents need a witness as well as a notary. Those are different roles and one person cannot do both. If your form has a witness line, bring someone who is not named anywhere in the document.
Arriving at the end of a long closing
Real estate paperwork tends to arrive as a stack, and people work through it signing as they go, then bring the whole pile in. If any page in that stack carries a jurat, that page is now void and has to be reprinted.
If you have a closing coming, the useful habit is to separate anything with “sworn to before me” above the signature line and leave those pages blank. Everything else can usually be handled as an acknowledgment.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an appointment?
No. Walk in during any open hour. If you are coming from a distance, a quick call to 631-427-6262 confirms our notary is at the counter.
How much does it cost?
New York caps notary fees at $2 per notarial act, per signer, under Executive Law § 136. For a walk-in that is the whole cost — there is no travel fee, which is where the expense usually hides with mobile notaries.
Do I have to be a pharmacy customer?
No. The notary is available to anyone.
Can I sign the document before I arrive?
Bring it unsigned. Affidavits, sworn statements and anything requiring an oath must be signed in front of the notary, and bringing everything unsigned avoids having to work out which is which. Either way, you must appear in person.
What ID do you accept?
Any current government-issued photo ID — New York driver licence, state ID, passport or military ID.
Can you tell me which form I need, or help me fill it in?
No. A non-attorney notary in New York may not give legal advice or draft legal documents. For that, speak to an attorney.
Are you open at weekends?
Yes — Saturday until 6pm and Sunday morning from 8am to 3pm.
The bigger idea here
The notary stamp is the third thing we have added this year, and they come from the same thought.
We started on Southdown Road in 1973, when a pharmacy filled prescriptions and that was the job. Over the past couple of decades the ordinary business of being an adult — the forms, the shots, the renewals, the small official tasks — has become more scheduled, more remote and harder to do in person with a human being.
A neighbourhood pharmacy is one of the last places you can still walk into without an appointment and have someone actually help you. That is worth defending. So alongside the notary we have added walk-in vaccinations and DMV vision exams submitted directly to the state.
Three things that used to mean three trips and three afternoons. Now they are one stop, on the way home, with people who know you by name.
It is not complicated. It just took somebody deciding to do it.
Stop in whenever
Bring your ID and your unsigned document. Five minutes and you are out.
Full details of our notary service in Huntington →
North Shore Pharmacy
25 Southdown Road, Huntington, NY 11743
631-427-6262
Mon–Fri 8am–8pm · Sat 8am–6pm · Sun 8am–3pm
This article is general information about notarisation in New York, not legal advice. A notary verifies identity and witnesses signatures; questions about the content or effect of a document are for an attorney.
