How to verify if a notarized document is real (with the QR code on the seal)

A reader emailed us last month with a problem. She had received what looked like a notarized Affidavit of Support from someone claiming to be a sponsor for her visa application. Her instinct said the document felt off — the seal looked a little smudged, the notary's name was one she couldn't find on any IBP list, and the dates didn't quite add up.

"How do I actually check?"

This is the guide for that.

Two kinds of notarizations, two verification paths

Notarized documents in the Philippines now come in two forms. Each has a different way to verify.

Paper notarizations are the traditional kind — wet ink, embossed seal, stamped pages. To verify these, you have to look at the notary's records.

Electronic notarizations are the newer kind — digital signatures, cryptographic seals, QR codes embedded in the file. To verify these, you scan or click.

Verifying a paper notarization

Every notary in the Philippines is required to maintain a notarial register — a bound book where they record every notarial act they perform. Once a month, they file a copy of the register's entries with the Office of the Clerk of Court for their commissioned jurisdiction.

So a paper notarization can be cross-checked three ways:

1. Look up the notary's commission. The Office of the Clerk of Court keeps a list of currently commissioned notaries. If the name on the seal isn't on the list — or if the commission has expired — the notarization is invalid. Most cities also publish this list online; the IBP chapter for the city can confirm.

2. Call the notary's office. Look up the notary's contact information separately (don't trust the phone number on the document itself, which a forger would also have falsified). Ask whether they notarized a document on the specified date for the specified parties.

3. Check the Clerk of Court records. For a deeper check, you can request a certified true copy of the relevant page of the notarial register. This takes a few days and usually a small fee. The receiving party — your bank, the BIR, an LGU — can also request this directly.

If all three line up, you can be confident the notarization is real.

Verifying an electronic notarization

This is where things get easier — when the technology is used correctly.

An electronic notarization from an accredited ENP through an accredited ENFP includes several things baked into the file:

• The notary's digital signature.
• An electronic notarial seal (a visible logo plus an embedded cryptographic certificate).
• A QR code that, when scanned, takes you to a verifier page.
• A document hash — a cryptographic fingerprint of the file's content.

To verify, you can do one of three things.

Option 1: Scan the QR code. Open your phone's camera at the QR code on the document. It will take you to a verifier page (for documents we've notarized, that's https://www.getnotaryo.app/verify/...). The page will show:

• The name of the notary who performed the act.
• The date and time of notarization.
• A status: "Valid" if the file you have matches the original, or "Not valid" if it doesn't.
• (Optional) A reference to the notarial register entry.

Option 2: Paste the file hash into the verifier. If you have the PDF on your computer and want to verify it without scanning, you can drop the file into our /verify page. We compute the hash and check it against our archive.

Option 3: Check the Supreme Court Central Notarial Database. Once the Supreme Court's central database is fully online, all accredited ENF providers will be required to register their notarizations there. You'll be able to verify any electronically notarized document through a single official portal regardless of which platform produced it.

What the QR code actually proves

A common misunderstanding: the QR code does not prove that the people who signed are who they say they are. That part — identity verification — happened during the notarization session itself, through the ENP's eKYC tools.

What the QR code proves is more limited but very useful: that this specific file, as it sits in front of you, has not been modified since it was notarized. Edit one comma, and the hash changes, and the verifier returns "Not valid."

This is why we always tell senders: don't open the notarized PDF in an editor, even just to look at it. Use a viewer, not an editor. Some PDF tools quietly re-save the file even when you didn't change anything, which breaks the hash.

What to do if a notarization fails verification

A few possibilities:

The file was edited. Even unintentionally. Ask the sender to send the original, unedited PDF directly from their getnotaryo email or the platform that produced it.

The notary's commission has expired. This sometimes happens with documents notarized years ago. The notarization is still legally valid for the time it was issued, but you may want a fresh one for current use.

The notary or platform is not accredited. This is the worrying one. If a document claims to be electronically notarized but the platform isn't on the Supreme Court's list, the legal status is uncertain. Treat it skeptically and ask for a fresh notarization through a verified channel.

The document is forged. Rare, but it happens. If verification fails and the sender can't explain why, escalate. For high-stakes documents (property transfers, large bank transactions, court submissions), the receiving party will not accept an unverifiable notarization.

A note on physical seals

Paper notarizations include an embossed seal that's pressed into the page. Forgers sometimes try to reproduce this with a printed image. A real embossed seal:

• Leaves a raised impression you can feel with your fingernail.
• Is colorless (the impression itself is the seal, not the ink).
• Includes the notary's name and commission area.

If the "seal" on a paper notarization is flat — purely printed in ink — that's a red flag. Either the notary did it wrong, or the document was photocopied from a real one (in which case it's a copy, not an original).

Common questions

Can I check a notarization without contacting the notary? For electronic notarizations, yes — the QR code on the seal links to a public verifier. For paper notarizations, you generally need to call the notary's office or check with the Office of the Clerk of Court where the notary files their monthly records.

What does the QR code on an electronic notarization show? It shows the document hash, the name of the notary, the date and time of notarization, and a "valid / not valid" status. It does not reveal the content of the document — only that this specific file, byte-for-byte, was the one notarized.

What if the QR code shows "not valid"? It usually means the document file was edited after notarization. Even a single space change will invalidate the hash. Ask the sender to send you the original unedited file.

What to do next

If you've been given a notarized document and want to verify it now, paste the file or QR code at /verify. The check is free and takes about ten seconds.

If you suspect a document is forged, contact us with the details — we can help you escalate to the right office.