A Public Notary in Estonia is an intermediary between a physical or juridical person and the Estonian Business Registry.

You have the right to demand that a notary who has certified or confirmed the application for representation represent him or her in the administration of the court registry department, including forwarding documents (see also § 30 (2) – (21) and § 33 (1) of the Notaries Act).

If you want the notary to certify the substance of the application, the certification fee also includes legal consultation, preparation of a draft application, and information on how much you have to pay the state fee.

In addition, at the request of participants, a notary has the right and obligation to prepare and submit to the population register a notice of change of residence data and an application for an activity license, license, and registration specified in Annex 1 to the Notarial Regulations (see § 37 of the Notarial Regulations).

Remote authentication enables the conduct of notarial acts via a video bridge created between the notary and the customer. Such authentication is equivalent to authentication at a notary’s office.

Remote authentication is an opportunity, not an obligation. It is up to the notary to decide, whether a specific transaction can be carried out by using remote authentication.

Subject to agreement with a notary, transactions using remote authentication can be carried out either at a place suited for the customer (e.g. at home) or at an Estonian embassy.

Outside embassies remote authentication can be used to perform all notarial acts, except certification of contraction of marriage and divorce.

At Estonian embassies, remote authentication can be used for carrying out transactions with shares of a private limited company, authenticating powers of attorney, submitting applications for marriage and divorce, and applications related to succession. Deletion and transfer of real rights and commercial pledges are also possible. Acts using remote authentication can be conducted in five Estonian embassies – Helsinki, Stockholm, Brussels, Riga and London. 

In order to conduct an act by using remote authentication and be given the relevant advice, one should first contact a notary’s office. The contact data of all notaries can be found at www.notar.ee/et/notarid/nimekiri. One can also carry out the required act via the self-service portal of the Chamber of Notaries at iseteenindus.notar.ee (EE). A Republic of Estonia ID card, digital ID, mobile ID or an e-Resident’s digital ID can be used to log in to the portal and to sign documents to be authenticated. SmartID and European Union member state’s eID card can also be used to log in to the portal, but they can not be used to sign any documents.

If the intention is to carry out the act by using remote authentication in an Estonian embassy, one of the five embassies can be selected in the self-service portal, by also indicating the desired dates. Based on the data submitted in the application the self-service portal proposes the available times that suit both the notary and the embassy. The times are proposed in accordance with the time zone in which the embassy is located.

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