Notary Approvals

Required permission: approvals.write (Compliance group)

All notaries must complete a 3-stage approval process before they can conduct sessions on the platform. This page covers how to process each stage.

The Three Stages

Stage 1 — Document Review
  ↓ (approve)
Stage 2 — NPN Verification
  ↓ (approve)
Stage 3 — Final Sign-off
  ↓ (approve)
APPROVED — notary is active

At any stage you can:

• Approve — move to the next stage (or to Approved at Stage 3)
• Request Changes — send the notary back with notes; they can resubmit
• Reject — permanently decline the application

Stage 1 — Document Review

Check that the notary has submitted all required documents:

• [ ] Valid government-issued ID
• [ ] Call-to-bar certificate (verify date — must be at least 7 years ago per the Notaries Public Act 2023)
• [ ] NPN registration details (name, SCN)
• [ ] Profile photo
• [ ] Completed profile (specialisations, fee, availability)
• [ ] Insurance declaration (optional but note if absent)

Stage 2 — NPN Verification

Cross-reference the notary's declared Supreme Court Number (SCN) against the NPN registry.

NPN registry: Check [reference_websites.md] for the current NPN API/lookup URL.

Verify:

• SCN matches the applicant's name in the NPN registry
• Notary status is Active (not suspended, lapsed, or removed)
• No adverse entry in the registry

If the NPN API is unavailable, manual verification can be done by contacting NPN directly. Document that you did so in the approval notes.

Stage 3 — Final Sign-off

Final administrative check before the account goes live:

• [ ] NPN verification confirmed (Stage 2 passed)
• [ ] KYC acknowledgement confirmed (notary has acknowledged the KYC requirement)
• [ ] No outstanding flags on the profile
• [ ] Seal not yet assigned (seal is issued separately after approval — see Digital Seals)

Approving Stage 3 sets the notary's status to Approved and makes their profile discoverable to clients.

Requesting Changes

When requesting changes, always include clear notes explaining exactly what is missing or incorrect. The notary sees these notes in their portal and can resubmit.

Rejection

Rejection is permanent — the notary cannot reapply with the same account. Use this for:

• Fraudulent documents
• Notary found to be suspended or struck off by NPN
• Duplicate application

ENR Suspension (External Suspension)

If the NPN registry later shows a notary as suspended (detected by the nightly ENR sync job), their status is automatically set to SUSPENDED_EXTERNAL. This is different from a manual admin suspension — it is driven by the registry and can be reversed automatically if the registry shows reinstatement. No manual action is normally needed.

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Manual Notary Suspension

Required permission: approvals.write

Manual suspension is used when a compliance or support issue requires immediate platform restriction, independent of the NPN registry.

Suspending a Notary

1. Go to Notary Approvals and open the notary's drawer
2. Scroll to the Suspension section at the bottom of the drawer
3. Click Suspend Notary
4. Select a reason code (required — logged in the audit trail):
   • policy_violation — breach of platform terms or code of conduct
   • fraud — suspected or confirmed fraudulent activity
   • compliance — regulatory or legal compliance issue
   • client_complaint — substantiated complaint requiring investigation
   • other — use the notes field to document the reason
5. Enter internal notes (not shown to the notary, visible in the audit log)
6. Confirm — the notary is suspended immediately

The system records the suspending admin's ID, timestamp, reason, and a calculated grace period expiration date. The notary receives an email notification.

Grace Period

After suspension, the notary enters a grace period (configured in Platform Settings). During this window they can still access the Suspension Portal to read the reason and submit an appeal. Once the grace period expires they are fully locked out and can only contact support by email.

Grace period status	Notary can access portal?	Notary can submit appeals?
Active	Yes	Yes
Expired	No	No

What the Notary Sees

A suspended notary sees a locked dashboard — navigation is dimmed and non-functional except for Sign Out, Help, and theme toggle. They are routed to the Suspension Portal, which shows:

• The suspension reason
• Days remaining in the grace period
• A summary of their account activity (documents, sessions, clients)
• A conversation thread for submitting and receiving appeal messages

The Appeal Conversation Thread

Suspended notaries can send messages through the portal. These appear in the Suspension Appeals queue (Support section of the admin panel). Admins with support.suspension_appeals permission can reply directly in the thread — replies are visible to the notary in their portal. The thread persists for the full grace period.

Reinstating a Notary

1. Go to Notary Approvals and open the notary's drawer
2. In the Suspension section, click Reinstate Notary
3. Optionally add a reinstatement note (logged in audit trail)
4. Confirm

The notary's account is restored immediately. They receive an email notification and can log in again on their next session.

Who can reinstate: Any admin with approvals.write — this includes Compliance, Support, and Super Admin groups. You do not need to be the same admin who issued the suspension.

Note: ENR-driven (SUSPENDED_EXTERNAL) suspensions should not normally be manually reinstated. They clear automatically when the NPN registry shows the notary as active again.