Please note:

Answered By: William Gee
Last Updated: May 22, 2025     Views: 4728

The service of a notary public is called for by various business and legal documents. A notary public acknowledges, verifies, and proves signatures and administers oaths and affirmations.

You may schedule an appointment with one of ECU Libraries' three free notaries public using an online booking site (https://lib.ecu.edu/s/3g0). Scheduling an appointment is highly encouraged to ensure that a notary public will be available when you visit the library.

  • Main Campus, Joyner Library
    • William Gee, geec@ecu.edu, 252-328-2268. William is located in Joyner Library at the Circulation desk in the lobby.
    • Tomeka Jernigan, jerniganto16@ecu.edu, 252-328-0275. Tomeka is in Joyner Library's Administrative Services, room 2300, on the second floor beyond the Faulkner Art Gallery.
    • If you have questions about locating Joyner Library or parking on the ECU Main Campus, please consult the Directions to Joyner Library page, the ECU campus map, or ECU Parking & Transportation. The closest parking is in the parking deck behind the Main Campus Student Center off 10th St.; it allows paid parking for $1.00 an hour by credit/debit card only (cash is not accepted). 

Please note the following about a notary appointment.

  • You will need to provide a government-issued photo ID. A driver license or passport is typical; if you do not have one of those, please contact William in advance to discuss other allowable forms of ID.
  • Do NOT sign any documents in advance.
  • If your documents require witnesses, please arrange for colleagues, friends, or family members, as appropriate to your document, to come to your appointment with you. Some documents, like wills, often require a witness to not be a potential heir or one's medical provider.
  • Please arrive on time for your appointment.
  • Notaries public cannot provide apostille authorizations for other countries (see Apostille section below).

If your document requires a raised (embossed) notary stamp, neither William nor Tomeka can notarize your document. Their stamps are flat, ink stamps. Most documents no longer require the embossed stamp, but some few might. If you need an embossed stamp, please consult the Other Notaries Public section below.

 

Other Notaries Public

If you cannot schedule with William, Tomeka, or Nöel, or if you need an embossed notary stamp on your document, or you may contact the ECU Financial Aid Office or check the State of North Carolina notary public database for other nearby providers. You may also contact your local bank or credit union branch since some of them provide the service to their members. Some office supply and office support businesses also offer the notary public service for a fee.

Please note that NC state law (§ 10B-31, Part 4. Fees) allows notaries public to charge various fees, usually up to $10.00 per signature, so please ensure that you ask in advance what a notary public will charge and, if they charge any fees, how they will accept payment.

 

Apostille

Notaries public are not able to provide an apostille for any country's government outside the United States. If you need an apostille to authenticate a document for use outside the U.S., you will need to contact either the U.S. State Department for U.S. federal documents or the issuing state's Secretary of State's office for state documents. For details on receiving an apostille for North Carolina documents, consult the North Carolina Secretary of State's apostille webpage.

The N.C. Secretary of State's office can issue an apostille without an appointment if you can go to their office in Raleigh at 2 South Salisbury Street. Otherwise, you can mail the request and expect a 10-15 day processing time. You may ask questions about the process to receive an apostille in N.C. to 919-814-5400 and  authen@sosnc.gov.

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