I took the notary exam on Jan 20, 2026. I had to take the six hour course and exam because my last Commission expired in 2024. I checked my background check status online and it shows that it was completed on Jan 20, 2026. I called today 3/23/2026 to see how much longer it will be before my Commission arrives in the mail. I was told that my application is in the Compliance Dept.I was also told that if they had any questions, they will contact me. Has anyone else had this experience?
For my first renewal, I didn’t start 6 months before my commission expired and so I got caught not having a commission (and consequently NO work) for about a week. I called the Secretary of State’s office to try and expedite things and the career bureaucrat I spoke with reminded me that there are about 400,000 notaries in California; that at any time about 10% of them are in the renewal process; that the department has a dramatically reduced budget to work with; that the Secretary of State’s office has many pressing issues like election tallying to handle; that it is impossible to track down a notary’s renewal application in the monster stack they are processing; AND, that patience is a virtue and it’s best to start the renewal process six months before the commission expires if you want good service.
I politely rang off and watched the mail every day for a week. Lesson learned.
The SOS? Have you ever sat through one of their Zoom meetings? He/she/they/them obviously is highly distracted by the upcoming election. However, your issue is with the FBI, which reads the livescans. These background checks can easily take a month without waiting for compliance.