Written by Acorn Sales Company, manufacturing stamps and seals since 1964 · Reviewed by Holly R, VP of Sales and Marketing at Acorn Sales, against the Ley Notarial de Puerto Rico (Ley Núm. 75 de 2 de julio de 1987, 4 L.P.R.A. § 2001 et seq.) and the Reglamento Notarial de Puerto Rico as amended through 2021. Coverage here is partial and we say so on purpose: the research pass behind this page ran out of search budget partway through Puerto Rico, several fields are marked unverified, and the Supreme Court’s Oficina de Inspección de Notarías (ODIN) is the office to confirm them with on 21 September 2026 · Updated 21 September 2026
If you have landed here looking for a Puerto Rico notary stamp like the ones sold for the fifty states, the honest answer is that Puerto Rico is a different profession. A notary in Puerto Rico is a licensed attorney practicing under civil law, authorized by the Supreme Court, and there is no commission term and no expiration date. What governs your seal is not a list of required words but registration: your impression must match the facsimile you registered with the Secretary of the Supreme Court. So we will not sell you a template.
Puerto Rico notary stamp requirements at a glance
| Requirement | Puerto Rico rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Stamp required | Yes | Ley Notarial de Puerto Rico, Ley Núm. 75 de 2 de julio de 1987, Arts. 13 and 16 (4 L.P.R.A. § 2001 et seq.) |
| Required wording | Not prescribed. The sources here are the complete table of contents of the Reglamento Notarial, Reglas 1 to 131 across all nine Parts, and pulled the text of Reglas 1 to 14 and 64 to 73 along with Ley Notarial Arts. 2, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16. Neither instrument specifies the wording, emblem, dimensions, shape or ink of the sello; What controls instead is registration of a specimen: you register your firma, signo, sello and rúbrica with the Secretary of the Supreme Court, and the impression you use has to match the facsimile on file; In practice a Puerto Rico seal carries the notary’s name, the words “Notario Público” and “Puerto Rico”, but that is custom rather than a codified specification and we are not going to present it as a legal requirement; Confirm your own registered specimen with the Supreme Court’s notarial inspection office (ODIN) before ordering anything. Our research pass could not complete this point | Ley Notarial Arts. 7 and 8 |
| Size and shape | Not addressed, and we are not going to invent a spec. | Ley Notarial Arts. 7, 8, 13, 16 and Reglamento Notarial Reglas 1 to 14, 34, 39, 49, 51, 54, 64 to 73 (all silent on size and shape) |
| Ink color | Not addressed. | Ley Notarial and Reglamento Notarial (no ink or color provision located) |
| Embosser | Not addressed: neither required, nor prohibited, nor regulated in either the Ley Notarial or the Reglamento Notarial. | Ley Notarial Art. 8 |
| Commission term | There is no commission term and no expiration date, so there is no renewal reseal at all. | Ley Notarial Art. 7 |
| Name or address change | For an address change the rule is immediate and carries no day count: once admitted to the notariat you “notificará inmediatamente al Secretario del Tribunal Supremo” of your residential and professional address, and your monthly activity index separately has to carry the office address and telephone. | Ley Notarial Art. 7 |
| Lost or stolen stamp | We could not verify this and we are not going to guess. | Ley Notarial Arts. 12 and 64 |
| Commissioning authority | The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, with supervision and inspection through its Oficina de Inspección de Notarías (ODIN), and your firma, rúbrica, signo and sello registered with the Secretario del Tribunal Supremo | the Ley Notarial de Puerto Rico (Ley Núm. 75 de 2 de julio de 1987, 4 L.P.R.A. § 2001 et seq.) |
Rules for other states are on notary stamp requirements by state.
Is a notary stamp required in Puerto Rico?
Yes, on the escritura matriz and on every certified copy, and the sealing load is far heavier than in any US state. The instrument must be “firmada, signada, sellada y rubricada por el mismo notario”, and the parties and witnesses initial the margin of each sheet, “las cuales rubricará y sellará el notario”, so the notary seals and rubricates the margin of every single page. The Reglamento Notarial says the same for certified copies: “Todos los folios de la copia certificada… llevarán el sello y la rúbrica del notario.” In volume terms that means a high-cycle device, not the occasional-use stamp a mainland notary buys. Before reading further, note that a Puerto Rico notary is a licensed attorney practicing a civil-law profession, not a US-style notary public.
The governing text is Ley Notarial de Puerto Rico, Ley Núm. 75 de 2 de julio de 1987, Arts. 13 and 16 (4 L.P.R.A. § 2001 et seq.); Reglamento Notarial Regla 49(E).
What must appear on a Puerto Rico notary stamp?
- Not prescribed. The sources here are the complete table of contents of the Reglamento Notarial, Reglas 1 to 131 across all nine Parts, and pulled the text of Reglas 1 to 14 and 64 to 73 along with Ley Notarial Arts. 2, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16. Neither instrument specifies the wording, emblem, dimensions, shape or ink of the sello
- What controls instead is registration of a specimen: you register your firma, signo, sello and rúbrica with the Secretary of the Supreme Court, and the impression you use has to match the facsimile on file
- In practice a Puerto Rico seal carries the notary’s name, the words “Notario Público” and “Puerto Rico”, but that is custom rather than a codified specification and we are not going to present it as a legal requirement
- Confirm your own registered specimen with the Supreme Court’s notarial inspection office (ODIN) before ordering anything. Our research pass could not complete this point
The operative document is the certification the Secretary of the Supreme Court issues you, and Article 8 sets out exactly what it carries: “El Secretario del Tribunal Supremo expedirá para el Notario una certificación en la que haga constar el nombre y número del Notario, su número de colegiado, la fecha en que el Tribunal Supremo le autorizó a ejercer la notaría, la fecha en la que registró su firma, rúbrica, signo y sello como Notario y el facsímil de su firma, signo, sello y rúbrica, según registrados.” You are required to display that certification on a wall of your office. The practical consequence: a Puerto Rico notary cannot freely redesign the seal the way a mainland notary can, and a replacement has to reproduce the registered impression or be re-registered. Note too that the signo is a hand-drawn personal device, separate from the sello and the rúbrica, and is not something a stamp manufacturer supplies.
What size and shape must a Puerto Rico notary stamp be?
Not addressed, and we are not going to invent a spec. Sections checked: Ley Notarial Arts. 7, 8, 13 and 16, and Reglamento Notarial Reglas 1 to 14, 34, 39, 49, 51, 54 and 64 to 73, plus the full Regla 1 to 131 index. No dimension, shape, diameter or border requirement appears in either instrument. Puerto Rico practice favors a round seal, but that is convention. The only test we can state with confidence is fidelity to the facsimile registered with the Secretary of the Supreme Court. Confirm your registered specimen with ODIN before ordering.
Notary public stamps are made to these conventions, and we check your lines against the statutory wording before we make the stamp.
What ink color is required for a Puerto Rico notary stamp?
Not addressed. We found no ink, color, legibility or reproducibility mandate in either the Ley Notarial or the Reglamento Notarial, across the same sections listed above. That is a real gap in the law rather than a gap we filled: there is no Puerto Rico equivalent of the mainland photographically-reproducible standard that we could locate. We will also say plainly that our research pass ran out of search budget partway through Puerto Rico, so treat this as unverified rather than settled, and confirm with the Supreme Court’s notarial inspection office (ODIN) before relying on it.
More on the trade-off in stamp ink color rules.
Is a notary embosser required or optional in Puerto Rico?
Not addressed: neither required, nor prohibited, nor regulated in either the Ley Notarial or the Reglamento Notarial. Because the controlling test is fidelity to the facsimile registered under Article 8, the compliant device is whichever one reproduces your registered impression. We could not verify any Puerto Rico rule for or against embossing, and we are not going to reason one across from a mainland statute. Ask ODIN what your registered specimen permits.
Notary embossing seal kits and inked stamp kits cover both formats. See also notary stamp vs. embosser.
Puerto Rico is a different profession, and a US notary stamp is probably the wrong product
We would rather lose the sale than sell you something that does not work, so here it is straight. Puerto Rico is a civil-law notariat. A notary here is a licensed attorney, a member of the Colegio de Abogados de Puerto Rico, authorized by the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico: “Sólo podrán practicar la profesión notarial en el Estado Libre Asociado quienes estuvieren autorizados para ejercerla actualmente y los abogados que en el futuro fueren admitidos al ejercicio de la profesión… y que en lo sucesivo sean autorizados por el Tribunal Supremo de Puerto Rico para ejercer el notariado.” There is no lay notary public in Puerto Rico, and there is a separate notarial bar examination on top of the regular one. A mainland notary public is not a notario, which is exactly why states such as Rhode Island bar non-attorneys from advertising with that word.
A standard Notary Public / State of ___ / My Commission Expires ___ rubber stamp is the wrong product here on four counts: the commissioning authority is the Supreme Court rather than a Secretary of State, there is no commission term so an expiration line should not exist, the seal wording is not prescribed by law at all, and what actually governs your seal is that the impression matches the facsimile registered with the Secretary of the Supreme Court, the one framed on your office wall under Article 8. Order a redesign without checking that facsimile and you have a compliance problem, not a cosmetic one.
The word sello means two different things here, and that is the biggest source of confusion. Your own seal is the sello notarial. But Article 10 separately requires you to affix and cancel, on every original instrument and every certified copy, the sellos de Rentas Internas, the sello de la Sociedad para la Asistencia Legal, and a one-dollar stamp issued by the Colegio de Abogados. Failing to do that renders the document anulable o ineficaz. Those are government and bar-issued adhesive revenue stamps bought from Hacienda and the Colegio. They are not rubber stamps and no stamp manufacturer can supply them. If you searched for sellos notariales and landed here, those may well be what you are actually looking for.
And we have gaps we are not going to paper over. The research behind this page ran out of search budget partway through Puerto Rico. Size, shape, ink and embossing are not addressed in either the Ley Notarial or the Reglamento Notarial as far as we read them, and we found no lost-or-stolen-seal rule and no name-change deadline. We will not fill those with a mainland analogy. Before you order anything, confirm your registered specimen and any filing obligations with the Supreme Court’s Oficina de Inspección de Notarías (ODIN). If what you need is a registration-matched seal, talk to us with your Article 8 certification in hand. If what you need is a US-state notary stamp, Puerto Rico is not the page for it.
Do I need a new stamp when my commission is renewed or my name changes?
There is no commission term and no expiration date, so there is no renewal reseal at all. Authorization runs from the Supreme Court and continues subject to bar standing and a bond that stays in force: “Ninguna persona autorizada para practicar la profesión notarial en Puerto Rico podrá ejercerla sin tener prestada y vigente una fianza por una suma no menor de quince mil (15,000) dólares”, renewed annually and approved by the Supreme Court. Nothing on the seal is term-dependent, which means a Puerto Rico seal must not carry a My Commission Expires line. Selling a Puerto Rico attorney-notary a dated stamp is selling them a defect.
For an address change the rule is immediate and carries no day count: once admitted to the notariat you “notificará inmediatamente al Secretario del Tribunal Supremo” of your residential and professional address, and your monthly activity index separately has to carry the office address and telephone. For a name change, a re-registration of the specimen under Articles 7 and 8 would follow, but we could not verify an express deadline and we are not going to invent one. Report it immediately to the Secretary of the Supreme Court and confirm the specimen re-registration procedure with ODIN.
What do I do if my Puerto Rico notary stamp is lost or stolen?
We could not verify this and we are not going to guess. The sources here are Ley Notarial Arts. 7, 8, 12 and 64, Reglamento Notarial Reglas 1 to 14, 53 to 58A and 64 to 73, and the full index of Reglas 1 to 131, and found no lost-or-stolen-seal rule and no deadline in either instrument. Regla 58A covers reconstruction of the protocolos and the Registro de Testimonios, not the seal. Our research pass also ran out of search budget partway through Puerto Rico, so treat this as an open question rather than a settled no-rule answer: contact the Supreme Court’s notarial inspection office (ODIN) and ask what to file, and expect the replacement to have to match, or be re-registered against, your Article 8 facsimile.
How do I dispose of an expired Puerto Rico notary stamp?
You deliver it, you do not destroy it, and this is the reverse of the habit every US state teaches. On cessation the sello is delivered rather than defaced, and the protocolos and the Registro de Testimonios go to the Oficina de Inspección de Notarías: “será deber del Notario, de sus herederos, sucesores o causahabientes, entregar dentro de treinta (30) días sus Protocolos y los Registros de Testimonios… a la Oficina de Inspección de Notarías”, a hard 30 days. Approved protocols are then deposited with the District Archivist. The Supreme Court records the date of resignation or of assuming functions incompatible with the notariat in its cancellation resolution.
More on retiring an old device in how to dispose of an expired notary stamp.
Can I notarize electronically or remotely in Puerto Rico?
Do not buy mainland electronic or remote notarization products for Puerto Rico. There is no Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts here, no remote notarization registry attached to a notary commission, and no electronic seal specification in either the Ley Notarial or the Reglamento Notarial. What does exist is electronic filing with ODIN under Regla 84, and a monthly índice sobre actividad notarial transmitted to ODIN under Regla 12. The instrument that has no mainland equivalent is the protocolo: “Es el protocolo la colección ordenada de escrituras matrices y actas autorizadas durante un año natural por el notario, así como los documentos que se le incorporen”, and “Los protocolos pertenecen al Estado. Los notarios los conservarán… siendo responsables de su integridad.” So the recurring consumables here are protocol binding, folio stock and archival volumes, plus the adhesive revenue stamps described below. A US-style notary journal is not the Puerto Rico instrument.
Who is allowed to sell you a Puerto Rico notary seal?
No rule restricting who may sell you a seal was located in either the Ley Notarial or the Reglamento Notarial. But treat the Article 8 registered-facsimile regime as a functional equivalent: the impression has to match the specimen on file with the Secretary of the Supreme Court, so a seal should only be cut against your registered specimen, never from a fresh design. We could not complete our review of the Supreme Court Secretariat’s notary registration procedure, so confirm the current re-registration steps with ODIN before ordering a replacement.
Related Puerto Rico guides
Next step
Have your commission details in front of you before you order, because they go on the stamp and a wrong line means a reorder. Then browse notary public stamps, or contact us and we will check your wording against the statute before we make it.
Frequently asked questions about Puerto Rico notary seals
Who can be a notary in Puerto Rico?
A licensed attorney in good standing. Puerto Rico follows the civil law rather than the common law, and a notary there drafts and authorizes instruments in a way that in a US state only an attorney could do. This is not a credential you obtain by taking a short course.
Does a Puerto Rico notary commission expire?
No. There is no commission term and no expiration date. Authorization runs from the Supreme Court and continues subject to your bar standing and your bond. That single fact makes most US notary stamp templates wrong for Puerto Rico, because they are built around a “My Commission Expires” line that should not exist.
What has to appear on a Puerto Rico notary seal?
Nothing is prescribed. The sources here are the notarial law and the notarial regulation and found no list of required words, no size, no shape and no ink rule. What controls instead is that your impression must match the specimen you registered with the Secretary of the Supreme Court. Your own registered facsimile is the specification.
Is the sello the same as a notary stamp?
Not necessarily, and the ambiguity causes real confusion. In Puerto Rico practice the word covers both the notary's own seal and the adhesive revenue stamps that must be affixed to instruments. If someone tells you that you need to buy sellos, establish which of the two they mean before you order anything from anyone.
Can you make me a Puerto Rico notary seal?
We would rather ask you a question first. Because the governing test is a match to your registered facsimile, a Puerto Rico seal is a custom job against a specimen you already hold, not an order from a template. Contact us with your registered impression and we will tell you honestly whether we can reproduce it.
Why is there less detail on this page than your other state pages?
Because we would rather be short than wrong. Our research pass on Puerto Rico was incomplete: some sources we would normally read were unavailable, and several fields we publish confidently for other jurisdictions we could not verify here. Everything above rests on the notarial law and regulation we did read. Anything operative should be confirmed with the Supreme Court's Office of Notarial Inspection.
What do I do if I need a US-style notary stamp instead?
If you are commissioned as a notary public in one of the fifty states or DC rather than authorized in Puerto Rico, use the state page for the jurisdiction that commissioned you. The two are separate systems and a Puerto Rico authorization does not carry over, nor does a mainland commission work in Puerto Rico.
