A process is disclosed for notarizing a document, by a client in the presence of a notary, comprising the steps of registering the notary, the client and the document, from a local workstation coupled to a central office, to provide for assigning at least one respective encryption key for identifying each of the notary, the client and the document to be notarized; associating in the central office, the respective encryption keys of the client with the notary and with the; generating a transaction code, based on the step of associating the respective encryption keys, for authorizing execution of the to provide the notarizing; executing the; and embedding selected ones of the respective encryption keys together with a notary seal in the document.