Verifying Your Identity

We must verify your identity as part of our work for you.

You must have the following documents to verify your identity:

  • one piece of government-issued photo ID and
  • one additional piece of government-issued identification

If you are buying or acquiring property, one of these pieces of ID must also prove your Canadian Citizenship.

Your identification must be:

  • authentic (a genuine, original, credible and reliable document issued by a competent authority)
  • valid and
  • current (unexpired)

Your primary piece of government-issued ID must:

  • show your full legal name
  • have a photo of you
  • have a unique identifying number
  • match your name and appearance

    • If your names do not match across your two pieces of ID, or you do not have ID that meets this criteria, please contact us immediately.

    Please get us your ID as soon as possible

    You can e-mail two pieces of current, government-issued identification at the beginning of our work with you, so we can make sure to get your name and address recorded properly.

    Alternatively, you can upload your two pieces of ID through our portal, or use an identification verification service. Ask us how!

    Then please bring your 2 pieces of current, government-issued identification with you to your appointment, so we can verify your ID in person.

    If you are signing documents with us remotely, we must use an agent to verify your identity on our behalf. We'll coordinate this with you.

    Acceptable Forms of ID

    Government issued photo ID must be issued by either a federal, provincial or territorial government. We can accept a foreign government-issued photo ID if it is equivalent to one of the forms of ID listed below.

    The following forms of ID are acceptable forms of primary, government-issued IDs as long as they have a photo of you:

  • Driver's licence from any Canadian province or territory
  • BC Services Card
  • Provincial or Territorial ID cards from BC, AB, SK, MB, ON, NB, NS, PEI, NF, NWT or Nunavut
  • Global Entry Card
  • NEXUS Card

The following documents can be used to prove your Canadian citizenship, or permanent residency. If they contain a photo, they would also count as your primary piece of ID:

  • Canadian Passport
  • Permanent Resident Card
  • Citizenship Card
  • Secure Certificate of Indian Status
  • Canadian Birth Certificate
  • Social Insurance Card (or other proof of your SIN number)

We must record information from your ID in our files.

ID that is NOT acceptable

These documents are not acceptable as ID:

  • Photo ID issued by municipal governments
  • Baptismal certificates, or similar certificates issued by a church
  • Homemade identification documents
  • Credit cards are generally not considered to be identification.

Are there other ways to verify my identity?

Yes. We can use a credit file method, or a dual process method.

The credit file method involves obtaining a credit file record for you from either Equifax Canada or TransUnion Canada. The credit file record must meet a number of specified criteria.

The dual process involves reviewing information about you from two separate, reliable sources. These sources must contain specific kinds of information, and the information from these sources must come directly from the sources, not from you yourself.

Using these other methods of verifying your identity will take longer, and may cost more.

For more information, you can refer to FINTRAC's identification requirements for BC Notaries.

Please contact us immediately if you cannot meet these identification requirements.