Digital identification at your notary: How does it work?

Every notary office is obligated to identify clients in a secure and reliable manner. The European member states have established agreements regarding secure and reliable digital identification in the Electronic IDentification And Trust Services Regulation (eIDAS). Soon, digital identification will be available at more and more notary offices.

This is how digital identification at the notary works:

Step 1: Request from your notary

You schedule an appointment with the notary. Your notary requests you to digitally identify yourself.

Your notary sends you a link via email to a secure environment where you can perform digital identification. The notary specifies in the identification request how and with which method you can identify yourself.

Step 3: Choosing your means of identification

Digital identification can be done by scanning a physical identity document, such as your passport or identity card. You can also digitally identify yourself using an app that you can install on your phone. This security is of the highest level (eIDAS high).

Step 4: Digital identification

You click on the link and follow the instructions to complete the digital identification process. This happens in the protected and secure KNB web environment. Depending on the choice made in step 3, you will use either:

  • A physical identification tool: the ReadID Ready app on your mobile phone to scan a physical identity document (passport or identity card).
  • An eIDAS high-level tool: a special and secure app on your mobile phone, such as the 'itsme' app.

Step 5: Your summary

After completing the process, you will receive a summary of the identification information provided to the notary. This concludes your digital identification.

Step 6: Notary completes your identification

The notary sees in the summary that the request has been completed. Then, they can download the corresponding report for processing in the client dossier. This completes the digital identification for the notary.

If you have any questions or need assistance with this process, please contact your notary.

Questions and answers

Scanning a Physical Identity Document:

  • The invitation e-mail from your notary with a link to the online location for identification
  • Passport, driving license, or identity card
  • Mobile phone with a camera
  • Mobile app ReadID Ready. More information and an instructional video

Using an eIDAS High-Level Tool:

No, DigiD is not suitable for digital identification at the notary.

To scan a physical identity document (passport or ID card) on your mobile phone, you need the ReadID Ready app. You can download this app from the Google Play Store or the Apple Store. More information and an instructional video

An electronic identification tool is a digital certificate or app on a mobile phone that allows a user to identify themselves. This includes personal information such as name and date of birth. The user grants permission to the app to share this information with third parties, such as a notary. 

Contact your notary.

Contact your notary.

A digital identification request can be completed once.

A so-called 'eIDAS high-level tool' is a way of logging in designed for secure digital client identification and to prevent fraud and abuse. This method provides the highest assurance of someone's identity.

Currently, the 'itsme' app is the only available eIDAS high-level tool in the Benelux. More information and a detailed explanation with an instructional video. For other European countries these apps are available. 

You will receive this message when the entered phone number is unknown to Itsme. This may be caused by one of the following reasons:

  1. You haven't got an Itsme-account yet. If this is the case, first make an account for Itsme.
  2. The country code in the phone number field may not be set to the Netherlands (+31). In that case, click on this field and select the Netherlands (+31) from the dropdown list.