Venue is the geographical place of the notarial act. The New York booklet says that every affidavit or certificate of acknowledgment should show the venue on its face and gives the familiar model form: “State of New York, County of … ss.” The requirement is tied to Executive Law §137.
Venue matters because it answers a simple but indispensable question: where did the notarial act occur? That is different from where the signer lives, where the document will be filed, or where the notary first received the document. In New York practice, the venue belongs in the certificate or jurat itself and helps ground the officer’s act in a specific place.
Practical note: Venue is easy to overlook because it seems clerical. In reality, it is one of the fixed formal elements of a sound New York notarial certificate.
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