New York Jurat Certificate: Wording, the ss. Venue and the Oath Standard

This content is educational and informational, not legal advice. Requirements reflect New York CPLR 2309 and the Executive Law, but the law can change. Confirm current requirements with the New York Department of State or the county clerk who will receive the document before relying on this.

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Fillable New York jurat certificate

Enter the county, the date, and the signer, and choose whether they swore or affirmed. The tool renders the venue in the bracketed ss. format New York county clerks expect on filed and recorded documents.

What is the New York jurat wording?

Short, and traditionally set out with the state and county stacked beside the scilicet mark.

What oath does a New York notary say?

Whatever words meet the statutory standard, because New York deliberately prescribes none. CPLR 2309 provides that an oath or affirmation shall be administered in a form calculated to awaken the conscience and impress the mind of the person taking it in accordance with his religious or ethical beliefs. That is a rule about effect rather than text, and it is unusually thoughtful drafting: the oath has to land with this particular person, which is why an affirmation without religious reference is not a lesser option but the correct one for someone whose beliefs require it. In practice most New York notaries ask whether the signer swears or affirms that the contents are true, and wait for an audible answer.

What does "ss." mean on a New York jurat?

It marks the venue, the place where the act was performed. The abbreviation comes from the Latin scilicet, meaning "namely," and New York certificates traditionally set the state and county in brackets with "ss." between them. It carries no separate legal weight, but county clerks and courts expect the format on filed documents, and an unfamiliar layout invites questions. Write the county where the notarization actually happens, not where the signer lives or where property sits.

Is an out-of-state oath valid in New York?

Only with the right certificate attached. CPLR 2309 provides that an oath or affirmation taken outside the state shall be treated as if taken within the state if it is accompanied by such certificate or certificates as would be required to entitle a deed acknowledged outside the state to be recorded within it. In practice that means an affidavit sworn in another state may need a certificate of authentication from the county clerk where the notary is commissioned. This is one of the most common reasons a New York filing is rejected, and it catches lawyers as often as it catches individuals. Ask the receiving court or clerk before mailing anything sworn out of state.

What if a military officer takes the oath?

New York spells out the extra content. The certificate of an oath or affirmation administered by an officer of the armed forces of the United States, authorized by the real property law to take acknowledgments of deeds, must state the rank and serial number of the officer before whom the oath is taken and the command to which the officer is attached. It must also state that the person taking the oath was at the time a person entitled to have the oath administered by such an officer. That detail matters for service members and their families abroad, whose paperwork is otherwise easy to have returned.

Who else can administer an oath in New York?

Anyone authorized to take acknowledgments of deeds under the real property law, which reaches beyond notaries public to a range of officials, and separately any person authorized by New York law to receive evidence may administer an oath for that purpose. A clerk of court and their deputies may administer an oath to jurors. None of this applies to an oath of office, which the statute expressly carves out. If a document arrives with no acknowledgment or jurat at all, that omission is among the most frequent reasons a New York county clerk refuses to record it.

Published June 13, 2026 by the Trámites Notariales US editorial team. Sources: New York Civil Practice Law and Rules section 2309; New York Executive Law section 135-c on electronic notarial acts and recording a tangible copy of an electronic record. Confirm current requirements before relying on this.