Notary Services Saudi: Najiz Guide 2026

By Johnson Peter — Business Manager, Noble Core · Updated June 2026

What notary services in Saudi Arabia actually cover

In the Kingdom, “notarisation” is the formal authentication of a legal instrument by a notary public (kātib al-adl) or a licensed private notary operating under the supervision of the Ministry of Justice. Once notarised, the instrument becomes an official document with evidentiary weight before Saudi courts, government agencies and banks. The Ministry of Justice has moved almost all of this onto Najiz, its unified digital justice portal, which also handles case filing, execution requests and deed management.

For a foreign investor or a locally registered company, notary services saudi businesses need most often fall into a handful of predictable categories. Understanding which category your document belongs to determines the portal path you take, the identity credentials required, and whether an in-person appointment is needed at all.

• Powers of attorney (wakalah) — authorising a manager, PRO or law firm to act on your behalf before ministries, banks or courts.
• Company instruments — articles of association, amendments to the articles, shareholder resolutions, share transfers and capital changes.
• Real estate deeds — title deed issuance, transfer, mortgage registration and partition.
• Personal declarations — acknowledgements of debt, undertakings, guardianship instruments, and consent letters.
• Cancellations and amendments — revoking a power of attorney, correcting a name, updating a deed record.

Two structural facts shape the whole system. First, identity is verified through the national digital identity layer rather than by wet signature — meaning Absher and Nafath authentication carry the legal weight that a physical stamp once did. Second, notarisation is increasingly automatic: many instruments issue instantly once all parties have confirmed electronically, with no queue and no counter.

Who needs notarisation — and who does not

Not every document needs a notary. Ordinary commercial contracts between two willing companies are valid without notarisation. The notary becomes necessary when a third party — a court, a registry, a bank, or a government agency — must rely on the document and needs certainty about who signed it.

Situations that almost always require a notarised instrument

1. Appointing someone to sign on your behalf at the Ministry of Commerce, MISA, ZATCA, MHRSD or a Saudi bank.
2. Establishing or amending a limited liability company where the articles of association must be recorded.
3. Transferring shares in an LLC between shareholders, or admitting a new shareholder.
4. Buying, selling or mortgaging real property, where the deed must be registered.
5. Filing an execution (enforcement) request against a debtor, where the underlying instrument must be an executive bond.
6. Granting a manager authority to open, operate or close a corporate bank account.

Situations where you probably do not need a notary

• Employment contracts — these are authenticated through the Qiwa platform under the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, not through a notary.
• Commercial supply agreements and NDAs between private parties.
• Internal company policies and staff handbooks.
• Invoices and tax documents — these follow ZATCA e-invoicing (Fatoora) rules instead.

Foreign companies setting up in the Kingdom encounter the notary at two specific moments: once when the parent company’s own corporate documents are legalised abroad and brought in, and again when the Saudi entity’s articles of association are recorded locally. Our guide to company formation in Saudi Arabia maps how those two moments fit into the wider incorporation sequence.

How to use Najiz for notary services: step-by-step

Najiz is the front door. The interface is available in Arabic and English, and access is granted through your Absher credentials via the Nafath single sign-on app. Below is the general path; individual services vary slightly in the number of confirmation screens.

1. Open najiz.sa and select Login (تسجيل الدخول) in the top-right corner. Choose Individuals or Business Sector depending on whether you are acting personally or for a registered establishment.
2. Authenticate with Nafath. Enter your national ID or Iqama number, then open the Nafath app on your phone and tap the matching two-digit number shown on screen. If you do not have Nafath, register it first through Absher.
3. Choose the service family. From the dashboard, select Notary Services (الخدمات العدلية) or, for property, Real Estate Deeds. A tile grid appears with the individual services — Issue Power of Attorney, Cancel Power of Attorney, Deed Transfer, Company Articles, and so on.
4. Complete the service form. Najiz pre-fills your own details from the national records. You enter the counterparty’s ID number and date of birth (or CR number for companies), then pick the exact powers or terms from a controlled list — you do not free-type legal clauses for standard instruments.
5. Review and submit. Read the generated draft carefully. Once you press Submit, an OTP is sent to the mobile number registered in Absher. Enter it to sign.
6. Await counterparty confirmation. For two-sided instruments (deed transfers, share transfers), the other party receives a notification in their own Najiz account and must accept within the stated window. The instrument issues only after both confirmations.
7. Download the output. The notarised instrument appears under My Documents with a QR verification code and a reference number. Anyone — a bank, a ministry, a court — can verify it by scanning that code.

If the automated path rejects your request, Najiz offers a Notary Appointment booking service that assigns you a slot at a notary public office or a licensed private notary. Bring original identity documents; the notary re-verifies in person and completes the same electronic record.

Documents and credentials you need before you start

The single most common cause of a failed notarisation is a mismatch between the details you type and the details held in the national records. Prepare the following before opening the portal.

For individuals

• Valid national ID (for Saudi citizens) or valid Iqama (for residents), with the number exactly as printed.
• An active Absher account with a verified, current mobile number — OTPs go there and nowhere else.
• Nafath app installed and registered on that same phone.
• The counterparty’s full ID number and date of birth in Hijri, as recorded on their own ID.

For companies

• Unified national Commercial Register number. Under the new Commercial Register Law effective 3 April 2026, CR identifiers begin with “7”, have no expiry date, and require an annual confirmation instead of renewal.
• A Najiz business account linked to the CR, with the authorised manager delegated on the record.
• Current articles of association and any prior amendments.
• For foreign-owned entities, the MISA investment licence. Note that MISA licence issue and renewal fees were suspended in 2026 — see our breakdown of the MISA licence in Saudi Arabia for what that changes in practice.
• Board or shareholder resolution authorising the specific act, where the articles require it.

For documents originating outside Saudi Arabia

A power of attorney signed in London or Mumbai cannot be uploaded straight into Najiz. It follows the legalisation chain: notarisation in the country of origin, authentication by that country’s foreign ministry, then attestation by the Saudi embassy or consulate there, and finally verification through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Kingdom. Documents not in Arabic must be translated by a translator licensed in Saudi Arabia; the translation is attached to the original and both travel together.

Notary fees and timelines in Saudi Arabia (2026)

Government charges for core notary acts are modest, and several digital services carry no direct fee at all. The costs that actually move your budget are translation, legalisation abroad, and — for property — the real estate transaction tax, which is administered separately by ZATCA. All figures below are indicative; confirm current figures on the official portal before you commit.

Service	Where	Indicative government fee (SAR)	Typical timeline
Issue power of attorney (digital)	Najiz	0 (no direct fee)	Instant to 1 business day
Cancel / amend power of attorney	Najiz	0 (no direct fee)	Instant
Notarise company articles of association	Najiz / Saudi Business Center	0–500 (bundled in formation)	1–3 business days
Share transfer / shareholder amendment	Najiz + Ministry of Commerce	Indicative 500–1,500	3–7 business days
Real estate deed transfer	Najiz	Indicative 100–300 registration	1–5 business days
Real estate transaction tax (RETT)	ZATCA	5% of property value	Paid before deed issues
Certified Arabic translation	Licensed translator	Indicative 80–200 per page	1–3 business days
Saudi embassy attestation abroad	Saudi mission	Varies by country	3–15 business days
Commercial Register issuance	Ministry of Commerce	1,200–2,000	Same day (digital)
Chamber of Commerce membership	Chamber	2,000–3,000 per year	1–2 business days

Two planning notes. First, the digital-first services are genuinely fast — a power of attorney issued at 9am is usable at a bank counter the same afternoon, because the bank verifies it electronically rather than inspecting paper. Second, the slow part of any cross-border matter is always the legalisation chain abroad, not the Saudi side. Build 2 to 3 weeks into your timeline for documents that have to travel.

Powers of attorney: the most-used notary service

The wakalah is the workhorse of Saudi business administration. It lets a manager, a PRO, or a law firm transact on your behalf without you appearing personally at every counter. Najiz issues it in minutes, and its powers are drawn from a structured catalogue rather than free text.

Choosing the right powers

When you build a power of attorney on Najiz, you tick specific powers from categories such as government transactions, banking, real estate, litigation, and company management. Ticking everything is tempting and unwise. A narrowly drawn wakalah limited to, say, “represent before the Ministry of Commerce and the Saudi Business Center” achieves the operational goal without exposing your bank accounts.

Duration and revocation

You set an expiry date at issuance. Many businesses default to one year and renew deliberately. Revocation is immediate and free: open Najiz, select Cancel Power of Attorney, choose the instrument, confirm with OTP. The agent receives an automatic notification and the instrument stops verifying at every counter in the Kingdom within moments — which is precisely why paper copies are meaningless. Institutions check the live record.

Verifying a wakalah someone shows you

If a counterparty presents a power of attorney, do not accept the PDF at face value. Najiz publishes a public verification service: enter the instrument number and the agent’s ID, and the system returns the current status and the exact powers granted. This takes under a minute and prevents most agency disputes before they start.

Company instruments: articles, resolutions and share transfers

For a limited liability company, the articles of association are the founding instrument. Under the current system, the articles are drafted and recorded electronically through the Ministry of Commerce and the Saudi Business Center, with the notarisation layer handled through the same digital chain rather than by a separate visit.

The sequence for a foreign-owned LLC generally runs: MISA investment licence first (licensing typically takes 3 to 10 business days), then reservation of the trade name, then electronic drafting and notarisation of the articles, then issuance of the Commercial Register, then Chamber of Commerce membership, then registrations with ZATCA for VAT at 15%, with GOSI for social insurance where total contributions for a Saudi employee run around 21.5% across employer and employee, and with MHRSD and Qiwa for labour file activation.

Amending the articles

1. Pass a shareholders’ resolution approving the change, in the form the articles require.
2. Log into the Ministry of Commerce services with the CR credentials and open Amend Articles of Association.
3. Enter the amendment; the system generates a revised text.
4. All shareholders — or their attorneys under a valid wakalah — confirm electronically.
5. The amended articles publish to the register, and the CR record updates automatically.

Since the Commercial Register Law took effect on 3 April 2026, the register is unified nationally, English trade names are permitted, and existing registrations have a five-year grace period to align. Practically, this removes a whole category of branch-register amendments that used to require separate notarial steps in each city.

Real estate deeds and property notarisation

Property is where notarisation carries the most financial weight. Saudi title deeds are now electronic instruments held in the Najiz deed registry, and transfers happen between two authenticated parties with the tax settled before issuance.

1. Seller opens Najiz and selects Real Estate Deeds, then Transfer Deed.
2. Seller enters the buyer’s ID and the agreed value, then submits.
3. The system routes the transaction to ZATCA for real estate transaction tax at 5% of the declared value, with statutory exemptions applied where they exist.
4. Buyer receives the request in their own Najiz account, reviews the deed details and the tax position, and confirms.
5. Once RETT is settled, the old deed is cancelled and a new electronic deed issues to the buyer, with an instant QR-verifiable record.

Mortgages follow the same logic: the lender’s charge is registered against the electronic deed and shows on any subsequent verification, so a buyer can see encumbrances before paying. For commercial premises, remember the municipal layer too — the Balady platform handles the municipal licence for the address, and a deed alone does not authorise trading from the site.

Related government platforms you will touch alongside Najiz

Notarisation rarely happens in isolation. A single corporate action often threads through four or five platforms, and knowing which one owns which record saves days.

• Najiz — Ministry of Justice: powers of attorney, deeds, execution, case filing.
• Absher — Ministry of Interior: identity, Nafath authentication, dependants, vehicle and travel services.
• Muqeem — resident data for companies: Iqama status, exit-re-entry, passport records.
• Qiwa — MHRSD labour platform: contracts, establishment file, Saudisation status.
• ZATCA — tax and customs: VAT at 15%, e-invoicing waves, RETT, corporate income tax and zakat.
• GOSI — social insurance registration and contributions.
• Saudi Business Center — unified licensing counter across ministries.
• Etimad — government procurement; notarised authorisations are often required to bid.
• Monsha’at — SME authority support programmes and enablers.
• MOFA visa platform (Enjaz) — visa issuance and document verification for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs chain.

Iqama issuance and renewal for staff sits in the Absher and Muqeem layer, with a government fee of roughly SAR 650 per year plus applicable levies — indicative, and worth confirming on the official portal each cycle since levy schedules are periodically updated.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Mobile number not updated in Absher. The OTP goes to the registered number only. If your phone changed, fix Absher first — nothing on Najiz will work until you do.
• Gregorian instead of Hijri date of birth. Counterparty verification frequently fails on this alone. Copy the date exactly as printed on their ID.
• Over-broad powers of attorney. Granting banking and property powers when you only needed government representation creates avoidable exposure.
• Forgetting to revoke. When a manager or PRO leaves, cancel their wakalah the same day. It takes two minutes and closes the risk instantly.
• Assuming a foreign notarisation is enough. Without the full embassy attestation and MOFA chain, an overseas power of attorney will not be accepted.
• Uncertified translation. Only a translator licensed in the Kingdom produces a translation that ministries accept.
• Name mismatches across records. If your passport, Iqama, CR and articles spell the name differently, correct the records before notarising, not after.
• Ignoring the counterparty confirmation window. Two-sided instruments lapse if the other party does not accept in time; you then repeat the whole submission.
• Notarising before the RETT position is clear. On property, settle the tax question first — exemptions must be claimed at the right moment.
• Treating a PDF as proof. Always verify through the QR or the instrument number. Institutions in the Kingdom check the live record, and so should you.

How Noble Core helps with notary services in Saudi Arabia

Most of what is described above is genuinely self-service — the Ministry of Justice has built a strong digital system, and a Saudi-resident manager with Nafath can handle routine notarisations without help. The friction appears in three places: when the signatory sits abroad, when the corporate chain of authority is complicated, and when notarisation is one dependency inside a larger licensing sequence with MISA, the Ministry of Commerce, ZATCA and GOSI all waiting on each other.

That is where we work. Our team sequences the legalisation chain for overseas documents so nothing arrives out of order, drafts powers of attorney scoped to exactly the authority needed and no more, and runs the government counters through Noble Core’s PRO and mandoob service so your managers are not spending days on portals. For companies incorporating from scratch, notarisation of the articles is simply one step in a package that starts from SAR 36,999 and covers the MISA licence, the Commercial Register, Chamber membership, tax and social insurance registrations, and the bank account introduction.

The practical advice we give every client is the same: build your identity infrastructure first. Get Absher and Nafath working for every person who will ever need to sign, get the CR-linked Najiz business account activated, and delegate authority deliberately. Companies that do this find that Saudi notarisation is one of the faster parts of doing business in the Kingdom — a same-day digital act completed entirely online, which is exactly what the Vision 2030 digital government programme set out to achieve.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are notary services in Saudi Arabia?

Notary services in Saudi Arabia are the formal authentication of legal instruments by a notary public or licensed private notary under Ministry of Justice supervision. Covered instruments include powers of attorney, company articles of association, share transfers and property deeds. Almost all of these are now completed digitally through the Najiz portal at najiz.sa in 3 to 6 online steps.

How do I use Najiz for notary services saudi businesses need?

Open najiz.sa, log in with your national ID or Iqama number, and authenticate through the Nafath app by tapping the matching two-digit code. Select Notary Services from the dashboard, choose the specific service tile, complete the pre-filled form, and confirm with the OTP sent to your Absher-registered mobile number. The instrument then appears under My Documents.

How much do notary services cost in Saudi Arabia in 2026?

Many core digital notary acts on Najiz, including issuing and cancelling a power of attorney, carry no direct government fee. Share transfers and register amendments are indicatively SAR 500 to 1,500, deed registration roughly SAR 100 to 300, and real estate transaction tax is 5% of value via ZATCA. Confirm current figures on the official portal.

How long does notarisation take in Saudi Arabia?

Digital powers of attorney on Najiz issue instantly or within one business day. Company articles of association typically notarise in 1 to 3 business days, share transfers and register amendments in 3 to 7 business days, and property deed transfers in 1 to 5 business days once the ZATCA tax position is settled. Overseas legalisation adds 2 to 3 weeks.

Can a foreigner use notary services in Saudi Arabia?

Yes. Any resident holding a valid Iqama with an active Absher account and Nafath registration can use Najiz notary services directly. Non-resident foreigners cannot log in and must instead have documents notarised in their home country, authenticated by that country’s foreign ministry, attested at a Saudi embassy, then verified through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

What documents do I need for a Saudi power of attorney?

You need your valid national ID or Iqama number, an active Absher account with a current mobile number for OTPs, and the Nafath app installed. You also need the agent’s full ID number and their Hijri date of birth exactly as printed on their ID. Companies additionally need a CR-linked Najiz business account and manager delegation.

How do I cancel a power of attorney in Saudi Arabia?

Log into najiz.sa, open Notary Services, and choose Cancel Power of Attorney. Select the instrument from your list and confirm with the OTP sent to your Absher-registered number. Cancellation is free and effective immediately, the agent receives an automatic notification, and the instrument stops verifying at banks and government counters within moments.

Do company articles of association need notarisation in Saudi Arabia?

Yes. Articles of association for a limited liability company must be recorded through the electronic chain run by the Ministry of Commerce and the Saudi Business Center, with the notarisation layer handled digitally. Under the Commercial Register Law effective 3 April 2026, the register is unified nationally, CR numbers begin with 7, and English trade names are permitted.