Free affidavit form

How to fill it in

The form is short on purpose. The care goes into the facts, not the boilerplate.

• Venue: fill in the state and county where you will actually meet the notary. This is where the notarial act happens, and it is not necessarily where you live.
• Affiant details: your full legal name, address, and date of birth, matching the ID you will show the notary.
• Facts: one fact per numbered paragraph, in plain sentences, with dates, places, names, and amounts. Short and specific beats long and general.
• Information and belief: if you did not witness something yourself, say so in that paragraph and name where the information came from. Do not quietly present it as firsthand.
• Exhibits: label each attachment (Exhibit A, Exhibit B) and refer to it by that label in the fact paragraphs.
• Purpose: name the agency, institution, or case. A receiving party wants to see that the affidavit was made for them.
• Do not sign it. Bring it unsigned, with photo ID, and sign in front of the notary.
• Leave the jurat blank. The notary completes it.

Jurat vs. acknowledgment, and why this trips people up

This is the single most useful thing to understand about an affidavit, and it is the reason a lot of downloaded forms get bounced. Both are notarial acts, both require the notary to identify you, and both end in a stamped certificate, so they look interchangeable on the page. They are not.

• A jurat is what an affidavit needs. You appear before the notary, the notary administers an oath or affirmation, you sign in the notary's presence, and the notary certifies all of that. California, for example, prescribes the jurat by statute at Government Code section 8202, in the form "Subscribed and sworn to (or affirmed) before me on this ___ day of ___, 20__, by ______, proved to me on the basis of satisfactory evidence to be the person(s) who appeared before me." That section also requires a notice in an enclosed box at the top of the jurat, stating that the officer completing the certificate verifies only the identity of the person who signed and not the truthfulness, accuracy, or validity of the document. That is a good illustration of why you should use your own state's prescribed form rather than any generic block, this one included.
• An acknowledgment is what a deed needs. You confirm to the notary that the signature is yours and that you signed voluntarily. No oath is administered, and you may have signed the document earlier.
• The practical difference: a jurat puts you under oath, so a lie exposes you to perjury. An acknowledgment does not, so an affidavit carrying only an acknowledgment has no sworn statement in it at all.
• Timing follows from that. Under a jurat you must sign in front of the notary. Under an acknowledgment you need not have.
• It is the document, and what the receiving party needs, that decides which act applies, not the notary. Practice varies on how much help a notary can give here. Choosing the certificate for you edges into advising you on your document, which notaries are generally not permitted to do, though some states do let a notarial officer complete an appropriate certificate where the document specifies none, and a notary may ask which act you want. What you should not expect is for the notary to spot that your affidavit has the wrong block and quietly fix it. Turn up knowing you need a jurat.
• This form ships with a jurat, and the block says so in plain words so nobody swaps it out by accident.

Personal knowledge is what makes an affidavit worth anything

An affidavit is a substitute for live testimony, so it is held to the same basic standard as testimony. The affiant must have personal knowledge of what they are swearing to. Federal Rule of Evidence 602 puts it directly: a witness may testify to a matter only if evidence is introduced sufficient to support a finding that the witness has personal knowledge of the matter. In civil litigation, Rule 56(c)(4) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure carries that into paper form, requiring that an affidavit or declaration used to support or oppose a summary judgment motion be made on personal knowledge, set out facts that would be admissible in evidence, and show that the affiant is competent to testify on the matters stated. Read that as three separate tests, because an affidavit can fail any one of them. Statements that begin "I believe" or "I understand that" are not personal knowledge. Repeating what a third party told you is hearsay, and unless an exception applies it would not be admissible if you said it from the witness stand, so it does not become admissible because you wrote it down and had it notarized. Conclusions do not help either: "the contractor was negligent" is an opinion the court will draw or reject, while "the contractor left the trench open and unmarked overnight on 14 March" is a fact you can swear to. There is a real cost to getting this wrong in a court filing. Rule 56(h) allows a court, after notice and a reasonable time to respond, to order the submitting party to pay the other side's reasonable expenses, including attorney's fees, where an affidavit is submitted in bad faith or solely for delay, and to hold an offending party or attorney in contempt.

• Swear to what you saw, heard, did, signed, received, or personally checked.
• Flag anything you were told by someone else, and say who told you.
• Give dates, times, places, and amounts. Vagueness reads as invention.
• Leave out opinions, characterizations, and legal conclusions.
• Attach the document rather than describing it from memory.

Affidavit or unsworn declaration?

You do not always need a notary. Federal law lets an unsworn written declaration stand in for a sworn affidavit in most federal matters, if it is dated and signed and carries the exact statutory wording. Under 28 U.S.C. 1746, a declaration executed inside the United States, its territories, possessions, or commonwealths uses the form "I declare (or certify, verify, or state) under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on (date). (Signature)." A declaration executed outside the United States adds the phrase "under the laws of the United States of America." That difference is not decorative, and a declaration signed abroad without the extra phrase can be challenged. The statute has limits worth knowing. It does not apply to a deposition, to an oath of office, or to an oath required to be taken before a specified official other than a notary public. And it is not a softer option: the federal perjury statute, 18 U.S.C. 1621, expressly reaches statements made under penalty of perjury as permitted by 28 U.S.C. 1746, so the exposure is the same as swearing in front of a notary. State practice varies a great deal. California allows an unsworn declaration under Code of Civil Procedure section 2015.5, but a declaration executed within California must state the place of execution as well as the date, which is a requirement people routinely miss. New York went further, and then went further again. CPLR 2106, as amended effective 1 January 2024, let any person affirm the truth of a statement under penalty of perjury, in a prescribed form, in place of an affidavit in a New York action, where previously that had been open mainly to attorneys, physicians, osteopaths and dentists, and to people outside the United States. A further amendment signed in November 2025 extended it beyond affidavits to a certificate, a response to a notice to admit, an answer to interrogatories, a verification of a pleading, a bill of particulars, and any other sworn statement. Use the statutory wording exactly as written rather than paraphrasing it, because courts have rejected modified versions. Outside of court, the receiving party often decides for you, and banks, registrars, insurers, and consulates commonly insist on a notarized affidavit whether or not the law would accept a declaration. This template gives you both blocks so you can use whichever the recipient will take.

• Federal court filing: a 28 U.S.C. 1746 declaration is normally accepted.
• State court: check your state's rule, and check the exact wording it prescribes.
• A bank, consulate, registrar, or title company: expect them to want the notarized version.
• Anything involving a deposition or an oath before a specified official: the declaration route is not available.

The common affidavits, and when to use an official form instead

Most affidavits fall into one of two camps, and knowing which camp yours is in saves a wasted trip to the notary. In the first camp there is no prescribed form, so a general affidavit like this one is exactly right; you simply write the facts. In the second camp a court, a state, or an agency publishes a mandatory form, and a general affidavit will be rejected no matter how well written it is.

• No prescribed form, use this template: affidavit of residence for a school enrolment, affidavit of identity, affidavit of name change to support a record correction, affidavit of one and the same person, affidavit of domicile, affidavit of marriage or cohabitation, affidavit of lost document, affidavit of ownership, affidavit of no income, and general statements of fact for an insurer or employer.
• Affidavit of loss for a lost stock or security certificate: a general affidavit may be the starting point, but expect the issuer to require an indemnity bond as well, which UCC 8-405 permits the issuer to demand before issuing a replacement.
• Small estate affidavit: nearly always a court or state form, with its own value ceiling and waiting period that differ by state. Use your probate court's form, not a generic one.
• Affidavit of heirship: state-specific, and Texas practice, for example, expects it to be sworn by two disinterested witnesses rather than by a family member alone. So no, it is not true that an affidavit never needs witnesses.
• Financial affidavit in a family law case: a mandatory court form in most states, usually with a required schedule format.
• Proof of service: in federal practice, Rule 4(l) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure requires proof of service by the server's affidavit unless service was by a United States marshal, and courts normally supply the form.
• Affidavit of support for immigration: a federal form with its own instructions. Do not substitute a general affidavit.
• The rule of thumb: if a court or agency has a form, use theirs. If nobody has one, use this.

Where the affidavit is sworn, and other venue details people get wrong

The State and County lines at the top of an affidavit are called the venue, and they cause more confusion than anything else on the page. They record where the notarial act was performed, not where the affiant lives, not where the facts happened, and not where the document will be filed. If you live in New Jersey, the events happened in Delaware, and you sign in front of a notary in Manhattan, the venue is New York, New York County. Notarial law is explicit on this point. Washington's version of the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts, for instance, requires the certificate of a notarial act to identify the county and state in which the notarial act is performed. A few related details are worth checking before you go.

• Bring current government photo identification. The notary has to identify you by satisfactory evidence, and that step is required for both jurats and acknowledgments.
• If you cannot swear a religious oath, ask to affirm. An affirmation carries identical legal weight, which is why the standard wording reads "sworn to (or affirmed)."
• A notary may generally only act within the state that commissioned them, which is why the venue names their state and county.
• If your affidavit will be used abroad, ask whether it also needs an apostille or consular legalization. That is a separate step after notarization.
• Check whether the recipient wants the original with a wet seal. Many still do, even when everything else in the transaction is electronic.

Can you sign an affidavit online?

Sometimes, and the honest answer has two parts. The signature itself is rarely the obstacle. The federal ESIGN Act provides that where a law requires a signature to be notarized, that requirement is satisfied if the electronic signature of the person authorized to perform the notarization, together with all other information required to be included, is attached to or logically associated with the record. State versions of the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act take a similar line. The real question is whether the notarial act can happen remotely, and that is answered by your state's notary law rather than by e-signature law. Most states now authorize remote online notarization, in which the affiant appears before the notary by live audio-video link, the session is recorded, and identity is verified through credential analysis and knowledge-based questions. The details vary considerably: which notaries may perform it, what technology is approved, how long the recording must be kept, and whether an out-of-state affiant may use it. Then there is the recipient. A court e-filing system, a bank, a registrar, or a consulate may have its own policy on whether it accepts a remotely notarized or electronically signed affidavit, and that policy governs regardless of what the statute allows. The practical route: prepare and fill in the affidavit electronically, then confirm with whoever is receiving it whether they will take a remotely notarized version, and book an in-person notary if they will not.

Common mistakes to avoid

Affidavits get rejected for a short and repetitive list of reasons. These are the ones that are not obvious from anything above.

• Using an acknowledgment block instead of a jurat, so the document contains no oath.
• Padding the facts with opinion, argument, or characterizations of other people's motives.
• Leaving out a fact that makes the rest of the statement misleading. A true sentence can still be a false affidavit.
• Referring to an attachment you forgot to attach, or attaching exhibits you never label.
• Assuming an unsworn declaration is a lighter-weight option. The perjury exposure is the same.
• Forgetting the extra "under the laws of the United States of America" wording when signing a federal declaration abroad.