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Seals and Signatures

seal and signatureOfficial Seals


When you apply your official seal and signature to a document, you are attesting that:
  • Your license or registration is in active status (look up your license here)
  • You were in responsible charge over the engineering work, land surveying work, and photogrammetric mapping work, as evidenced by performing substantially the following:
    • Establishing the manner or method by which services are rendered;
    • Establishing quality controls for the services rendered;
    • Communicating with clients;
    • Reviewing designs, calculations, plans, surveys or maps;
    • Supplying deficiencies found in or correcting errors contained in designs, calculations, plans, surveys or maps;
    • Making changes to documents, including but not limited to, designs, plans, plats, surveys or maps; and
    • With respect to land surveying, reviewing field evidence and making final decisions concerning the placement of survey monuments and surveyed lines.
  • "Supervision and control" means establishing the nature of, directing and guiding the preparation of, and approving the work product and accepting responsibility for the work product, as evidenced by performing the following:
    • Spending time directly supervising the work to assure that the person working under the licensee is familiar with the significant details of the work;
    • Providing oversight, inspection, observation and direction regarding the work being performed;
    • Providing adequate training for persons rendering services and working on projects under the licensee;
    • Maintaining readily accessible contact with the person providing services or performing work by direct proximity or by frequent communication about the services provided or the work performed. Communications between the licensee and persons under the licensee's supervision and control include face-to-face communications, electronic mail, and telephone communications and similar, other communications that are immediate and responsive; and
    • Applying the licensee's seal and signature to a document.
(see OAR 820 division 5 for additional information)

Design of Official Seals

OAR 820-025-0005, Official Seal

(1) Seals, as referenced by ORS 672.020(2) and 672.025(2), must contain the printed name of the registrant, the date of registration, the number of the registrant’s certificate of registration, and the registrant’s professional title. The registrant’s printed name on the seal will be exactly the same as the registrant’s name on file with the Board.

(2) The size, design and content of the seal will be an exact replica, in style, of the examples shown in Exhibit 1 (Official Seals) for the profession or branch of the profession in which the registrant is licensed. (A tolerance of 1/4" is permitted as to the size of the seal). The expiration or renewal date may be made part of the seal. If the expiration or renewal date is not made part of the seal, it must be handwritten, in permanent ink, after the word “Expires” or “Renews.” Reduced or enlarged seals are not permitted on final documents. In addition to these requirements, registrants will use the following seals:

diagrams of official seals




Digital Seal and Signature for Electronic Final Documents


For electronic final documents, a “Digital Seal and Signature” (“digital signature”) is acceptable as an alternative to a stamped or computer-generated image of a seal with handwritten signature in permanent ink, if:

  • The digital signature is unique to the registrant using it;
  • The digital signature is independently verifiable by a Certificate Authority (3rd Party);
  • The digital signature is under the sole control of the registrant using it;
  • The digital signature is linked to the document in such a manner that the digital signature is invalidated if any data in the document is changed;
  • The electronic file that is the final electronic document contains one digital signature that is permanently linked to it;
  • For final electronic files containing a single page, the registrant affixes a computer–generated image of a stamp that bears the phrase “digitally signed” in lieu of and in the location designated for a hand-written signature on that page. The computer-generated image of the stamp must be of a stamp as described in OAR 820-025-0001(1) and (2), including the size prescribed in OAR 820-025-0001 when the page is printed to full size; and,
  • For final electronic files containing multiple pages not considered drawings, surveys, or plats, the registrant affixes a computer-generated image of a stamp that bears the phrase “digitally signed” in lieu of and in the location designated for a hand-written signature to the title page, an index page, or a seals page, provided that the stamped page clearly identifies all the other pages comprising the electronic file. The computer-generated image of the stamp must be of a stamp as described in OAR 820-025-0001(1) and (2), including the size prescribed in OAR 820-025-0001 when the page is printed to full size.
(see OAR 820-025-0010, OAR 820-005-0020 and OAR 820-005-0025 for additional information)