How to sign a Notice of protection with a digital signature
Updated 10 October 2026 y.
A Notice of protection can be signed with a digital signature (EDS) right in your cabinet. The signature is registered in the SIGEX service, and a signature stamp, a document card and a verification page appear in the system.
- the "PRO" plan;
- the NCALayer application, installed and running on your computer (download: ncl.pki.gov.kz);
- your digital signature key issued by the NCA of Kazakhstan;
- a generated Notice PDF: the signing button appears only after generation.
Step 1. Prepare the PDF
Check the Notice data and generate the PDF (see the article "Generating and printing a Notice of protection"). It is this file that is signed, so make sure the data is correct.
Step 2. Sign the document
- Open the Notice page. In the "Digital signature" block, click the "Sign with digital signature" button;
- the system prepares the document and connects to NCALayer;
- in the NCALayer window, choose your key and enter the password;
- wait for the signature to be registered in SIGEX.
The signature is calculated on your computer; your key is not sent anywhere. The Notice itself is signed without any marks, so the same PDF can still be printed and signed by hand.
What you will see after signing
The "Digital signature" block shows the "Signed with digital signature" mark, the date of signing and the signer's name, as well as the links:
- Open signature stamp;
- Open PDF card;
- Verification page;
- Verify signature on SigEx.
What each of these documents means is described in the article "Signature stamp, SIGEX card and verification page: what are they?".
If signing failed
- "Could not connect to NCALayer" — start the NCALayer application and try again;
- "Signing was canceled" — you closed the key selection window; click the signing button again;
- there is no "Sign with digital signature" button — first generate the Notice PDF, or the Notice is already signed.
A signed Notice can't be signed again. The signature applies to the file you signed, so the system does not let you change the data of a signed Notice or regenerate and delete its PDF. That is why you should check the data once more before signing.