How To Notorize & Attest Documents from Third Countries for Immigration

[sgilli3]

Pooji
You may need to have the documents couriered to Pakistan to be attested then

[hksgp]

It is indeed a very tedious process. We found that embassies and university officials are not very helpful, not so much because they are rude, but because they simply do not have any experience in and process for managing this requirement. UAE is probably one of the few countries, if any, that are so meticulous about authentication of documents.

You may want to check if the Embassy of Pakistan in the UAE will be able to notarize your birth and marriage certificates, as some countries can. You can then get those attested by the Foreign Ministry of the UAE before you apply for Residence Permits.

The key is to get the degree attested and apostiled asap since it is required for the job holder's work visa application. Spouse and dependent children with passports from certain countries should be able to enter on a visitor visa and then converted to Residents.

To attest and apostile the degree, the fastest way may be to go through the university directly if you can. Otherwise, Index Group or IntegraScreen can both handle that on your behalf but it may take weeks. You may want to approach your company's PRO and ask them for help.

[GSK]

My husband and I are Indian Nationals moving to Dubai, but have been in UK or the past 6 years. Our kids were born in UK. My ques is
1)where do I send their Birth Certs to be notarised.
2)Also what about other certs that we have got here in UK (eg: My teaching Diploma cert from a college in london)
3)I guess the marraige cert will have to be done from India as we were married here? Or is the Indian embassy allowed to do this?
What other certs are we needed to have notarised?

[MichelleAlison]

Originally Posted by GSK

My husband and I are Indian Nationals moving to Dubai, but have been in UK or the past 6 years. Our kids were born in UK. My ques is
1)where do I send their Birth Certs to be notarised.
2)Also what about other certs that we have got here in UK (eg: My teaching Diploma cert from a college in london)
3)I guess the marraige cert will have to be done from India as we were married here? Or is the Indian embassy allowed to do this?
What other certs are we needed to have notarised?

British birth and marriage certificates can be legalised at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office either in person or by post and I think that they can also legalise teaching qualifications obtained in the UK. Here is the FCO website regarding Legalisation. You might be able to find out information there regarding other documents.

Good luck

Michelle

[nellie]

Originally Posted by Irish Ivy

Nellie,

We are also South Africans (living in Ireland) and hoping to move out to Abu Dhabi soon. My understanding of the process is that the documents need to be certified/attested by both the issuing country and the UAE officialdom.

We had our documents attested by the South African Embassy over here in Ireland. Take the originals along with a copy and they will stamp it all. You then need to take this copy, again along with the original, to the 'Home Office' in the UAE and they will certifiy it as well. We had birth certs, marraige certs, passport page copies done.

If you are going on a 'scouting mission' it would be the ideal time to do this. We left it to the last day without relaising that the government offices are only open till luch time. So we will just have to do it next time.


We did not realise at the time we had to have the Educational things done so I'm not too sure how this works

Hope this helps,

hi Irish Ivy
I went to the SA consulate here in Geneva and they said they cannot appostile any docs for me. They are happy to do it for me but to be honest I think I will be in Dubai by then. I need to re apply for all our certificates and ask the foreign office in South Africa to appostile it for us the same time. I will ask them to send it to my husbands office for we dont have an address there yet.
Thanks for the help

[hope]

Hi,

I've been following this thread over the last few days and was glad when 'worchyld' posted the 'unsilly' question! I am coming from the UK with my husband and three kids in August. Should I be getting any of our documents notorized or attested before coming over? Why would I need notorized documents? The only silly question is the one that remains unanswered!

Thanks for your help!

[MichelleAlison]

Originally Posted by hope

Hi,

I've been following this thread over the last few days and was glad when 'worchyld' posted the 'unsilly' question! I am coming from the UK with my husband and three kids in August. Should I be getting any of our documents notorized or attested before coming over? Why would I need notorized documents? The only silly question is the one that remains unanswered!

Thanks for your help!

The reason we need to legalise, apostile, attest and notorize documents is to show another government that they are legal documents and that the signatures are true and/or have been witnessed by an appropriate person. Saying that, they can only confirm the signature and not the contents. For example, if you have your university degree legalised, they are only confirming the signature and not the contents.

Here in Argentina everything, including police checks and school documents had to be legalised in the UK. They were then translated and legalised in Argentina before they were accepted.

I suggest that the following documents are legalised before you leave:

Birth certificates
Marriage certificates
Police checks
All qualifications (if relevant)
Letters from schools stating which year your child completed

Make sure you have letters/statements showing where your money has come from i.e. sale of property, insurance policy, savings, pensions etc.

Translation of documents can be done in the relevant country.

I hope this is more helpful.

Regards

Michelle

[worchyld]

Please clarify the following with regards to certifying, nortaising and attested (CNA);

1) Can the the notaries society (Welcome to the Notaries Society) do CNA?

2) Can a magistrate office perform CNA?

3) According to the UK FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth office) they charge £27 for each signature/stamp/seal that they legalise. Do they not charge by bulk, otherwise it'll cost you well over £100 for all the documents, stamps you might need.

4) On "http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/about-the-fco/what-we-do/docs-and-legal-services/legalisation/legalising" what is a British Council -- do they mean you local authority?

5) On the FCO site (All educational documents must be signed by a UK solicitor or notary) -- can this be done in bulk?

6) Do any documents you get CNA'd, do they have to be CNAed again by the UAE office?

7) Is it better/cheaper to go to the UAE office, magistrate, FCO, or someone else?

[MichelleAlison]

Originally Posted by worchyld

Please clarify the following with regards to certifying, nortaising and attested (CNA);

1) Can the the notaries society (Welcome to the Notaries Society) do CNA?

What do you mean by CNA? From what I read, even if a signature is notorised, it still has to be apostilled at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as is stated on your link. Some countries also require documents to be legalised at the appropriate Embassy.

2) Can a magistrate office perform CNA?

Don't think so, although not sure what you mean by CNA?

3) According to the UK FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth office) they charge £27 for each signature/stamp/seal that they legalise. Do they not charge by bulk, otherwise it'll cost you well over £100 for all the documents, stamps you might need.

Two years ago I paid £19 a document, last April (07) this went up to £24 per document - I can't belive it has now gone up to £27 a document - 40% increase and there's no inflation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! With regard to legalising in bulk, I don't think this exists, well it didn't two years ago and I doubt it does now. They know people have no choice, so we have to pay.


4) On "http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/about-the-fco/what-we-do/docs-and-legal-services/legalisation/legalising" what is a British Council -- do they mean you local authority?

No it's not your local council. The British Council helps to form relationships with other countries regarding all types of things such as jobs etc. This link will help you understand British Council corporate website


5) On the FCO site (All educational documents must be signed by a UK solicitor or notary) -- can this be done in bulk?

You should phone a local solicitor or notary and ask. In my opinion they will charge per document.

6) Do any documents you get CNA'd, do they have to be CNAed again by the UAE office?

As I said above, some countries require the Embassy of the country to also legalise the document as well as the FCO. If I remember rightly, UAE require both, but please check the Dubai forum.

7) Is it better/cheaper to go to the UAE office, magistrate, FCO, or someone else?

When I researched this, the FCO was the cheapest place. It doesn't matter who does the job for you, they will just charge you an extra fee for sending the documents to the FCO. I found this out in Argentina. I asked the British Embassy to get my documents legalised at the FCO and they charged a huge fee on top of the above fee of £27. I just did it myself via the post.

I hope the information I have given you is correct, but it is from my own experience and this is a very common question and it can be very daunting and EXPENSIVE.

Regards

Michelle

[worchyld]

I'm going to be calling:
* Local magistrate office
* Local notary office
* FCO
* UAE embassy

to get to the bottom of what is needed, who can do it, etc.

"what you mean by CNA?"

In Dubai Red Tape Explorer, 3rd Edition on page 11 it says;

"Ensure all documents have been notarised (and attested if applicable) before moving to Dubai.... Notarisation procedures vary from country to country... it's best to contact your embassy in the UAE for precise instructions regarding authentication and costs. In all cases, a copy of the documents must be stamped by a Notary Public, then endorsed by the Ministry of Foreign Affiars and the UAE embassy"

The terms it gives are:

Certified
= A copy of the original document, certified by the issuing authority.
= Certifies that the document is genuine.

Notarised
= A certified copy of an original document duly notraised by a Notary Public or other authorised person.
= Certfies that the signature is geninue.

Attested
= A certified, notarised copy of an original document bearing the stamp of a UAE embassy abroad.
= The issuing institution is geniune.

It does not say anything about gettiing documents apostilled.

It does say that you can ask the Notary to bind documents together with a cover page - to classify it as one document; thus reducing costs.

But I'm still going to get a few things confirmed with the FCO, UAE embassy and a local notary service to see what's what.