Attestation explained: order, timing and common mistakes
Attestation makes a document issued in one country legally recognisable in another. The process is rigid: each office only certifies the seal of the office before it, so sequence is everything.
Why the order cannot be changed
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not verify your degree; it verifies the university's or board's seal. The destination embassy in turn verifies the Ministry's seal. If you present a document to a later office before an earlier one has certified it, the document is rejected outright and the chain has to start again.
Educational documents
Degrees and transcripts normally require verification by the issuing university or the higher education authority before anything else. That verification is the slowest stage and is entirely outside an agency's control, which is why we ask clients to begin attestation as soon as employment or admission is likely, not once the offer arrives.
Personal and commercial documents
Birth, marriage and police character certificates typically route through the issuing authority and the relevant regional office before the Ministry stage. Commercial documents such as invoices, certificates of origin and board resolutions are usually certified by a chamber of commerce first, then follow the same path.
- Submit originals; most offices will not attest photocopies
- Names must match your passport exactly across every document
- Damaged, laminated or altered certificates are commonly refused
- Keep certified copies and scans of every stamped page
- Translation, where required, must itself be attested
How long it takes
A straightforward personal document can complete in a few working days. Educational documents needing university or HEC verification frequently take several weeks, and embassy stages add their own queue. We give you a stage-by-stage estimate at the start and tell you where your file is at each handover rather than only at the end.