Apostille on Academic Certificates FAQs

Frequently asked questions relating to legalising your academic documents with the apostille.

Legalising academic certificates and qualifications can be complicated. Here we try to answer some of the FAQs we get regarding apostilles for degree and other academic documents.

FAQs

We are able to legalise either the originals or copies of your Academic Certificates. Unfortunately we cannot make this decision for you and we recommend that you check with the authorities overseas to see if a copy document will be accepted. Understandably, most customers prefer that copies of their documents are processed so the originals can be preserved. However, if the authorities overseas are requesting you have the originals legalised then a copy may not be acceptable. Before proceeding with the legalisation of academic documents we always recommend asking this question to the authorities requesting your documents so you are able to gain exact confirmation.

Before documents can be legalised with the UK Apostille they must be signed by somebody who is seen as a high enough legal standing. Therefore, academic documents must be signed by a UK Solicitor or Notary Public. If you have not taken your document to a Solicitor/Notary prior to sending this to us then we can arrange for your document to be certified by one of our solicitors. Our apostille with certification fee covers both the apostille and solicitor certification. This service will see the document be certified either as an original or copy by one of our solicitors.

In some cases, if we are processing multiple academic documents for the same person we are able to provide a more cost effective option for clients as we legalise documents together as a ‘Bound Set’. This service will see one of our local solicitors create and sign a cover sheet confirming which documents are part of the set. Once this has been created the cover will then be physically attached to the documents with the use legal bindings. The apostille is then attached to the cover sheet legalising all documents in the set. Before proceeding with this form of legalisation we do recommend you check with the people requesting your documents whether it would be acceptable. They may specifically request the documents are legalised individually and if so this process would not be suitable for you.

When legalising a degree document the authorities overseas may also request that you have the supporting transcript legalised. If this is the case you may choose to legalise the documents individually or via our Bound Set option. In most cases we legalise only the degree, although we do recommend that you check this with the authorities overseas as sometimes some people do like seeing the breakdown of the grades.

Providing that your academic documents have been issued by a recognised UK Awarding Body then we will be able to legalise these for you. This includes Degrees, A-Levels, Diplomas, GCSE’s, BTECs and many more.

We also process professional qualifications,, membership certificates, TELFs, TESOLs and other genuine UK awards and certificates.

If your academic document was purchased via an online service, which are not recognised by an official awarding body, then unfortunately we will not be able to assist you. We do not assist any customers with fake certificates or documents that could mislead overseas authorities.

We are able to provide embassy attestation on UK academic certificates once we have legalised them with the apostille. This fully inclusive service will ensure your documents are correctly attested for use overseas. For the latest prices on embassy attestation please contact us by email or visit our embassy pages online. Processing times vary with each embassy.

Simple to Order

Order and pay online, then simply post your documents to us.

Complete Service

One stop service solicitor certification, UK apostille and embassy attestation.

Apostille Service

FCDO apostille included in the service, saving your weeks in processing.

Experienced Team

With over 20 years experience we have a team of trained legalisation experts.

Solicitor Certification

Using our recognised FCDO solicitor we can certify your documents to save you time and money.

International Delivery

On completion we can ship the documents anywhere in the world.

Need advice?

Contact our legalisation team for expert advice.

Legalising academic documents can be a time consuming and confusing process. Making sure your document is correctly certified and presented, paying solicitors and notaries, travelling around town, researching the Legalisation Office and the risk of making a mistake and repeating the process.

Help is on hand. With over 20 years of experience legalising academic documents with the FCOD and many of the embassies, consulates and High Commissions in London we know the best methods to quickly complete orders.