Document Attestation - Part One

This morning, boys and girls, we are going to learn about the process of attesting documents.  Well, at least I'm going to provide a few links and references.  You can learn it on your own.  Or do what we did and ask an enormous favour of a stateside pal who saw to it that my diploma was couriered around Washington getting all the right little stamps and signatures.

Here are few things to know:

1.  Attestation is not the same as apostille.  Be aware of this when you contact your university registrar and they tell you to "just send in a request for a duplicate diploma and write APOSTILLE on the request."  That'll be great if you want to head over to pretty much any country in the world.  Except the UAE.  See, "apostille" refers to a certificate that only applies to countries which are party to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents.  And the UAE isn't party to that convention, so foreign documents like diplomas, marriage licenses, and birth certificates still need to be "legalised."  That is, attested according to the rules of the UAE.   See the US Department of State page for more detailed information:

http://travel.state.gov/family/abduction/hague_issues/hague_issues_562.html

2.  As tempting as it is to go to every forum relating to working in the UAE and start a thread titled "HELP with attesting documents," I advise against this.  Go straight to the horse's mouth - your home country's (i.e., the country in which the original document was issued) embassy site.  Here are a few links:

United States

http://abudhabi.usembassy.gov/document_authentication.html

United Kingdom

http://ukinuae.fco.gov.uk/en/help-for-brit...galise-document

Australia

http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/authen.html

Canada

http://international.gc.ca/about-a_propos/..._documents.aspx

Zayed University in Abu Dhabi has an excellent description of the process on its website:

http://www.zu.ac.ae/employment/html/beforearrive.html#attestingdocuments

3.  The process of attestation can be done once you're in the UAE, but it's going to be a lot easier (and cheaper) to do before you actually move.  Get started on it soon.  As in yesterday.

4.  For most people, the documents that will need to be attested are

• The diploma of the highest degree awarded.  That's diploma, not transcript.  In other words, that fancy calligraphied certificate that you put in a frame and hang in your office.

• Your marriage certificate (if you're married).  I still haven't figured out why this is relevant for a work visa, but there are a lot of things I still haven't figured out about the UAE.

• Birth certificates for your children.

I hope this is a helpful start.  For many of you (like my husband), the process will be taken care of by your employers.  For others (like me), you'll need to take care of attestation (and pay for it) yourselves.  With a little background reading and careful planning, it will all work out.