Document Attestation Procedure & Rules

GulfVisa provides a personal document attestation service to get your personal documents attested from the relevant embassy in the UK. All countries that are not part of the Hague Convention require you to get your documents attested beforehand from the relevant embassy before the document can be recognised in that country.

There are a wide variety of terms which are used to describe ‘document ’. These include document legalisation, authentication, stamping, verification and certification.

Process:

There are three compulsory parts to getting your document attested from the relevant embassy.

Firstly, GulfVisa will stamp your document from a Solicitor (some documents are exempt – see blow)

Secondly, we will stamp your document from the British Foreign Ministry (FCO)

Finally, we will stamp your document from the Embassy in London

Other than certain exceptions (see below), any document that is attested in an embassy must be attested from a solicitor and the FCO

Documents Exempt from Solicitor Stamping:

Certain documents are exempt from stamping from a solicitor. These are the only documents included in this exemption:

- Original UK Birth Certificate

- Original UK Marriage Certificate

- Original UK Police Clearance Certificate (ACRO only)

- Original UK Death Certificate

- Original UK Medical Report signed by a UK Doctor*

* UK doctor must be registered with the British Foreign Office (FCO) Legalisation Department

Document Types

Here is a list of some certificate types that can be attested (these are simply common documents that are attested - however more doucment types can be attested. Please contact us for more information if you are unsure as your document is not on the list below)

• Degrees
• Birth Certificate
• Marriage Certificate
• Death Certificate
• Adoption Certificate
• Divorce Documents
• Court Documents
• ACRO Police Documents
• Educational Certificates
• Passport
• Driving Licence
• Finance Documents
• Non-ACRO Police Documents
• Many more other documents

Stamping original or copies of documents

You always need to provide your original certificate. Whether the original document or a copy of it is stamped depends on the following points:

• If your document is not exempt from solicitor stamping, we will make a copy of your document and stamp the copy. This is because the solicitor does not stamp originals. However, the solicitor must still see the original.
• If your document is exempt from solicitor stamping (see above), your original document will be stamped. This is because the FCO does not allow stamping of copies. Therefore, you must provide the original certificate.

Non-ACRO Police Certificates

ACRO Police Certificates are the only police certificates which do not require solicitor attestation. Therefore, you will only have to select the service which includes FCO + relevant embassy attestation. A non-ACRO police certificate can still be stamped, however unlike ACRO it will require attestation from the solicitor before it can be stamped by the FCO and the relevant embassy.

Therefore, please select the service which includes solicitor, FCO and embassy for non-ACRO police certificates

What do GulfVisa do?

GulfVisa provides a service which can get your document attested from up to all three of these government organisations / professions. We provide all three attestations (where solicitor is required) in a single bundled service, in order to get your documents attested as soon as possible from the required embassy. All this with the aim of requiring minimal effort from you.

Please note that the above information describes the document attestation in general. Although this is not common, some embassies have certain different rules & procedures that are applicable to them. Therefore, please read the specific document attestation page for that country's embassy to get all the necessary information.

To get started with your document attestation service today, please click here.