Certification, verification and legalisation of documents

We will require your original documents to provide this service. We will hold these securely until the service is complete and the documents can be returned to you. We will retain a copy for our records. We will also record your name, type of document, the date of transaction and any other relevant details for our records. This will be kept securely and will not be provided to any other parties unless we are legally required to do so.

How to certify your documents?

1. Visit our Customer Services Centre and submit the original documents. You will also need to read and sign our Request Form and specify the number of certified copies you need for each of the documents. 
2. You will receive an email notification when your documents are ready to collect. 
3. Visit our Customer Services Centre to pay the certification fee and collect your original documents and the certified copies you have ordered.

What we will do

When you submit your documents for certification we will:

• Check if your documents are eligible for  certification service
• Photocopy the original documents and apply the certification stamp on the number of copies you have requested

We will require your original documents to provide this service. We will hold these securely until the service is complete and the documents can be returned to you. We will also need to send copies of your document to the issuing bodies. This may be done either physically or electronically. If any fraud is discovered, we will also pass details on to the relevant legal bodies.

Following completion of the service, we will retain a copy for our records. We will also record your name, type of document, the date of transaction and any other relevant details for our records. This will be kept securely and will not be provided to any other parties unless we are legally required to do so.

How to verify your documents?

1. Visit our Customer Services Centre and submit the original documents. You will also need to read and sign our Request Form and specify whether you will also need assistance with the legalisation of the documents. If somebody else will be collecting your verified documents on your behalf, you will also need to read and sign the Authorisation Section of the Request Form.
2. We can only verify after we have confirmation of the authenticity of the original document from the issuing body. For this purpose, you have to sign our Third Party Consent Form. To complete the process we will also apply a verification stamp on the back of your original document. For this purpose, you have to sign our Consent to Stamp Original Document.
3. You will receive an email notification when your documents are ready and you can collect them. This normally takes 10 working days.
4. Pay the corresponding service fee in one of the ways specified below.
5. Visit our Customer Services Centre to collect your verified original documents.

Once this process has been completed, you may refer to the website of FCO Legalisation Department for details on how to submit your documents for legalisation, should you wish to do so. You can also use our assistance service, which means that after verifying your documents we can directly submit them to the FCO Legalisation Department, on your behalf. If you wish to use our assistance service, you can indicate this in the Request Form in step 1 of the process described above. 

What we will do

When you submit your documents for verification we will:

• Check if your documents are eligible for verification service
• We will send a scanned copy of your document to the issuing body
• If the issuing body confirms the authenticity of the document we will apply the verification stamp on the back of your original document.

If your documents are already verified by us or another British Council office, we can assist you with legalising them. 

Legalisation is the official confirmation that a signature, seal or stamp on a public document is genuine. Legalisation is usually required by foreign authorities before they will allow a UK document to be used for official purposes in their country. The Legalisation Department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is the authority that issues apostille stamps in the UK, for holders of UK degrees who seek recognition of their UK awards in their country of residence. 

Once your documents are verified by the British Council, you can either send them to the FCO Legalisation Department and follow the procedure described on their website or authorise us to send them on your behalf. 

How to use our assistance service for legalisation of your documents?

1. If your documents are already verified by us or another British Council office, you can visit our Customer Services Centre and request assistance with legalisation. You will need to bring the verified original documents and read and sign our Request Form. If somebody else will be collecting your verified documents on your behalf, you will also need to read and sign the Authorisation Section of the Request Form.
2. You will receive an email notification when your documents are ready and you can collect them. This normally takes 3 weeks.
3. Pay the corresponding service fee in one of the ways specified below.
4. Visit our Customer Services Centre to collect your legalised original documents.