Bennett1

Hi

My husband starts his new job in in Abu Dhabi very soon and requires to get a number of documents attested. Is attested the same as certified? If so who does it? We are a British married couple living in Australia, who got married while in America, and had a child while in Australia so....

Husband and i have British passports and australian passports.
Husband and i have British birth certificates.
British qualifications (degree certificates)
American marriage certificate.
Child has Australian birth certificate
Child has Australian and British passports.

The company have provide information but it's not clear. Any help on getting these documents 'attested' would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

admon

You need all documents attested by the relevant embassy.

So British ones - Brit Embassy
Oz ones - Oz Embassy

Bambi in Abu Dhabi

Can it be done by any Embassy in the world, Admon? For instance, could their British birth certificates be notarised by the British Embassy in Australia?

admon

I believe so, as British documents can be attested in the UAE, so see no reason why not.
Maybe someone with other experience can enlighten further..

Shehryar

Yep, and after that, if UAE is your final destination, you also need to go to the UAE Embassy in that country. At least that's what I did: Step (i) Certification by my local solicitor, Step (ii) Attested by the FCO in London, Step (iii) Attested by UAE Embassy in London.

If the OP is in Aus, they will probably need to to Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Aussie documents, and to the US and UK embassies for the others.

One issue an acquaintance had with British documents is that the 'non-official' documents were initially certified in the UK by a Notary Public who only had "UK jurisdiction" or some such. They mistakenly didn't get any further proper attestations back in England - and now the British Embassy in Dubai refuses to attest those docs. as without a proper Notary or FCO attestation, they have no way of knowing if they are valid / legal.

Bennett1

Thanks for all the feedback.

Just rang the British High Commission in Canberra Australia and they don't attest documents????? Now what.

Any British person living in Australia had documents attested by the British High Commission in Australia????

Dry as Dust

You have got a complicated situation!

For the degree certificates you should only need to get one attested for visa purposes. This would normally be the highest relevant degree of the person to be employed.

The process varies from country to country.

For UK degrees the degree needs to be copied and the copy attested as a genuine copy by a notary public.

The notarised copy must then be sent to the FCO in the UK who will check and verify its authenticity (they go back to the issuing institution to do this).

The verified notarised copy then has to go to the UAE Embassy in the UK for final attestation. The attested copy should then be sent back to you to provide to your company for visa application purposes.

There are fees to be paid at each stage.

This can be done by post - but is easier done in person.

Alternatively there are companies around who will carry out the process for you for a fee.

I am not familiar with the process for marriage and birth certificates.

I imagine you will have some difficulties with your marriage certificate being American, and your citizenship being British/Australian.

highlander393

that is correct the certificates have to be attested by the relevant uae embassy. for instance my nz degree had to be sent back to a notary public in nz from there it went to the dept of internal affairs then the foreign office and finally had to be sent to the nearest uae embassy which was in australia

SheikhG

Hi,

I reserve my advice to getting a british marriage certificate attested to apply for UAE residence visa, as I did this a couple of weeks ago.

1/ Getting it attested at the commonwealth office in Milton Keynes, UK.
2/ Same in the UAE embassy in London
3/ Same in the Ministry of Foreign affairs in Dubai

good luck.