Apostille Education Certificates

Authenticate South African degree certificates and academic diplomas for use abroad

Legalize South African university degree certificates - apostille service

South African degree certificates and academic qualifications are authenticated for submission to authorities abroad with an Apostille Stamp from the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO).

Apostilles are processed by DIRCO in 4 - 8 weeks

Before submission to DIRCO, certificates must be verified (for example by SAQA, UNISA or Umalusi) Allow additional time for initial verification of the degree and, where required, for attestation by the recipient embassy.

Qualifications may also be authenticated with apostilles from the High Court by making a notarized copy.
High Court Apostilles take 3 - 4 business days

Documents needed for countries that have not acceded to the Apostille Convention (e.g. United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Taiwan, Qatar) require additional attestation by the embassy fo the recipient country in Pretoria.

Degrees from South African universities

To authenticate Degree certificates from South African universities, the first step is to obtain a letter of verification from the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). To obtain the verification letter, attach a completed the consent form (available on the SAQA website) and send the form with copies of the qualification, national identification document or valid passport to SAQA.

The verification letter that will be issued by SAQA can then be authenticated by DIRCO with an Apostille or legalized and attested at foreign embassies in Pretoria.

The SAQA verification letter is normally issued within 25 working days, but can take longer if the qualification is not available on the National Record’s Database (NLRD).

Isarey can assist clients outside South Africa who need to verify and apostille South African degrees. We can submit applications for verification directly to SAQA and collect verification letters once they have been issued. We then provide expedited Apostilles from DIRCO and attestation at all major embassies in Pretoria.
Please contact us before submitting an application to SAQA for degree verification if you would like us to collect the verification letter on your behalf.

Umalusi Verification

The following qualifications must be verified by Umalusi in order to authenticate with an Apostille:Amended Senior Certificate (ASC), National Senior Certificate (NSC), National Technical Certificate N3, National Certificate Vocational (NCV), General Education and Training Certificate for Adults (GETC: ABET)

The public cannot apply directly to Umalusi for the verification of certificates. To obtain verification from Umalusi, please contact us for assistance.

Umalusi has records from 1992. Certificates issued before November 1992 must be verified by the Department of Basic Education or the Department of Higher Education and Training.

High Court Apostilles on Notarized Copies

An alternative method for authenticating South African Professional and Academic Qualifications is to make a true copy certified by a notary. This copy can be authenticated with an Apostille Stamp from the High Court.

This process takes 3 - 4 business days and can sometime be done with just a good quality scan of the diploma if it can be verified with the issuer.

However, in this case the Apostille will be applied to the coy and certifies the signature and good standing of the notary who made the copy and not the official body accrediting the qualification. Check with the authority or embassy that has requested the Apostille to confirm that they will accept an Apostille on a notarized copy.

Qualifications that are not accredited by SAQA, Umalusi, UNISA or other recognised body (including many TEFL certificates) will not qualify for a direct DIRCO apostille and will need to be notarized and authenticated at the High Court.

Embassy Attestation in Pretoria

South African university degrees and qualifications required for submission to countries that are not members of the Apostille Convention will need to be attested by the embassy of the recipient country in Pretoria after being legalized by DIRCO with a Certificate of Authentication. This includes diplomas required for use in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Note that Saudi Arabia and China have both acceded to the Apostille Convention and will accept Apostilles from DIRCO directly without embassy attestation.

Isarey works with all major embassies in Pretoria, including Qatar and UAE. We will ensure that your documents meet the specific requirements of each embassy.

We are a specialist provider of South African Apostille and Authentication services. Isarey will manage the whole authentication process from start to finish:

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    We provide a free document pre-check and consultation
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    We'll arrange a courier to collect your original certificates from the United Kingdom
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    We arrange all necessary notarizations and apostilles
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    We submit physically to embassies in Pretoria for attestation
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    We offer international delivery by courier

Get a Quotation for your Documents

We price each certification process individually, depending on the type and quantity of documents to be attested, the country of issue, the country of use and intended purpose, urgency, whether certified translations are required as part of the process and courier costs.

To receive a quote, you can upload your documents using our online quotation form or send us your documents by email. After reviewing your documents and requirements, we will get back to you with a quotation:

If you don’t have the documents available, just describe the documents you need to certify, and we will get back to you with an estimation of cost and delivery times.

Using our quotation form, your documents will be uploaded over a secure connection and immediately encrypted on our server. For added protection, you can upload password-protected files (PDFExternal link (opens in new tab), Microsoft Office 365: Save a password protected document to prevent unauthorized people from opening it. Office DocumentsExternal link (opens in new tab), WinRAR Encryption Frequently asked question (FAQ) RAR foldersExternal link (opens in new tab)) and provide us with the passwords separately.

PERSONAL DATA: If your documents contain personal data belonging to people outside your household, please ensure that you are authorised to share this data before uploading your documents. If your documents contain sensitive personal data, such as biometric data, medical data or data on criminal convictions, please ensure that you indicate this when prompted, upon submitting your documents. For further information on our processing of personal data contained in uploaded documents, please see:
Privacy Policy (Customer Inquiries)

For further information on confidentiality in our handling of document content please see:
Confidentiality (Client Content)

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