NOTARY & ATTESTATION SERVICES

Degree Certificate Attestation in the UAE

A degree awarded outside the UAE can face two separate checks here. Attestation confirms the signatures and seals on the certificate, through the issuing country’s foreign ministry, the UAE mission in that country and the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). Recognition, by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MoHESR), assesses the qualification itself against UAE standards. This page follows both tracks for degrees, diplomas and transcripts, using only the steps and timings the UAE authorities publish.

LAST REVIEWED 30 SEPTEMBER 2026

Two Checks, Two Authorities

MOFA describes its attestation as certifying the authenticity of the signatures and seals on a document. MoHESR, which assesses the degree itself, draws the line more sharply: its published answers state that MOFA attestation only verifies the country where a certificate was issued and does not confirm that the certificate is authentic, which is why its own process asks for a separate qualification verification letter.

The two MoHESR documents are different as well. The verification letter confirms that the qualification, and the information in it, is authentic. The recognition report confirms that a degree from an accredited university outside the UAE complies with the Ministry’s standards and regulations, and the UAE Government portal describes that report as an official document for employment, further studies, visas and government services in the country. “Recognition” is simply the current name for what MoHESR used to call “equivalency”.

Which of these a particular employer, licensing body or university asks for depends on that body, so ask before you begin. For a new work permit for a worker recruited from overseas, for example, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) lists a clear academic certificate bearing the employee’s name: a bachelor’s degree or higher for skill levels 1 and 2, a diploma or higher for levels 3 and 4, a high-school certificate for level 5, and no certificate for levels 6 to 9.

Preparing the Certificate and the Transcript

MOFA counts an educational certificate and its transcripts as two different documents, so each is attested in its own right. For attestation through an approved courier, MOFA asks for the original in Arabic or English, or accompanied by a legally certified translation; it must already carry any certification the relevant competent authorities require, and it must not be laminated.

The UAE missions that publish their own rules add detail. Official personal documents such as birth, marriage and death certificates must be submitted as originals, while other documents are accepted as originals or true copies once the national foreign office has attested them. Documents apostilled together in a bundle are refused, as each document must be apostilled individually, and a laminated document cannot be attested at all.

MoHESR’s application for recognition of a degree from outside the UAE has its own file rules. Each document is uploaded as a separate PDF, and a PDF that combines several documents is not accepted. If your name has changed since graduation and no longer matches the certificate, MoHESR asks for a name change certificate and refers you to its authorised partners on how to obtain one. For translations, it says any legal translation provider accredited by the relevant authorities can be used.

The UAE Mission Step in the Issuing Country

MOFA provides attestation of documents issued abroad through selected UAE missions. It asks applicants to check the website of the mission in their country of residence to see whether the service is offered online there, to visit the mission in person if it is not, and to contact the Ministry if the country has no UAE mission.

Several missions now run MOFA’s digital attestation for documents issued in their country, among them the UAE embassies in New Delhi, Islamabad, Dhaka, Kathmandu, Nairobi and London. There, a single application covers both the embassy and MOFA. You sign in to the MOFA website with UAE PASS, choose the country of issuance and pay online; a MOFA-approved service provider arranges collection of the original, the digitally attested document arrives by email carrying both attestations, and the original comes back by courier. The degree must already bear the issuing country’s foreign-ministry attestation when you apply.

Each mission handles only documents issued in the country or countries it covers. The New Delhi embassy, for instance, says documents not issued in India must be attested by the UAE embassy or consulate in their country of issuance, with an exception for documents from Bhutan; London also takes documents from Iceland, and Nairobi those from Madagascar. An attested document can be checked on MOFA’s verification site, verify.mofa.gov.ae, using its attestation reference number and issue date.

Where a mission does not offer the digital service, MOFA’s attestation page says to visit the mission in person, and its published answers say the original is then attested in the UAE through MOFA’s website or the UAE MOFA smart app. MOFA adds that each embassy or consulate may have its own procedures, and that some missions accept appointments by phone or have agreements with service providers in their city or country; the mission’s own website has the details.

What the Authorities Publish on Timing

For a document handled outside the UAE through a service provider, MOFA gives a completion time of up to 15 business days, varying with the courier. The New Delhi, Islamabad, Dhaka, Kathmandu and Nairobi embassies publish the same courier detail: collection within 24 hours of a successful submission, and delivery of the attested documents within 24 to 48 hours of their release from the embassy, or 48 to 72 hours for remote areas. The Dhaka embassy states that most of its digital attestation requests are completed within 2 to 3 business days, and the London embassy that its attestations are typically completed within 2 to 3 working days.

MoHESR’s service card gives 18 working days for recognition of a qualification from outside the UAE, and its verification page says that, after the verification document is received, you can apply to the Ministry and, if all requirements are met, the recognition report is issued within two working days. MoHESR notes that further review can add time and lists the usual causes of delay: documents not supplied in time, incorrect or incomplete information, late electronic payment and slow replies from the educational institution. If recognition is refused, its reconsideration service gives 20 working days for the review. No UAE source cited on this page publishes how long the issuing country’s foreign ministry takes, so this page gives no figure for that step.

MoHESR Recognition, Stage by Stage

Recognition runs in two stages. In the first, the degree is verified by one of the authorised partners listed on MoHESR’s qualification recognition page; check the current list there when you apply. MoHESR states that applying through an authorised partner is mandatory for this stage and that all its authorised partners offer the same service at the same fee. You start the service on the MoHESR website, pick a partner, sign in with UAE PASS, upload the documents and pay the partner’s verification fee; the partner then contacts the awarding university and may ask you for more documents. Depending on your case, MoHESR says the partner either verifies the degree and issues the verification document or validates a letter from the embassy of the country where you studied, which it notes is not an embassy attestation.

In the second stage, once verification is complete, MoHESR emails a link to the recognition application. You enter the verification reference number and your date of birth, check the details that appear, and pay the recognition report fee. The decision arrives by email, with a link to download the digital recognition report.

The documents MoHESR lists are the original graduation certificate or its equivalent, obtained from the awarding institution if you no longer hold it, and a clear copy of your passport photo page. All required documents or data must be provided within 7 working days, or the Ministry may close and cancel the request. MoHESR also states that its recognition fees are not refunded, whether an application is approved or rejected.

What MoHESR Will and Will Not Recognise

MoHESR recognises academic or higher technical qualifications at diploma or bachelor’s level and above, including master’s and doctoral degrees. The university must have been accredited by the relevant authority in the country of study during your period of study, and it must meet the Ministry’s own recognition requirements and standards.

MoHESR describes recognition as resting on two checks: that the degree is authentic, and that the issuing institution is accredited by the relevant academic authorities in the country of study and by the Ministry itself. An institution the Ministry does not accredit, it explains, is one that does not meet its accreditation standards. To prove accreditation in the country of study, MoHESR accepts an official letter from that country’s academic accreditation authority, certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Its Credentials Recognition Committee also does not consider vocational certificates that involve no study or come from training courses, records that are only part of studies towards a degree, cases that clearly breach internationally recognised academic rules, or programmes limited to certain groups of students, such as those designated for foreign students.

Two rules apply only to UAE nationals. Emirati students sponsored by a scholarship entity on the Ministry’s list are recognised automatically, and an Emirati who graduated after 30 August 2025 from an institution not on the Ministry’s approved list must obtain an exception decision from the relevant committee.

Degrees From UAE Universities and Branch Campuses

Qualifications from licensed, Ministry-accredited UAE institutions have their own MoHESR recognition service. What MoHESR used to call “attestation” for these degrees is now called “recognition”, and an automatic service recognises qualifications from UAE institutions on the Ministry’s list of institutions with active cooperation agreements immediately on graduation, with the Ministry working directly with the universities and no application needed from the graduate. If you studied in the UAE but the certificate was issued from abroad, the route depends on the institution: if it is listed among the accredited institutions, the in-country service applies; if it is not listed and is located in a free zone, the procedure for qualifications issued outside the UAE applies.

Where an application is needed, MoHESR’s service card for UAE-issued qualifications gives three working days and asks graduates for the graduation certificate or its equivalent, or the academic transcript; current students can use a transcript or an official “To Whom It May Concern” letter from the institution. All pages of a transcript count as one document, so only the first page needs to be attested. Verification is by a QR code on the certificate or transcript. A professional qualification cannot be processed unless its data is registered with the National Qualifications Centre, and for a qualification issued before the institution was accredited, MoHESR says you can apply through its service for qualifications issued outside the UAE, which ends in either a recognition decision or a rejection.

School Certificates Issued Abroad

A school-leaving certificate follows a different route. The Ministry of Education (MoE), not MoHESR, issues equivalency for a Grade 12 certificate obtained outside the UAE, after verifying the authenticity of the certificate and the recognition status of the issuing institution. Its service card asks for the Grade 12 certificate and transcript to be attested by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and lists the attested high-school certificate, attested certificates for the two previous years, a passport copy and, for certificates not in Arabic or English, an attested legal translation. A job offer letter is added where the equivalency is needed for work, or a university admission letter where it is needed for study.

Applications are made online with UAE PASS, through MoE’s website or smart app, and the outcome, equivalency or rejection, arrives by email. Unlike MoHESR, MoE asks for several documents that meet the same requirement to be merged into one PDF, of no more than 5 MB. Its published average times run from 3 to 5 working days, where all conditions are met and neither committee review nor correspondence is needed, to 30 working days where both are, and the clock does not run while required documents are missing or fall short of its requirements. MoE does not treat certificates obtained through distance learning, Open School or level-determination systems such as the GED as equivalent, nor any study that is not aligned with the education system accredited in the UAE.

Issuing-Country Steps Published by UAE Missions

IndiaMinistry of External Affairs attestation → one MOFA digital application covering the UAE Embassy in New Delhi and MOFA (documents issued in Bhutan also go to New Delhi)
PakistanAttestation by Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs → one MOFA digital application covering the UAE Embassy in Islamabad and MOFA
BangladeshAttestation by Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs → one MOFA digital application covering the UAE Embassy in Dhaka and MOFA; the original must be presented to the embassy
NepalAttestation by Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs → one MOFA digital application covering the UAE Embassy in Kathmandu and MOFA
KenyaAttestation by Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs → one MOFA digital application covering the UAE Embassy in Nairobi and MOFA (documents issued in Madagascar also go to Nairobi)
United KingdomLegalisation by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) → one MOFA digital application covering the UAE Embassy in London and MOFA (documents issued in Iceland also go to London)

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Degree Certificate Attestation

For MOFA, yes: it treats an educational certificate and its transcripts as two different documents, so each is attested on its own. Check first which one your employer, licensing body or university needs. For recognition of a degree from outside the UAE, MoHESR lists the graduation certificate or its equivalent, and each document is uploaded as a separate PDF.

Because the two do different jobs. MoHESR says MOFA attestation only verifies the country where a certificate was issued, not that the certificate is authentic. The verification letter, obtained through one of its authorised partners, confirms the validity of the qualification and the authenticity of the certificate and its details.

MoHESR says a negative verification result means the authenticity of the document could not be confirmed, for reasons that include forged or counterfeit documents, missing information, or no response from the issuing authority. It recommends asking the authorised partner for the main reason and whether the situation can be corrected; errors are corrected through the partner before resubmitting.

In medicine and engineering, MoHESR requires the programme to have been completed through full-time study. For every other specialisation, the mode of study is not considered in recognition, and it is not shown on the final recognition report. The university must still have been accredited in the country of study during your period of study.

MoHESR says a reconsideration request must be submitted within three months of the recognition decision, and only once for each qualification. Any supporting documents you attach should be new official documents that were not submitted before. Its reconsideration service card gives 20 working days for the review.

Yes. MoHESR says you can apply without a UAE residence permit, and it no longer requires an entry and exit report. You sign in with UAE PASS to choose a verification partner; MOFA notes that non-residents can create a UAE PASS account at uaepass.ae.

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