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Degrees and Academic Documents with E-Apostille
In a previous article we discussed the start of the e-apostille. These plans came to fruition this week with the introduction of the e-Apostille.
The e-Apostille is an alternative to the traditional paper certificate that is attached to a printed document. The electronic apostille is a digital certificate added to a PDF document. The e-apostille can be applied to most academic documents and awards. A digital version of the document (PDF) is prepared, digitally signed by our solicitor and the electronic apostille is added to the academic certificate. It is then available as a digital document (PDF) with the e-apostille.
Can we add the e-apostille to all academic documents?
In general, we can process a digital copy of most academic certificates and documents. However, just because we can issue the e-apostille it does not mean you can provide digital copies of all documents to us. Unfortunately, we cannot accept a PDF of any qualification in good faith. We have to check the document is genuine.
If you send an email copy of a degree, masters, PhD or university issued award, we can normally verify these with the university. This incurs an additional cost and takes more time. Unless you get your university to email us a document directly, we will have to charge a fee to verify your document. If you want to avoid verification fees, please post original documents to us. We can then scan them and make an e-apostille for you.
GCSEs, A Levels, O Levels, BTECs and other school or college documents cannot be verified online. There is no online service for checking certificates are genuine. Unfortunately, there is no way to verify these online/digitally so we need to see the original certificates. We can then scan them and provide an e-apostille but you will need to post the original certificates to us.
E-apostille or paper apostille
For most academic documents we expect most customers will order the paper version for the foreseeable future. Many organisations will expect a paper apostille on a printed copy of the academic document. Until there is a sensible online solution to verifying most academic documents, the paper version of the apostille will be the quickest solution to legalising a document.
It is important to note that the e-Apostille is not replacing the physical apostille; both means of legalisation will work in tandem for UK documents being presented in other countries.
