Legalising a Degree,
Masters or PhD
Academic Documents
Degree certificates and other academic documents are often legalised with an apostille when you need to prove your qualifications in another country.
How to Legalise a Degree?
Reasons your academic document is requested.
Original or Copy Degree
We can legalise either the original document or make a photocopy and attach the apostille to the copy. Many countries will accept a certified copy of your document. However, we do recommend you check if a copy will be accepted by the organisation asking you to get your document legalised. Some countries are now requesting original documents have the apostille.
Please indicate as you order online if you would like us to ‘APOSTILLE THE ORIGINAL’ or ‘APOSTILLE A COPY’ of the certificate.
If you want us to legalise a copy we will still need to see the original degree certificate. Alternatively, we can verify the copy by contacting the issuing university to verify the copy is accurate. This will incur a verification fee which can be purchased here in addition to the apostille fee.
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How to order an apostille for your degree certificate?
Simply purchase the apostille service online and post your document to us. This is normally the quickest way to obtain the apostille. On receipt of the document our solicitor will certify a copy of the degree (or the original, if you prefer) and add the apostille to the document.
If you can wait a few days, we can process your order by email. If you have a degree, masters or PHD from a UK university or college we can attempt to verify the document. This service incurs an additional fee to cover our additional costs and the administration time spent checking documents.
How to order by email?
If you want to email a copy of the degree to us for the apostille, we have to verify the document. We cannot accept a copy degree without checking it is genuine. How we check the document
- Step 1. Order the apostille and verification service online.
- Step 2. Email a clear scan copy of your certificate with the completed consent form.
- Step 3. We will check the document and consent form.
- Step 4. We contact the university to verify your degree.
- Step 5. Apostille issued and document returned.
The verification of degree certificates can take between 1 to 4 weeks depending on the university that issued the document. Due to the increased costs and administration we charge an extra £50 verification fee.
You can order the degree verification and apostille service HERE so that we can verify your degree with the issuing university. Please complete and sign the consent form with a pen.
How do we verify a degree?
If a degree certificate or academic document is sent to us as a PDF by email, we need to verify the document with the issuing body/organisation.
There are 3 ways we can check the degree/academic document is genuine.
Option 1 – you arrange for the university to email us a confirmation of your qualifications (this should be the records/admin/registrar office).
Option 2 – some universities allow students to share their documents or qualifications with third parties via an official website/portal.
Option 3 – you pay us a £50 verification fee and complete a consent form and we will try and verify the qualification with the university ourselves. This may take time to do (*1-2 weeks).
Read Our FAQ’s
All countries that are members of the 1961 Hague Convention accept apostilles. Members of the 1961 Hague Convention both accept and issue apostilles. You can view a list of member countries HERE.
An apostille is an official certificate issued by the UK Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) that verifies the authenticity of a document for use in another country.
The apostille certificate confirms the signature, seal or stamp on a UK document to be genuine so that it will be accepted when presented in another country outside of the UK.
Most documents are completed in just 1 or 2 working days. 98% of documents complete in 2 working days. However, for clarity, we cannot guarantee processing times. Where this is not possible we will try to contact you with advice on your documents.
Every effort is made to complete all orders as quick as possible. Some documents get delayed and you can read more on apostille processing times page.
In the UK there is no same day counter service for the public to obtain the apostille certificate. Our service ensures your document is processed in just a few days. If you need an apostille urgently we can provide a next day apostille service. Please contact us for our price and processing times.
In some cases we can arrange for a UK apostille to be issued but it will depend on your document. If you have any doubts we recommend that you speak to your country’s embassy or consulate for more advice.
It is important that you understand we issue UK apostilles on UK documents. If you send us a non UK document and we are able to process your document it will be issued with a UK apostille. You should check if this is suitable in the country where your document is to be presented.
Nearly all UK documents can be issued with the apostille certificate. There are a few exceptions that include home office documents that are for use within the UK only. We will let you know immediately if your document cannot be legalised and provide a full refund for our service.
We do not issue apostilles on ‘purchased online’ degrees or false documents. We are a reputable legalisation service. We are pleased to issue the apostille on genuine qualifications but we do not support any individual or online retailer deliberately trying to mislead prospective employers. Sorry, but we have a reputation to maintain.
We do not add the apostille to company documents that ‘claim’ to offer degree level education.
If you have a document that was issued in a country that is a member of The Hague Convention and it is being presented in another country that is a member of The Hague Convention, then it is likely that you will need an apostille. If you have been asked to get an apostille then your document may not be accepted without one. You can find a list of Hague Countries that issues and request apostilles on our website.
If your document was created or issued in the UK then it will be accepted in the UK without the apostille. It is not necessary to legalise UK documents unless you are using them outside of the UK.
If your UK issued document is being used ‘outside’ of the UK, in another country, you may well need an apostille on the document.
