Job Discussion Forums

[MENA_chica]

I recently had to go through this process for a direct-hire university position in Oman, and I thought I’d share my experience for the benefit of others who may be required to do the same.

First, I contacted a notary public in London via email. She requested electronic copies of my MA certificate and transcript, and sent me a short generic letter to sign, granting permission to verify my documents with the university. A week later, I took my original MA degree and transcript to her office, along with colour copies. She took the copies and charged 70 GBP to notarise the certificate and transcript together (she quoted 90 GBP to do them separately). I also requested that she sent the notarised documents to the Foreign Commonwealth Office in Milton Keynes for legalisation. She charged 40 GBP for this service. Once complete, I collected my documents from the notary public’s office.

The entire process from notarisation (including verification) to legalisation took 17 days and cost 110 GBP. I then sent the documents along with passport photos to Oman via DHL, which cost 39 GBP and took 2 working days. The entire process was straightforward and hassle-free.

N.B. As Oman is a signatory member of The Hague Convention abolishing the requirement for legalisation of foreign public documents, there is no longer a requirement to send documents legalised in the U.K. to the Omani embassy for attestation.

[jjghdfgyh]

Just a note for others, the Hague convention route is called an "apostille" not legalization. Legalization and apostille are two separate procedures. If the country where your degree was obtained is part of the Hague Convention agreement it is waaaaay easier with the apostille as opposed to legalization.