Job Discussion Forums

[qatarbound]

Hello,

I'll be starting work in Qatar in August, but I can't quite figure out the steps to having my foreign document attested by the Qatar Embassy. I hope someone can help.

I was married in Mexico and therefore my marriage certificate is Mexican.

So far, the documents have been legalized, up through the Ministry of Foreign affairs in Mexico. The last thing I was told by the gentleman at the Qatar Embassy is that the documents must now go through the US Secretary of State, Authentications. However when I called the Dept of Autentications, Authentications sent me to Vital Records. Vital Records said they don't do that and sent me back to Authentications. So I'm stuck. And I'm running out of time and options.

As far as I was told, when I finally get them authenticated by the US, I have to take the documents to the Mexican Embassy in the US (can't understand why) and then FINALLY to the Qatar Embassy.

I would be eternally grateful if someone could share their experience in getting these documents attested.

Thanks in advance for your time.

[The Fifth Column]

The key word that you are lacking is: Apostille. Try following this link & advice:

http://travel.state.gov/content/travel/english/legal-considerations/judicial/authentication-of-documents/office-of-authentications.html

Good luck!

[naturegirl321]

I've had foreign docs done kind of. If you make a copy then you can get it Notarised and then apostillisated and then authenticated at the embassy if you need that step too. It's just the copies. Not the originals though.

[nomad soul]

No apostille is needed of Qatar; it's not a member of the Hague Convention, so your documents require authentication/attestation instead.

My understanding is that the US State Dept. doesn't authenticate marriage certificates, which is probably why they sent you to vital records. However, the vital records at the federal level deals with foreign births and deaths of US citizens but not marriage certificates, which are considered local/state records.

I suspect the only step left for your Mexican marriage certificate at this point is that it may need to be translated into Arabic before being submitted to the Qatar Embassy with the rest of your documents. Anyway, I suggest you contact a document processing service such as Authxperts (http://qatarembassylegalization.com/) for clarification.

[naturegirl321]

I can tell you that before in my state IL I could record a foreign marriage. Now with all the changes to marriage you can't do that anymore. If you recorded it vital records might be able to give you a doc. In my case the county clerk handles it.

Does the embassy of QAtar require docs to be apostillised before they authenticate them?