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fridgemagnet
Joined: 26 Jun 2014 Posts: 31
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 4:04 am Post subject: Who should attest your degree? |
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Hi
Who should attest your degree before submitting it to the Saudi Arabian embassy for employment visa purposes? Most people have said that SACM attests it. Does it need to be attested by the Department of State as well if you are in the United States?
Any information on this would be appreciated. Thank you. |
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nomad soul

Joined: 31 Jan 2010 Posts: 11454 Location: The real world
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plumpy nut
Joined: 12 Mar 2011 Posts: 1652
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 4:22 am Post subject: |
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The only agency that attests your degree is the SACM. They of course don't do any research really, they just get information from the "DegreeVerify" website, your transcripts, notarized degree copies and they call the school asking if any of your classes were online. |
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fridgemagnet
Joined: 26 Jun 2014 Posts: 31
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 4:23 am Post subject: |
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Thank you for the replies.
So why do some people say you should counter-attest your degree at the Department of State? |
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nomad soul

Joined: 31 Jan 2010 Posts: 11454 Location: The real world
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 4:51 am Post subject: |
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Who knows, but that would be overkill. The SACM is under the direction of the Ministry of Higher Ed and not only authenticates degrees for Americans heading to KSA to teach, but also handles all the administrative needs for Saudis studying in the US. So, they're already quite familiar with most of the universities. In fact, when I'd called my university's office of registrar about needing documentation to have my degree authenticated, I was told "no problem" because the university was currently processing several similar requests from Saudi students for the SACM. My degree was authenticated the same day the SACM received my documents and was returned to me the next day via overnight mail. |
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plumpy nut
Joined: 12 Mar 2011 Posts: 1652
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 11:14 am Post subject: |
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fridgemagnet wrote: |
Thank you for the replies.
So why do some people say you should counter-attest your degree at the Department of State? |
ou
What you are talking about is having your notarized degree apostilled, at least that's what I think you're talking about. If that's what you're referring to, Saudi Arabia (not surprisingly) is not a signature of the Hague convention governing apostilles, so it wouldn't matter for this place. Internationally it's illegal to hold someone's passport, they don't seem to much care about that either. |
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Helpmefindausername
Joined: 20 May 2014 Posts: 28 Location: UK
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 7:49 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for the info on this! I have hired a visa agent to take care of the attestation process and it was just suggested I may need additional legalization, after SACM, that will take an additional 20 days. I thought this was a bit overkill. There is way too much confusion and misinformation. I have a feeling it is money oriented. At this rate, one would never get to Saudi. |
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nomad soul

Joined: 31 Jan 2010 Posts: 11454 Location: The real world
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 8:20 pm Post subject: |
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Helpmefindausername wrote: |
I have hired a visa agent to take care of the attestation process and it was just suggested I may need additional legalization, after SACM, that will take an additional 20 days. I thought this was a bit overkill. There is way too much confusion and misinformation. I have a feeling it is money oriented. |
Why did you choose to hire a visa agent to facilitate your degree authentication process? That is what's overkill. If your degree is from an American university, you could have requested the documentation from the registrar's office before you left for the States and subsequently, had everything submitted to the SACM while you're in the US getting your lab tests and med exam completed. It would have saved you quite a bit of money (and continued confusion), especially since there's no "additional legalization" needed once the SACM authenticates your diploma with their stamp. |
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