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veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

I had to get a duplicate of my Bachelors certificate because the original that I had was painted on glass!! Can you imagine hauling that around from country to country without breaking it? Laughing

As difficult as it was to get, there is no way I'd have handed it to any Kuwait bureaucrat.

VS

rowntree · Joined: 21 Aug 2009 Posts: 55

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

InterRick · Joined: 18 Jul 2009 Posts: 86

usa_in_gulf · Joined: 10 Aug 2009 Posts: 133 Location: Gulf

This past August, I had to take these steps to authenticate my degree in Kuwait:
--Had school (located in Michigan, USA) send stamped and notarized transcripts to the Michigan Secretary of State office who authenticated the notary stamp from the school.
--Michigan Secretary of State then sent my transcript to the State Department in Washington DC who authenticated the Michigan State stamps.
--State Department then sent my transcripts to the Kuwait Embassy who authenticated the State Department seal.
--Kuwait Embassy then sent my transcripts to me.
--I then had to take my transcipt to the Kuwait Ministry of Foreign Affairs who authenticates the Kuwait embassy seal.
(AMIDEAST used to do a process similiar to this.. they did not start with the school.. they simply sent off an individual's transcripts to have notarized copies made and THEN to the State Department, Kuwait embassy, etc.. But as mentioned, as of this past summer, they no longer do this.)
--Authenticated degree/transcripts are then submitted to the Ministry of Private Education to get approval.
Its important to mention that the above process did take time and money. (prepaid FEDEX envelopes for each step, fees, etc)

Now, its very possible that the process has changed since August... but just passing along what I had to do............ Smile

bedwiya · Joined: 24 Jan 2003 Posts: 66 Location: Kuwait

I interviewed with this school a couple of years ago. They had a good curriculum in place and seemed to be spending money in all the right places - good series of integrated books, technology, nice sports/recereation facilities and an awesome auditorium. The reason I didn't take the job though was that I just got a "weird" feeling in the building. There are no windows to the outside. All playgrounds are indoors as well. Just seemed very "prison like" and I just couldn't see myself being happy in such an environment. It also seemed a bit more conservative than I have been used to in Kuwait. The staff seemed pleasant enough and the admin actually seemed to know what they were doing, with real backgrounds in education - not always the case in many schools in Kuwait. Classes were segregated, which seems to be the trend of the future here. Staff housing also was not in a very good area - especially for Western women. Not a bad place to "cut your teeth" for a year to get into other schools - you could do worse.