Job Discussion Forums

[mishmumkin]

I never got my birth certificate attested for the UAE in the past. What does this involve? It's an official copy-does it go to a certain dept in the state in which is was issued? What about the marriage certificate?

I was under the impression that I could pay to get my degrees attested by a company in the UAE (around 1400 dirhams or so). Can't I do the same w/ those other docs? Can you hear my blood pressure rising?

[sally 4th]

The notarized certificate needs to be attested by the local Department of State, the Department of State in Washington and the UAE embassy in Washington. It's much better and cheaper and faster to have it done in the States.

[mishmumkin]

So does the birth certificate have to be attested by the dept of state in which it was issued? I think I know the answer to that, but was hoping it wasn't so.

Thanks, Sally. Same goes for the marriage license, I presume?

[mandalayroad]

I'm doing all this right now and it's a pain. It has to be attested by the Dept. of State of the state it was issued in. In addition, it may be necessary to have it attested first by the local county's office before the state's State Dept. will look at it. Call your issuing state's office first to make sure of everything including the fees. This is a time-consuming process and it needs to be done before you go so you have it in hand on arrival.

[adorabilly]

Hey Mish.

There are companies here in the UAE which will do this, but it is MUCH more expensive and actually will slow down your visa's and other required paperwork... so do it in the states, it is cheaper and faster in the long run.

1st you need to have an offical copy of birth certificates (yours and your kids) and marriage lisences. You can do them all at the same time. Just make sure you include a check that includes the cost for EACH item you need authenitcated... so each kids birth certificate, and the marriage license.
2. they need to be notarized by a local official (which is a pain in the rear and most notaries in the US don't seem to understand what you want. Our secretary of state said skip this, but some places may require it.)
3rd you need to send it to the secretary of state in the state it was issued in to get it authenticated
4th you need to send it to the US department of state for authentication
5. It needs to be sent to the UAE embassy in washington dc and they need to recognize the authentication
6. it needs to be shipped back to you and you need to hand carry it with you to the UAE.

the same goes for school transcripts

The easiest way to do this is contact the people in advance, find out the charges and mailing addresses for each. Then go into Fed EX and tell manager that you want them to go to each place in turn
so it is addressed to the secretary of state in your state, then it needs to go from the sec of state, to the US dept of state, then from there to the UAE embassy in DC, and then from there back toyou. set each check in a seperate envelope nested inside each other.

We were in Tokyo, and you can't do what I just described internationally (well not from the fed ex offices in tokyo), so I shipped it to a friend who went into the local fed ex office (I called them in advance and told them exactly what I wanted) we did that, and it worked out very well

[veiledsentiments]

Of course the notary is confused... because there is only one thing that a notary does... and that is notarize a person's signature. You must sign something before him/her and s/he has required a picture ID that confirms that you are that person. That is ALL they can and will do.

The state is merely confirming that the notary IS a legal notary.

The US State Department confirms that the state is actually a state in the US.

And yes... it is all this silly and useless. BTW, you can probably combine all of copies of your academic degrees and such with these documents and have it all done as one package... with a cover sheet stapled to the front where you swear that they are all legal copies of the original documents. Then you sign that paper in front of the notary - which is what s/he is notarizing.

The place to call before starting this process is the US State Department... after holding forever and being transferred about a dozen times... there is a person who has access to each step of these processes in every country that require them.

VS
(and this is why in the US, it is darn near worth the trip to DC where you can do all 4 steps in the same city by metro and car... in two days)

[773]

[mishmumkin]

[mishmumkin]

[adorabilly]

Hey VS.

While I agree with you, the notaries I tried to get to stamp and sign my documents didn't.

Almost all of the notaries (in my state, who I spoke to which was 6) all argued that they had SPECIFIC things that they were allowed to notarize. And notarizing my kids birthcertificates (which had the raised seal of the state on them) was not allowed. I pointed out that the UAE required the documents to be notarized, and they argued with me that they had 6 or 7 things that they could notarize, and birthcertificates wasn't one of them.

it wasn't just 1 notary... it was the 6 I visited while trying to jump through these hoops. (maybe it is the state that I am from... maybe in yours they are more than willing to notarize any document...)

That is when I called the secretary of state in our state, and she said, just send them to her and "skip" that step and hope for the best. Needless to say I was worried about that, but the UAE officials accepted it with no problems.

Here is what we did.

We were living in tokyo (and this is a nightmare abroad). We called the local fed ex office (tokyo) and they said nope, can't help you. So I sent my paperwork to my mom in the states. I also sent a detailed cover letter stating EXACTLY what was needed. I called the local fed ex office near my mom and spoke to the manager and they helped set it up so that we used nested envelopes with seperate checks in each preaddresssed envelope, and then sent them off. We also made sure there were contact numbers and email addresses in each in case there were any questions.

[veiledsentiments]

[mandalayroad]

I sent notarized copies to my county clerk office and they rejected it. They demanded the originals be sent and off they went. Step 1 is done with the county clerk's office, and now they've been express mailed to my home state's Dept. of State and that includes the originals.

[veiledsentiments]

Are you referring to the US?

I have done this twice in Washington DC and never had the originals leave my house in Virginia.

VS

[lall]

Hope this will help:

We have a system in India where a senior govt. official (called a gazzetted officer because the government's intent to employ her/him is published in the official gazzette) is authorised to attest copies of birth and other certificates, provided originals are furnished for inspection.

Since this system is a relic of the British system, it is likely that the same exists yet in the UK and hence may be of use to you, Mishmumkin.

[veiledsentiments]

I will repeat what I said above (for those with reading problems). The first step is to bite the bullet and make that call to the State Department in DC. They have all the procedures required for each country. I called them both times (in '88 and '00) and the process was the same each time, but obviously common sense says that things may have changed.

I was told to only use copies... all papers batched together and even my documents from the American University in Cairo were just batched in the package. The first time I separated out academic creds from other required documents, which meant I paid double. The next time she told me to batch everything together.

Waste a morning and call them first...

VS