Legal Document Attestation Services for documents being used in the UAE

The UAE offers international businesses, entrepreneurs, and innovators a gateway to the emerging Middle East markets. For those seeking to set up a company or branch office, perform business or obtain a visa in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the wider UAE, the government requires attestation of documentation. This mandatory requirement ensures the authenticity of personal documents, certificates and commercial documentation required for company set-up, residence visa, employment, and more.

What is document attestation?

Attestation is the process for validating the authenticity of documentation. The process (also referred to as legalisation or consularisation) can be a complex procedure with a variety of different stages dependent on the type of document or the original issuing country. As the UAE is not a member of the Hague Apostille Convention, attested documents are required for most processes in the UAE for companies and for individuals, therefore it is essential to obtain official recognition of these documents for use within the UAE.

How does the attestation process work?

The procedure for the attestation of documentation will depend on the country of issue and the type of document. Types of documents that require attestation include:

Educational certificates (degree certificates, diploma certificates)
Non-educational certificate (personal certificates, birth certificate, marriage certificate)
Commercial certificate/documentation (Board Resolutions, Power of Attorney / Memorandum or Articles of Association)

At Sovereign PPG, our end to end document attestation process consists of the following steps:

The document is reviewed by Sovereign PPG to confirm the scope of the service, inclusive of timeframe and costs.
Once the service is confirmed, you can send us your document, or we will have it collected by courier.
Attestation commences with the document being presented to and viewed by a notary in the issuing country who verifies that the document is a true copy.
We will then ensure that the document is stamped and authenticated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UAE Embassy in the country of origin.
The document will be safely returned to the UAE and presented to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) to verify that the UAE Embassy in the country of origin is genuine.
If required, the document will then be legally translated into Arabic and stamped by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) to verify that the translator is legally appointed.
The document will be safely returned to you for official use in the UAE.

The process of attestation is also referred to as legalisation, as well as consularisation (which refers to the embassy of consular stamping part of the process). The process of attestation is also sometimes referred to as notarisation, although in the UAE, local document notarisation is exclusively undertaken by a local UAE notary public – see our page here for more information on UAE document notarisation.

How can Sovereign PPG assist?

Using a professional attestation service from the UAE can reduce the stress of ensuring that all the requirements for attestation are met and reduces the risk of costly delays or errors. Sovereign PPG can assist in offering a door-to-door attestation service for legalisation of overseas documents through our network of trusted partners.

For further information and assistance with your document notarisation, legalisation and attestation/ consularisation within the UAE and overseas, or for any other document related government liaison matter in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, the wider UAE, Oman and Qatar, please call us on +971 (0)4 456 1761 in Dubai, +971 (0)2 448 5120 in Abu Dhabi, email us on SovPPG@SovereignGroup.com or complete the contact form below.