If you are traveling abroad to work or study in a foreign country, it can be puzzling to try and figure out whether you will need to have your official South African documents apostilled, attested, notarised, or just authenticated. Or even a combination of two of them. Here, we look at the main differences between the three types of legalisation and when they should be used.
What is authentication, and what documents need it?
If you’re legalizing a document in order to use it in a country that is not a signatory of the Apostille Convention (such as Taiwan, Vietnam, or China), you’ll be required to follow a long process that you’d need to have if you had been traveling to a country that forms part of the Hague Conference. Your legal South African documents will have to be authenticated and submitted to the relevant embassy for legalization.
Documents that are authenticated may include:
- Department of Home Affairs documents (called Civic Services Documents) such as birth, death, and marriage certificates and letters of no impediment to becoming married.
- Academic documents such as degrees, diplomas, and matric certificates
- Police clearance certificates
- Medical reports
- Passport copies
- Notarised Power of Attorney (POA) forms
- Divorce orders
- Contracts and trade documents
Documents can be authenticated by:
- A Notary Public and the High Court
- The SAQA, the Departments of Basic and Higher Education & Umalusi
- The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA)
- The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO)
- Relevant Embassies and Consulates
Which documents require attestations?
Attestations are the authentication of South African documents that are to be used in countries in the Middle East, such as the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. It follows a slightly different route than authentications, but it is a similar process and requires documents to be attested for South Africans looking to use their documentation legally in the Middle East.
Documents that have to be attested include:
- Department of Home Affairs documents (called Civic Services Documents) such as birth, death, and marriage certificates, as well as letters of no impediment to becoming married
- Academic documents such as degrees, diplomas, and matric certificates
- Police clearance certificates
- Medical reports
- Passport copies
- Notarised Power of Attorney (POA) forms
- Divorce orders
- Contracts and trade documents
Documents can be attested at:
- A Notary Public and the High Court
- SAQA, the Departments of Basic and Higher Education & Umalusi
- The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA)
- The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO)
- Relevant embassies and consulates
Which documents need an apostille?
When documents are to be used abroad in a country that is a member of the Hague Convention, they will have to be legalized using apostille. Apostilled documents can only be legally used in countries that form part of the Apostille Convention.
Documents that have to be apostilled include:
- Department of Home Affairs documents (called Civic Services Documents) such as birth, death, and marriage certificates, as well as letters of no impediment to becoming married
- Academic documents such as degrees, diplomas, and matric certificates
- Police clearance certificates
- Medical reports
- Passport copies
- Notarised Power of Attorney (POA) forms
- Divorce orders
- Contracts and trade documents
Final thoughts
As you can see, attestations, apostilles, authentications, and notarisations are very similar, all of them being some form of verification for South African documents that have to be legalised before they can be used inland or abroad. Although the fastest and most convenient option is to have your documents apostilled, these kinds of documents cannot be used in all countries. Your verification process might vary slightly depending on the country you are traveling to.
