Qatar Legalisation – Complete Guide To Education Documents

Which awards require supporting documents for Qatar?

The table below is an overview of the types of awards which do and don’t require supporting documents in order to be legalised for use in Qatar. Some types, such as diplomas and vocational courses can be complex so it’s always best to check before you start the process.

Which supporting documents are required?

There are a total of three documents required to legalise the majority of education awards for Qatar:

• The original award certificate
• Transcript of results
• Cover letter issued by the college or university

You will also require a copy of your passport photo page if you are a UK citizen / EU passport holder. If you’re a non-UK citizen, however, you’ll also need a copy of your T4 visa. The validity should cover the period of study.

We have had customers previously enquire as to whether providing a certified copy of your award certificate from the university is acceptable in place of the original. Unfortunately, although this is known as a certified copy, it is not the same as a copy made by a registered solicitor and as such we are unable to process this document.

If you do not have an original, you will need to obtain a replacement from the awarding institution. This is due to the fact that a solicitor can have their signature registered with the Foreign and Commonwealth & Development Office and be recognised as having the authority to make legally recognised certified copies. A registrar at a University is unable to do this, which will result in your legalisation not being processed.

Whereas most courses produce a transcript of results as standard, there are some cases where you may not have this document. It may be that your college or university issued a hard copy of the results with your qualification certificate, you studied a course which did not have a specific course structure such as a Masters Degree, or in some cases a transcript is not available.

With some older courses, transcripts are not stored at the institution. Each college and university will have their own time frame as to how long they hold records, but if you studied your qualification some time ago, you may have issues obtaining a copy. In some cases the place you studied may not exist anymore and their records may have passed to a new body, which you will need to apply to instead. If the transcript is unavailable for whatever reason, as long as you can obtain your supporting letter and ask them to state why it is not present, this will be accepted.

What must the supporting verification letter contain?

After several conversations with the Qatari authorities, we have been advised that the letter must explicitly state face to face study, on campus and the specific location at which the course and exams took place.

We have received examples of letters which state “on campus” to cover this final point, which does suggest very strongly that this person studied in person at the university or college. It may be that the Qatar Embassy in London will accept this letter, however, this has been rejected on several occasions by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) once the documents arrive in Doha.

We provide a help sheet and letter request template to customers who send an enquiry for degree legalisation, stating the specific information required by the Qatar Embassy. The template can be passed on to the college or university directly to ensure that the letter meets the criteria required.

However, in our experience the resulting document from Student Services can still, on occasion, miss out information or doesn’t communicate explicitly what the Qatar Embassy requires. The language used is very important and there is little room for manoeuvre in terms of what the Qatar Embassy will accept.

What is the legalisation process for documents for Qatar?

Once you’re confident that you know the requirements, it’s time to get those documents legalised (sometimes also known as authentication or attestation). Not every country follows the same process, and this applies to both the country of origin and where the documents will be presented. The process for Qatar usually includes the following stages:

• Solicitor Certification
• Application of an Apostille by the Foreign and Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)
• Legalisation by the Qatar Embassy

Each of these steps must be carried out in the country where the document was issued (with a few very rare exceptions). Once these stages are completed in the issuing country, they must be verified by the MoFA in Doha. You will usually require at least a qualification and a recent police clearance certificate for a work permit in Qatar, but you will need to confirm this with your employer.

In the UK, you must make sure that any certified copy of your documents are completed by a solicitor who is FCDO registered. This ensures that their signature is on the official database and will prevent delays in processing.

This concludes the stages required in the country of origin. The final stage is to have your documents and their stamps verified at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) in Doha once you arrive.