Time and time again we are emailed from concerned teachers and individuals asking the same questions over and over and over again:
- What is Document Attestation?
- Why do I need it?
- How do I do it?
- When must it be done?
In this article, we hope to clear up all the smoke and mirrors surrounding this practice and bring you the clear, concise information that you need to know.
So what is Document Attestation? Simply put, it’s having your documents verified by several governing bodies which essentially let any schools that are looking to hire that everything are legally valid and official to be approved by the Ministries of Education abroad. The documents in question are:
- Degree
- Teaching Qualification
- Police Check
- References
- Marriage Certificates (if applicable)
- Children’s Birth Certificates (if applicable)
- No Objection Certificates (if applicable)
During the oil boom in Dubai and the surrounding Gulf States several decades ago, the country rapidly began to build itself up with new funds supported by the oil. This, as you’d imagine, meant that schools began to be built to ensure a new, brighter and better educated future generation could take the reins in later years and drive the country further forward. As you’d also imagine, the demand for teachers became high, so high in fact that many teachers with unattested documents began being employed. With no sort of barrier to prevent incredibly fraudulent activity through the form of falsified documents being used, all sorts of untrained, unqualified and sometimes even criminal individuals could enter the country to work. Dubai and the other GCC States were especially bad due to their reputation as tax-free havens for teachers to work in.
To counterbalance this, Dubai rapidly raised the quality assurance to ensure that they would bring in the best teachers to further develop the next generation. Today this means that teachers in Dubai are of the highest quality, but, subsequently, they also all need to be verified and attested before they can be employed. Additionally, most other countries in the region also began to use the same measures after seeing its success in Dubai, these countries include (but are not limited to) the other Emirates in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia. The process is often long-winded and involves a lot of pillar-to-post work, but luckily there are a handful of agencies and groups which are capable of doing most of the laborious footwork for you.
But how do you do it yourself? As a general guideline, first your documents must be checked by a lawyer and then verified by the foreign commonwealth office (which will verify your degree and the university you obtained it from), the embassy of your nationality and the embassy of your destination. Police Checks must come from the country of departure. If you are a parent and are traveling with your children but without your partner (or ex-partner), then you must have a No Objection Certificate from him or her to prove that you have written permission to travel into the country of destination with their children. Additionally, if the documents are in a foreign language, they must be translated into English.
This is with the documents mentioned above and can take a lot of time to complete if you’re inexperienced with the procedure. It’s also worth mentioning that if at any stage during the procedure your documents are returned and unable to be attested then your employer will be unable to employ you and your application for employment in your country of destination will cease. As the documents belong to you, you are the one obliged to having them attested; it is not the school’s responsibility.
When must it be done? It must be done after the contract has been signed, not before.
Luckily, SeekTeachers is partnered with a leading Document Attestation Service that will ensure to swiftly verify and attest all your documents so that they will not interfere with your application for your position of choice in your destination of choice, so get in contact with us today at attestation@SeekTeachers.com!
Also be sure to check our guide on Visa & Work Permit Restrictions!