Apostille, translation and nostrification: three different things

Three words used as if they were synonyms, describing three separate procedures with different purposes. Files stall because one was done and the others were assumed to be part of it.

Apostille

A certificate under the Hague convention confirming that a public document is genuine — that the signature and seal on it are what they claim to be. It says nothing about the content and nothing about whether the receiving country will accept the document for its purpose.

• It works only between countries that are both party to the convention.
• It is issued by a designated authority in the country that issued the document.
• Where one of the countries is not party — and the Emirates are not, for these purposes — the longer consular legalisation chain applies instead.

Translation

Rendering the document into the receiving country's language, by a translator the receiving authority accepts. That last clause is the whole issue: a sworn or court-appointed translator in the destination country, a translator accredited by its embassy, or a specific list of approved providers. A perfectly accurate translation by an unaccredited person is refused without being read.

Note also that the apostille itself frequently has to be translated, and that in some chains the translation is apostilled rather than the original.

Nostrification, or recognition of qualifications

An assessment of whether a foreign diploma is equivalent to a domestic one. This is substantive rather than formal: an academic body compares curricula, hours and standards, and may recognise fully, partially, or subject to examinations.

• Required for regulated professions — medicine, law, engineering, teaching, architecture — before you may practise.
• Frequently required for skilled migration points and for university admission.
• Takes months, sometimes longer, and can require documents the university no longer issues.
• It is entirely separate from apostille and translation, both of which are prerequisites for it.

The sequence, in order

1. Obtain a current original or certified extract from the issuing authority.
2. Apostille or legalise it in the issuing country.
3. Translate it by an accepted translator.
4. Submit for recognition where the qualification will be used professionally or academically.

Steps one and two can only be done in the country of issue. That is the single practical instruction of this whole subject: do them before you leave.