Disclaimer: This blog post is my own experience of getting my documents attested. Please do extensive research and ask your HR for guidance.
One of the most confusing processes for making the move to the UAE will be getting your documents attested. Usually HR will only require your highest degree and/or teacher qualification to be attested but some may ask that your college transcripts are too, however I can not say what a school will or will not request. I personally did not need transcripts to be attested, just scans of originals. The attested certificates are expected to be in the UAE with your school's HR as soon as possible as they need this to apply for teaching approval for you before they can apply for your Labour card. The documents must be in English or have the English translation on the document otherwise they cannot be accepted.
You can complete each step yourself or get an attestation company to do it all for you. The steps for the attestation process for the UAE are as follows:
1. Notarised by a solicitor.
2. Stamped by the Ministry of Education in the Country from where the degree has been issued.
3. UAE Ministry Stamp from the country of origin of the degrees.
4. Ministry of Foreign Affairs Stamp in UAE.
I went through an attestation company to complete steps 2-4 and they delivered this straight to my school's HR. Firstly, I went to a local notary with my original parchments, passport, proof of address (bank statement), and birth certificate. The notary notarised my original parchments and this notarised document is what I then sent to the Arab Irish Chamber of Commerce (AICC). However, please note the AICC can only legalise documents issued in the Republic of Ireland.
The process was stress-free. I am absolutely in no way affiliated to be pushing going through the AICC, but I have heard of other people stressing about not getting documents to the UAE in time, and stresses along the way with various companies, and I honestly didn't experience this at all. The process was a bit spenny, but saved me the stress which I welcomed at the time with open arms.
If you do choose to go through the AICC, you will select Personal Document Legalisation Service. I got my document notarised myself as I was too nervous to send my parchment to them incase it was lost and I didn't get it back. Therefore, during the application, because I already had the parchment notarised, I choose 'this is a certified copy issued by the original issuer'. If you are sending the original parchment, you will need to select that it is the original. The rest is self-explanatory. I choose for the AICC to do every step for me after that so I didn't have anything to do with the process. I put in my school in Dubai's address and that was all of it taken care of.
There may be other companies that you could look into that I cannot vouch for or do not know about, therefore if anyone has had a positive experience with any other company that may cost less, I would love to hear from you and will update this blog post accordingly!
I hope this has helped you all with this tricky element of moving to the UAE. If you have any further questions, please reach out by leaving a comment on this blog post, or on socials!
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