Legalisation of Flemish certificates and diplomas
If you want to work or study abroad with a Flemish diploma or certificate, it may be necessary to have these documents legalised in Belgium. Whether this is necessary, you can check with the embassy or NARIC centre of the country where you want to work or study.
The legalisation of a diploma or certificate proves that a signature (from a person in education such as a rector, professor, director, member of the Examination Board ...) on the diploma or certificate is genuine.
Conditions
- The documents (diplomas, certificates, reports, attestations, partial certificates, credit lists, etc.) must have been issued by a recognised Flemish educational institution (e.g. a primary school, a secondary school, a college or university, an adult education institution, etc.).
- The documents must contain a signature (electronic or manual), name and position of someone from the institution. If no (legible) signature is present, the document cannot be legalised.
- You should have the original document legalised, but you can also have a number of true copies legalised. These are copies of the original document which hold an original signature of someone from the educational institution to prove the authenticity of the document. The country you are going to may only accept legalised original documents and not legalised copies.
- Is your document digitally signed, but the signature is no longer viewable (by a copy or printout)? Then ask the educational institution to sign the documents by hand and always provide us with a signed copy.
- To work or study abroad, you may also need a translation of your certificate or diploma. For this, you can contact your school or a sworn translator (in Dutch).
Procedure
Request the legalisation of your Flemish diploma from NARIC-Vlaanderen via e-mail: naric.legalisaties@vlaanderen.be(opens in your email application).
- Attach all documents to be legalised in separate PDFs.
- Also attach a copy of the front and back of your identity card.
- NARIC-Vlaanderen also takes care of the application for the e-apostille(opens in new window) (the Hague Apostille) with the Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs. To do so, please state your e-mail address and the country for which the apostille is being requested. Foreign Affairs will then contact you for payment (20 euros per document).
You will not receive an automatic acknowledgement of receipt after submission.
Legalisation can take up to 10 working days. In many cases, the procedure is faster.
Cost
- The legalisation by NARIC-Flanders is free of charge.
- Apostille at Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs costs 20 euros (per document). Foreign Affairs will contact you for this.
Legislation
Apostille: The Hague Convention of 5 October 1961.