Attestation of Documents

How & why to get documents attested

What do you mean my passport isn’t good enough?!?!?!?!

If you’ve traveled internationally – you know that most of the time all you need in the way of identification is your passport.

Even in the USA domestically – the passport is the king document that proves everything you apply it to.

It turns out that if you want to actually reside (i.e. get a Residency Visa) in the United Arab Emirates (and every other country I’ve researched), you are going to need a lot more than passports to effectively establish your family in your new home.

Attestation is a process of verification for documents issued in a country other than the one to which you are moving.

List of documents includes:

• Birth certificates (definitely required for dependent children, occasionally needed for adults)
• Marriage certificate (required to sponsor your spouse and to live with your spouse)
• Any court document that is relevant to your daily life (e.g. divorce or custody agreements, adoption decrees, etc.)
• School transcripts (for children)
• Diploma and transcripts of higher education (for adults)
• Medical records (especially for children)
• Business formation documents

How do you know which document(s) to have attested?

Every circumstance is slightly different – but my answer: if you have a document that you ever rely on to prove something (age, educational qualifications, marital status, custody of your children, etc.) then better to be over-prepared than under-prepared.

The process can differ slightly depending on which country you are moving to – my process was from the USA to the UAE, so that is what I am outlining below. These steps are valid for all 7 Emirates at the time of this article.

Be prepared – the USA process can be long. As of today – the stated processing time is 10-11 weeks. At the time I processed my documents, the stated time was 2-3 weeks and mine took 9. So take that with a grain of salt.

Recent update re: USA State Department – they now have a method to request status updates online – I am not sure how effective it is, since this came out after I finished my process – but super helpful in theory.

Attestation Steps:

1. Obtain official, full color, certified copies of your documents from the issuing authority (School, Courthouse, etc.)
2. Order/buy some type of sturdy case for transporting these documents safely all over the world for years to come. I bought this lightweight, locking, fire-safe case that fit nicely in my carry-on and has really exceeded my high expectations.
3. Complete the first step of attestation according to this chart. Bring (or mail) your documents to your Secretary of State for the first step of attestation. Bring the specified payment method. I walked mine in and walked out an hour later with everything done. If you mail or drop off, you may need to include an order form with your packet. Verify with your Secretary of State for details.
4. Mail/Ship your documents to the US State Department. Include the DS-4194 order form along with a money order for the exact amount required, and a prepaid return envelope according to the specifications on the US State Dept website. I used UPS overnight to ship and return – and the peace of mind from the tracking was worth every penny. If you are getting your documents for the UAE, be sure you are going for “Authentication” and not “apostille”. Only countries which participated in the 1961 Hague Convention use apostilles, which does not include the UAE – since it was not yet a country at that time.
5. Mail/Ship your documents to the UAE Foreign Mission/Embassy in the USA. I heard that the wait in Washington DC was a few weeks, so I sent mine to the Houston, TX office and they were processed and back within 4 days total. Prepay using the UAE website is the best. Note – this is one website that will not accept debit cards issued in the USA (as of the date of this post). I used my prepaid Al Ansari Exchange Visa card to pay. Or an app. Send the UPS prepaid envelope here also
6. Get your documents to the UAE. Ideally – you can carry them with you, if all of the above steps were processed in a time frame that works for you. I had already left the USA while waiting on the USA State Dept. step to complete, so I had a friend who was sending/receiving UPS envelopes for me. My friend was able to send the documents via UPS from the US to the UAE in less than a week. It was expensive-ish, but way less than the cost of continuing to do border runs or hiring a 3rd party company to do all of the steps.
7. Once your documents are in the UAE and have completed the above 3 attestation steps, they need to be attested also by MOFAIC in the UAE. This process is super user-friendly, and they will even send a courier to your house/apartment/hotel to retrieve the documents from you. Like many other services, the UAE has an excellent online process for this step. You start the process here and will need to pay online (again, here I use my prepaid Al Ansari card because I do not have a local Visa/MC available.
8. Get your documents translated to Arabic by a certified legal translating service (often available at typing centers). Word to the wise – verify the accuracy of the translation with someone reliable before accepting the final product. When you are using the documents for obtaining residency in the UAE they will need to be in Arabic regardless of the original language. Reputable legal translation services will only begin the translation process after all of the 4 attestation steps have been completed.

*Note – the US State Department process is difficult to verify while you are waiting on the documents. At the time I sent mine, the website and phone operator both stated that turnaround time was 2-3 weeks. I won’t bore you with the hours hold time I spent making international calls from the UAE to the USA to try to find out where my documents were only to be hung up on by the automated system after 90 minutes of hold time (every time)….. but it took 8-9 weeks for my documents to clear this stage.

**Second note – you can definitely leave the USA while you are waiting on these documents to process. All you need is a trusted friend or coworker who can receive and send UPS in your absence. You will not be able to complete the residency process for your family without the documents, and it would be a good idea to confirm with a company that hired you which documents you need to get started – but you can definitely be a tourist without all of that finished up.