Globalization of world economy causes movements of masses of people around the globe. As a result, often educational credentials (school records, grades, transcripts, diplomas or certificates) need to be apostilled or legalized for use in various countries for such reasons as work, immigration or study.

Frequently it may not be clear-cut in terms of exact certification requirements due to various complications. For example, a person may have been born in one country, studied in another country, immigrated to a different country and currently is looking at finding work in a new country. He/she may have lost original citizenship or acquired another citizenship or permanent residency/greencard.

Other complications/issues to consider may be as follows:

• Academic accreditation of a school or program - certain countries will not accept diplomas from specific schools/programs or on-line universities
• University/Institute may not easily provide copies of transcripts or other verifications due to common practice of issuing diplomas and transcripts only once at the time of graduation
• Varying formats of diplomas and transcripts from countries may sometimes preclude them from being certified as a single document by a foreign embassy/consulate/mission
• High corruption in certain countries has spawned fraudulent professionals who may have a specious diploma but never actually attended a school or completed the program

As a result, certain embassies/consulates/missions do not authenticate/certify academic credentials directly even if a person has the original without the diploma/certificate being first verified in the country of study by either or both the University and the Ministry of Education or Foreign Affairs. Other countries may have special overseas Cultural Bureaus (or equivalents) dedicated to verification of credentials as a mandatory step for legalization by their embassies/consulates/missions.

WDC Apostille & Legalization Services has assisted many individuals to get their diplomas acknowledged so we have accumulated considerable knowledge of global requirements. Please contact us or request a quote prior sending any documents so that we can suggest the best procedure to get credentials certified hassle-free.

Educational Credentials from Accredited U.S. Schools, Colleges and Universities

The USA is a party to The Hague Apostille Convention of 1961. If the country of your intended document use is also a party to the Convention, then you can just get your credentials apostilled by your Secretary of State, and no further authentication/legalization is required! Please see this link for more information on certification and apostille by Secretary of State.

However, if the country of document use is not a party to the Convention, then authentication by U.S. Department of State and consular legalization at that country's embassy/consulate/mission in the USA is required.

For general information about the applicability of the Hague Apostille Convention in the USA, please check out this link.

We at WDC Apostille & Legalization Services will be happy to assist you with authentication of your educational credentials at the U.S. Department of State with subsequent legalization by any foreign embassy/consulate/mission based in Washington, DC or Ottawa. Please contact us without any hesitation!

How to Use Our Services

It is super-easy to use our services if you follow the below suggested algorithm of actions:

• You contact us preferably by email explaining your document situation. If it is urgent, you can call us 24/7. Please provide as many details as possible about your documents but the key information we usually need is: 1) who issued them, 2) where you intend to use them, 3) how many you have, 4) are they originals or notarized copies, 5) how fast you need them back and 6) the destination they need to be sent to. If your shipment destination (after processing) is neither in the USA nor in Canada, then we would need the exact address including postal code so that we can give you exact courier quote.
• We will reply by email as well as fast as we can with our comments, suggestions, questions and/or confirmation with preliminary or final quote.
• You can then write us back with additional questions, comments or concerns. Or you may just be satisfied and ready to send your documents.
• At this stage we agree on the course of action and our services. You would make the payment, ship the documents and email us the tracking # so that we can start tracking your inbound shipment and provide you interim updates.
• We will complete your service request and ship the documents back to your agreed destination either in your attached prepaid envelope with filled out air waybill or in our envelope (but we would have to charge you extra for this service). If you prefer, we can scan the completed documents and email them to you prior outbound shipment so you would know that we did indeed do everything as previously discussed.
• After shipment is sent, we will email you the tracking # so that you can monitor the arrival.

We hope to hear from you soon!