In international law, legalisation is the process of authenticating or certifying a legal document so a foreign country's legal system will recognize it as with full legal effect. Authentication by legalisation is widely used in international commerce and civil law matters in those jurisdictions where the simpler apostille system has not been adopted.

Legalisation is usually required by German authorities before they will allow a UAE document to be used for official purposes in Germany. You can get a UAE public document ‘legalised’ - this means a signature, seal or stamp made by a UAE public official on the document is confirmed as genuine by the German Consulate General in Dubai. It does not authenticate the content of the document.

Before a document is legalised, a check is made to ensure the public official has the authority to sign the document. By authenticating the signature and seal of the final official a foreign jurisdiction can authenticate the entire chain of verifications back to the entity responsible for issuing the original document (certified as genuine). We carry out a visual match of the official’s original signature against that held on our database.

A document can be legalised if the following criteria are met:

• Certificates must be issued by a UAE authority. Documents not issued in the UAE cannot be legalised by the German missions here. This also includes documents issued by other embassies or entities in the UAE.
• Certificates need to be presented in original form, as certified copy or electronic print. Private documents or copies cannot be legalised.
• Please ensure to get the necessary certification/verification from the Consular Section of the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs first.

For further information on the legalisation service please visit the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Legalisations can only be executed by the Consulate General in Dubai.

Applicants need to book an appointment with the appointment system on our website.

The fees for legalizations range from EUR 31,20. At the Consulate General in Dubai the fees for consular services can be paid in cash in AED only.