Legalization of documents

Please submit the corresponding application to us (if the application is submitted by a company on behalf of the applicant, the corresponding power of attorney must be enclosed).

As a rule, we carry out the pre-certification on the basis of a copy certified by us and then send this to the Braunschweig Police Department for legalization, which will then contact you.

In the case of duplicates, you should be aware that these may take a very long time to process and that it cannot be guaranteed that they can be issued at all, as the original signatures must be obtained.

Please note that we can only perform preliminary legalizations for documents issued by the Clausthal University of Technology.

Legalization procedure and "Hague Apostille

Legalization is a formal procedure with the aim of having a public document (e.g. from the Clausthal University of Technology) recognized in a foreign country in accordance with the legal regulations in force there and treated in the same way as a corresponding document in that country.

Within the framework of this procedure, the authenticity of the signature, the capacity in which the signatory has acted and the authenticity of the seal are confirmed by diplomatic or consular representations of the respective country (for definition, see Hague Convention on the Exemption of Foreign Documents from Legalization).

For more information on international documents, please visit the relevant websites of the German Foreign Office.

The procedure

Within the framework of this procedure, the Clausthal University of Technology becomes active within the scope of the so-called "pre-authentication".

Upon formal request of the document holder, the responsible office of the Clausthal University of Technology confirms the authenticity of the document and the signature as well as the characteristics of the signatory.

For further processing and issuance of the pre-certified document, the process is forwarded to the responsible office (currently the Braunschweig Police Department). From there, the certificate, together with the corresponding invoice, will be returned to the applicant.

Before initiating the legalization procedure, please contact the embassy or consulate of the respective country to find out which level of legalization or which final legalization authority must be involved. The so-called "final legalization" is another step that you must initiate yourself with the appropriate authority after receiving the preliminary legalization.

To initiate this procedure, please contact us by e-mail at legalisation@tu-clausthal.de.

Final certification of the original document or a certified copy

For certain countries, the Federal Office of Administration is the final certifying authority in Germany. As a rule, only original certificates or their duplicates are certified here without restriction (as of 11/2009).

In the event that the original certificate is not to be used, only a limited certification is performed. In this case, the correctness or completeness of the content is not certified.