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Contracting States of the Hague Convention

Guideline for Certification of Documents

The country in which your document was issued is a party to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, also know as the Hague Apostille Convention. In this case, documents and translations that are issued and made in your country of origin must be authenticated by attachment of an official apostille. The apostille is applied to the document by a designated authority in your country of origin. The authority/office that issues the apostille is different in each country; you can find out which authority is responsible in your country from the following list on the website of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH). The apostille must be stamped and written on the document itself or on an extra page attached to the document. The apostille certifies the authenticity of the person who issued the document, the function of the person who signed the document and if applicable the authenticity of the seal and/or stamp on the document. Please note that TU Graz can only accept documents on which the educational authority or the notary explicitly confirms that the signature of the person issuing the document is authentic. A certification which only confirms that the document is a faithful representation of the original is not sufficient and cannot be accepted by TU Graz.

Public and Private Documents

The apostille can only be attached to public documents, not to private documents; for example, documents issued by state-run educational institutions are usually classified as public whereas documents from some private institutions are classified as private. Which documents are regarded as public documents for this purpose is regulated by the individual state. However, private documents can be given public status if they are first certified by an official authority; this may be for example the relevant education authority (ministry) or a notary. The education authority or notary must certify the authenticity of the signature of the person who issued the document. After this step is carried out, the document now has the status of a public document and can be certified with an apostille.

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Guideline for Translation

All documents (including curricula) must be submitted in German or English. If the original document was not issued in one of these two languages, it must be translated. The translations must be made by an officially registered and court-approved translator. Please pay attention to the following details:
  • The original document must already have all the necessary certification stamps/marks before the translation is carried out.
  • All stamps, seals and certification statements present on the document (including any on the reverse side) must be translated along with the rest of the document. The apostille itself does not have to be translated.
  • The translator must securely attach the translation to the original document.

Procedure for translations done in Austria

  1. Have the original document certified by means of an apostille (see above).
  2. Have the certified document translated by an Austrian sworn and certified court interpreter (allgemein beeideter und gerichtlich zertifizierter Dolmetscher, for short: Gerichtsdolmetscher). You can find the list of court interpreters here.

Procedure for translations done in the country where the original document was issued

  1. Have the original document certified by means of an apostille (see above).
  2. Have the certified document translated by an officially certified/sworn translator in the country where it was issued.
  3. Have the translation certified by means of an apostille as described in step 1.