United Arab Emirates
- Method
- Consular chain
- Last reviewed
- Source
- www.mofa.gov.ae
This page is a general overview of the corridor. The exact course of legalisation depends on the document: some stages, such as the DVV or notary certification, apply only to some documents. We confirm the document-specific stages after reviewing the document, before quoting.
Check these before ordering
The UAE divides documents into two fee classes: individual and commercial. The class follows the content of the document, not its title. The ministry's list puts contracts, board resolutions and minutes, trade register extracts, commercial powers of attorney and general powers of attorney in the commercial class; a power of attorney of a personal nature and an employment contract are individual documents. A commercial contract may be charged as several documents depending on its content.
Tell us in your quote request what the document covers. If the class is unclear, we confirm the price after reviewing the document.
Documents the customer printed themselves from the DVV e-service cannot be legalised. Typically birth and marriage certificates and register extracts.
Order a paper original from the DVV before starting the chain.
Universities' electronically verifiable certificates cannot be legalised. These are exactly what recent graduates hold.
An electronically verifiable certificate is not legalised directly. Whether a notary-certified paper copy is accepted instead depends on the recipient's requirements and is confirmed before the quote. Tell us in your quote request whether your certificate is electronically verifiable.
The signature the Ministry for Foreign Affairs legalises, an official's or a notary's, must be an original handwritten signature with the name printed. Without both it is not legalised.
If the document lacks the official's original signature (e.g. PRH's standard paper extract or a self-printed extract), the DVV notary can certify it first, and the MFA then legalises the notary's signature. Example: the office's completed case ran PRH → DVV → MFA. A signed official extract and a printout are different documents, and the procedure follows the document.
Steps and authority fees
Below are the fees charged by states. They are passed through at cost. Our standard service fee is EUR 100. Where a country package applies, the package price is confirmed separately.
This route has not been verified against a source yet, so we do not publish its fees. Ask for a quote and we will confirm the amounts with the authority before starting.
01 Original documentNote: an apostille is NOT sufficient, the UAE requires full consular legalisation | You provide |
02 Confirmation of the signatory's competence (DVV)Digital and Population Data Services Agency (DVV) Whether this step applies is decided by who issued the document (the Finnish MFA's own split): university, chamber-of-commerce and authorised-translator documents go straight to the MFA; private, company, AMK, vocational, upper-secondary and comprehensive-school documents need the notary first. Not always needed | confirmed in advance |
03 Finnish MFA legalisationMinistry for Foreign Affairs of Finland | confirmed in advance |
04 Embassy attestation (Helsinki)UAE Embassy, Helsinki The embassy visit is booked by email, usually for the next working day; that is not a promised completion time. The originals are returned at the visit, and the electronic confirmation arrives by email afterwards. | confirmed in advance |
05 Destination MOFA attestationUAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) A document issued abroad is finally attested by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the UAE. Done in the destination country | confirmed in advance |
Quantity does not scale the price. Some fees are charged per signature and some per document, so the same bundle costs a different amount depending on how many signatures the documents carry.
Service boundary: stages performed in the destination country are not part of our service unless separately agreed. They are marked in the chain.