Higher education diploma and graduation certificates obtained outside of Poland need to be certified with an apostille or legalized.

What is an Apostille?

Apostille is a stamp or a printed form that allows for official documents issued in one country to be legally recognized in another. Apostille has been introduced within the Hauge Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents and can be used in countries that have signed the convention.

Apostille is issued in the same country that has issued the document in question. The Hauge Convention website enlists all institutions issuing the apostille.

What Does Legalisation Mean?

Legalization is a confirmation that an official document ( e.g. maturity certificate of higher education diploma) is an original and valid one. You need to legalize a document if the country where it has been issued has not signed the Hague Convention and is not listed here.

Usually, a document is legalized by a Polish consul in the country of the document's origin. Bring the document in question to the Polish consulate and ask about the legalization procedure.