Authentication (legalization or apostille) of documents means the affirmation of their authenticity, which gives the legal force outside the borders of the country of issue. The method of legalization depends on the country of origin of your high school diploma.

Nostrification - recognition of a foreign certificate by the Polish Education Office.

You should remember that authentication and nostrification are two different procedures.

Apostille/Legalization must be done in your country (in the country of issue of the diploma) even before enrolling in the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technologies.

Nostrification of maturity certificates is approved by The Education office (Kuratorium Oświaty) in Poland. You need to submit it to our Admission Office upon arrival in Poland, before the end of the first semester of study.

The Apostille is a special sign on the official documents issued by the institutions and organizations of the countries-members of "The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents." It specifies that the document issued in one of the signatory countries can be certified for legal purposes in all the other signatory states. Depending on the country the apostille can be done in a High Court, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, etc.

The seal "Apostille" is placed only on the original documents of the state sample.

Apostille is required for the documents issued in: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Brazil, Chile, China, China (Hong Kong), Colombia, Georgia, India, Israel, Kazakhstan, Republic of Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Mongolia, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, etc.

The complete list of the countries-members of The Hague Convention can be found at the officoal website.

Poland has signed an agreement abolishing or simplifying the document legalization procedure, you do not need apostilization for the documents from the following countries:

• EU countries (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Holland, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Germany, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Hungary, Italy);
• EEA countries (Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland);
• other countries (Ukraine, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, United States).

Legalization means the authenticity of signatures on the documents and seals of competent state authorities in case you want to submit and give the legal force to your documents in a foreign country. It is similar to Apostille. But it is used for the affirmation of documents issued in the countries-no-members of the Hague Convention (Bangladesh, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Cameroon, Morocco, Vietnam, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, etc).

This method of legalization is valid for all countries that are not listed in the link.

The legalization can be done by:

• Polish consul in the country where the certificate was issued or in the country in which educational system a school operates;
• educational authorities in the country where a certificate was issued or in the country in which educational system a school operates;
• an embassy or consulate of the country where a certificate was issued or in the country in which educational system a school operates located in Poland or in other EU, EFTA or OECD country;

The process of recognition of elementary, secondary and higher education is called nostrification.
This is a consent of relevant state Authorities to the legitimacy of the documents on the territory of Poland. The decision on the recognition and equivalence of foreign documents of education in Poland is made by the institution called "Kuratorium Oświaty" (Education Superintendent).

The information describing the nostrification process can be found on the "Board of Education" (Education Superintendent) website.

List of required documents for nostrification:

All the required documents (which are mentioned below) should be delivered to The Education Office in Warsaw in order to get the recognition of the foreign school graduation certificate by the Polish Ministry of Education.

• Completed application form (a form for those who are under 18);
• High school diploma with the apostille or legalization made by Polish consul/Ministry of Higher Education;
• Transcript of grades obtained during the final exams which enables completing school;
• Eligibility Statement - a certificate from school of the home country or from Ministry of Higher Education, confirming the right to continue education at the next level;
• Other documents requested by the Warsaw education office (e.g. information concerning curriculum - its content);
• Translation of all documents into Polish (high school diploma, its supplement, eligibility statement, form of curriculum content);
• An authorization letter from the certificate holder if an applicant is not the owner of the certificate (a form for those who are under 18);
• Copy of your passport.