Prior to leaving Poland, our graduates are strongly encouraged to authenticate and legalize their diplomas and diploma supplements for use abroad. This involve obtaining an apostille or legalization, and sometimes also authentication by a consulate.
Apostille or legalization?
If your destination country is party to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents, official documents intended for circulation in such a country should be certified with an apostille.
The full up-to-date list of Hague Convention members is available here: https://www.hcch.net/en/instruments/conventions/status-table/?cid=41.
- If the country is on this list, only diploma authentication is required. Diploma authentication requires an apostille. To obtain an apostille, we refer to NAWA: https://nawa.gov.pl/en/apostille-and-legalization/what-is-required-to-obtain-an-apostille
- If the country is not on the above list, you need to legalize your diploma. First, NAWA authenticates the diploma, and then one must go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to the embassy of the country where the diploma needs to be valid: https://nawa.gov.pl/en/apostille-and-legalization/what-is-required-to-obtain-legalization
The competent authority for issuing apostille and legalization certificates for documents issued by higher education institutions in Poland is:
National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA)
Narodowa Agencja Wymiany Akademickiej
40 Polna St. 00-635 Warsaw
website: https://nawa.gov.pl/en/apostille-and-legalization
e-mail: apostille@nawa.gov.pl
tel. 48 22 390 35 80 (from 10am to 12pm on weekdays)