Authentication
Legalisation, Notarisation and Authentication of Documents
Once offered a job abroad, you may be asked to first legalise your documents. Before we begin, it is important to know that your Dux TEFL Courses are fully accredited and recognised for obtaining a work visa in any country. The Dux certificate is valid for life for all legal and professional purposes. It is guaranteed to be able to be authenticated, apostilled, legalised and is valid for applying for a work visa and for jobs abroad.
Not every destination country requires that documents be legalised. Every country also has a different procedure for legalising documents but we will list the most common procedure here. It is important to find out from your school/employer as to whether you need your documents authenticated, apostilled and legalised and what the process is. Your school/employer should guide you on this but we provide you with this information in case.
How do I legalise my TEFL/TESOL certificates and other documents?
Firstly, you will need the printed original TEFL/TESOL certificate along with the originals of all your other documents. Photocopies or printed digital versions will not be sufficient.
If you haven’t ordered the original certificate already and you wish to teach abroad, then you will need to order the original Dux TEFL certificate. Dux will have the certificate professionally printed, embossed with the Dux seal, signed by the academic director, packaged and posted to a location of your choice.
Once you complete your Dux TEFL course, you can order the original and signed certificate at the respective course page.
Now that you have the originals of your TEFL/TESOL and all other relevant documents, the next step is to have them notarised at a Notary Public. A Google search will show available Notary Publics in your area.
If the destination country is not part of the Hague Convention, you will then need your documents to be authenticated. This is usually done at a high court or government body responsible for authentication. Some countries require an additional step of ‘legalisation’. That is, after the TEFL/TESOL has been notarised and authenticated, it will need to be legalised by an additional government body - for example, through DIRCO (South Africa).
Now that your TEFL/TESOL certificate is legalised, you can take it along with all other relevant documents to the relevant embassy to apply for your work visa.
To summarise:
- Step 1: Get the originals of all your certificates and relevant documents.
- Step 2: Have all relevant documents notarised by a Notary Public.
- Step 3: Take all notarised documents to the relevant government bodies to be authenticated and legalised (in some countries, this can be done at the embassy of the destination country but others require one to go to a high court and government body).
- Step 4: Apply for your work visa at the relevant embassy.
This process can be frustrating and time consuming - it could take weeks. Dux advises using an authentication agency to handle these steps for you. A Google search will show many agencies in your area which provide such services and the prices are reasonable.
We hope that this helps you on your journey and if you have any further questions, please contact us on tefl@duxrec.com and we will be happy to help.
Accreditation
Our 120-Hour TEFL/TESOL Course is accredited annually through AccrEd, an international accreditation company specialising in accrediting legitimate TEFL/TESOL courses to ensure competence and academic excellence.
The initial accreditation was done by Accreditat. This company is registered under the United Kingdom’s Register of Learning Providers (known as UKRLP) confirming that they (as well as the courses they accredit) have been verified against a recognised legal source.
In doing so, this accredited TEFL/TESOL certification is internationally recognised as legitimate. This legitimacy ensures that anyone who completes the Dux TEFL Course will have no disputes with employers or foreign immigration offices when it comes to their TEFL/TESOL qualification.
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