Legalization of documents when heading to study medicine or veterinary medicine in Poland
Poland and its people are friendly and very hospitable. They sometimes are also quite formal and they like their documents and procedures right.
If you are successful at the interview / admissions process for Polish medical or veterinary schools, you will be required to provide additional documents and some of them must first be authenticated or legalized.
1) Passport Copy must be certified and there are different ways to do it.
- copy of your passport can be certified by the student office at the university if you bring in person your original passport together with a copy of your passport.
- if you intend to send the documents by post, you can certify the copy in your home country by a Notary Public/Commissioner or Oaths/Garda/Police Station. The certifier should certify a copy of a document by writing 'TRUE COPY' and putting his/her signature and seal/stamp on the copy itself.
2) Leaving Certificate/ A-Levels/ Provisional Results Certificate copies must also be certified as your passport above (if you are providing the university with a copy instead of the original document) but it also needs additional legalization by Apostille. If you are submitting the original document, you do not need to certify it, just get an Apostille.
An apostille is a process in which various seals are placed on the certificate so it will be recognized as a legal document in the other country. An apostille is issued by accountable authorities for each individual country. In Ireland, it is the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin and Cork (more info here). If your diploma was issued in another country than Ireland you will find the list of relevant authorities here.
Studying medicine or veterinary abroad is challenging as the programs themselves are. Meeting the deadlines and keeping track of formal duties and documents may also be a challange, so staying organised from day one helps a lot and prevents stress down the line. Depending on your preferences, you may start a new folder or calendar to keep all your documents and dates in one place as well as copies / scans of all docments. And remember, Medical Poland is here to help you too.