Apostille
AUTHENTICATION OF DECREE
Do I need Apostille?
A number of authorities or other bodies (e.g. university) of foreign countries only accept documents issued by the Hungarian authorities if the documents are legalized for international use. Please check it at the country you are going to use your decree, whether the Hungarian decree is accepted automatically or need authentication.
The procedure consists of 2 steps.
- The attestation of the validity of degrees obtained in Hungarian higher education institutions and other certificates issued by the institutions falls within the competence of the Consultation Office of the Educational Authority (Oktatási Hivatal).
If you wish to attain the interim authentication stamp for your higher education qualification, you need to bring your qualification to the Consultation Office of the Education Authority during office hours. (http://www.oktatas.hu/kapcsolat/kozponti_ugyfelszolgalat).
Please note that the Office is only able to authenticate documents that contain the original stamp and signatures of the issuing higher education institution, consequently, the office can only stamp and sign the original documents or their copies certified by the issuing higher education institution.
Prior to bringing your documents, please send their scanned copy to the Education Authority to the address info@oh.gov.hu. The Office will contact the issuing institution and once the institution confirms the validity of the documents, they shall inform you. Only following this procedure should you bring your documents to the Consultation Office.
It is not possible to conduct the authentication procedure by mail, thus the Office requests that you or a person representing you (no formal authorization is necessary) bring the documents to the Consultation Office in person during office hours.
There procedure is free of charge in the Educational Authority and it is not necessary to make an appointment.
- The issuing of the Hague Apostille, thus the international authentication of Hungarian documents falls within the competence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Educational Authority’s competence is the interim authentication, following which the stamped documents should be submitted in person by you or by an authorized person to the Consular and Legal Affairs Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during office hours. (Address: Ministry of Foreign Affairs – „E” Building, 1027 Budapest, Nagy Imre tér 4.)
Their office hours are the following: Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays: 9.00 – 12.00. On Fridays it is only possible to pick up documents.
The fee of the apostille stamp is 5500 HUF per documents which should be paid when submitting the documents to the Consular and Legal Affairs Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
