Legalising appendices to the application for the right to practise, using the Apostille or Grand Legalisation procedure

If you completed your degree outside the EU/EEA, you must attach a reliable report of the veracity of your degree certificate to your application for the right to practise. What this means in practice is that you must submit your degree certificate (diploma) to Valvira, legalised using the Apostille or Grand Legalisation procedure. Other documents that you must attach to your application may also have to be legalised using the Apostille or Grand Legalisation procedure.

Documents must be legalised using the Apostille or Grand Legalisation procedure. Documents must always be legalised in the country in which they were issued. The purpose of the procedure is to verify that the person who signed the document is actually in the position stated in the document and that the person had the legal right to issue the document by virtue of their position as at the time when the document was issued.

An Apostille or Grand Legalisation can verify that the signatory of a degree certificate had the right to sign that certificate or that the notary public certifying official copies of a document had the right to do so. Please ensure that you request the Apostille or Grand Legalisation in respect of the correct person. If you wish to legalise your original degree certificate, you must request an Apostille or Grand Legalisation in respect of the person who signed the degree certificate (e.g. the headmaster of the institution). If, on the other hand, you wish to legalise an officially certified copy, you must request an Apostille or Grand Legalisation in respect of the notary public.

Apostille procedure

Documents issued in countries that are States parties to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 must be legalised using the Apostille procedure. Further information on the Apostille procedure and on the relevant countries can be found on the HCCH website.

Grand Legalisation procedure

Documents issued in countries that are not States parties to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 must be legalised using the Grand Legalisation procedure. In this procedure, the foreign ministry of the country where the document was issued must first certify that the document was issued by the appropriate authority. Then, the competent Finnish mission in that country must legalise the document. Legalisation involves attaching an affidavit to the document stating that the foreign ministry official in question has the right to issue such a certification.