Have documents notarized

Documents (e.g., photocopies, transcripts, or printouts) are only officially certified if the original was created by a public authority or if the document is to be submitted to a public authority.

Documents maynot be officially certified if

• the exclusive competence of another authority is given (e.g. birth, marriage or death certificates - only from the registry office; certified extracts from the land register - only from the land registry office)
• the assumption is justified that the original content of the document whose copy, duplicate or printout is to be certified has been changed, in particular if this document contains gaps, crossings out, insertions, changes, illegible words, numbers or characters, traces of the removal of words, numbers and characters or if the context of a document consisting of several sheets has been removed,
• public notarization is required instead of official certification (public notarization is the responsibility of notaries and courts and cannot be replaced by official certification),
• the document is not in German and the applicant refuses to provide an official translation.
• these are printouts of unsigned electronic documents (e.g. exmatriculation certificates).

Notarizations of documents are usually processed immediately.