Fees and steps checked on
Bulgaria certificate attestation lets a Bulgarian diploma, birth or marriage certificate, or notarial document be used for a UAE visa, job or company. Translation comes first, because Bulgarian papers are in Cyrillic. After that the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs legalises the document and the UAE Embassy in Sofia attests it digitally, a result that already includes MOFA attestation.
Price: Send a copy on WhatsApp and you get the total price plus VAT, all official fees included, before any work starts. Our attestation fees page explains what the total covers.
Translation is where Bulgarian files start
Bulgaria has its own system for official translations. They are made by translation agencies that hold a contract with the foreign ministry, and the ministry's legalisation sector certifies the translator's signature. A translation done abroad by an unlisted translator is not the same thing. We plan the translation before anything else, so the Bulgarian ministry can legalise the original and its translation in one visit.
If the UAE employer or court also wants Arabic, a licensed legal translator in Dubai adds that at the end.
Step by step
- Original document. Civil status certificates must be originals. Diplomas and other documents can be originals or true copies once the ministry has legalised them.
- Certified translation in Bulgaria. By an agency under contract with the MFA.
- Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Its certification and legalisation sector offers an ordinary service and faster paid options.
- MOFA portal. We apply with UAE PASS, choose the Republic of Bulgaria as the country of issue and pay the UAE fees.
- UAE Embassy in Sofia. The original is handed in at the embassy on a working day between 9:30 and 15:00.
- Digital result. The attested document arrives by email, certified by the embassy and UAE MOFA, and the original is collected from the embassy.
Bulgarian documents and what they need
| Document | In Bulgaria | Notes for the UAE |
|---|---|---|
| Diploma (диплома) and transcript | Translation, MFA legalisation | Often needed with the degree certificate attestation route for a work permit |
| Birth certificate | Original, translation, MFA | Used for a child's residence visa, see birth certificate attestation |
| Marriage certificate | Original, translation, MFA | Needed to sponsor a spouse |
| Power of attorney | Signed before a Bulgarian notary, then MFA | Commercial content makes it a commercial document |
| Company documents | Notary or registry, MFA | Memorandum and articles attested separately |
Names in Cyrillic
The most frequent problem with Bulgarian files is the spelling of names. The same surname can be transliterated in more than one way, and it must match the passport used for the UAE visa. Send a copy of the passport with the document so the translation follows the Latin spelling in it. Female surnames ending in "-ova" or "-eva" are another point to check against the family's other documents.
What the Sofia embassy will not accept
- Documents issued outside Bulgaria, which belong to the UAE embassy in the country that issued them
- Laminated documents
- Several documents bound into one bundle
- Commercial invoices and certificates of origin, which use MOFA's eDAS system
A spouse or child with certificates from Romania needs that country's own chain: see Romania certificate attestation.
If you are already in the UAE
The online application can be made from Dubai, Abu Dhabi or anywhere else, and MOFA allows anyone to apply on your behalf. Someone in Bulgaria still has to take the original to the ministry and the embassy, so we arrange that or a family member does it. For UAE documents going the other way, see UAE documents for use abroad.
