Fees and steps checked on
Tunisian graduates in Dubai often hit the same wall. Their diploma carries a neat apostille from a notary in Tunis, and the HR department or the visa office still says no. The reason is simple: Tunisia joined the Hague Apostille Convention in March 2018, while the UAE stayed outside it. For the Emirates, a Tunisian paper must be legalised the older way, by the Tunisian foreign ministry, then stamped by the UAE Embassy in Tunis, then finished with MOFA attestation.
We are a private document service, not MOFA, an embassy or a government office. We run the Tunisian and UAE errands for you and offer free document pickup and delivery anywhere in Dubai.
Price: There is no fixed price for Tunisia. Send a copy on WhatsApp and you get the total price plus VAT, all official fees included, before any work starts. Our fees page shows what that figure covers.
Apostille versus legalisation in Tunisia
When Tunisia adopted the convention, the job of issuing apostilles moved to notaries across the governorates. That stamp is valid in member states only. For countries that never signed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad kept its diplomatic legalisation office. That office is the one that matters for Dubai. Skip it, and the UAE Embassy has nothing it can attest.
Who stamps what before the ministry
The ministry only confirms a signature it recognises, so each paper needs its own first stop:
- Licence, master or engineering diploma. The university, then the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.
- Baccalauréat. The education authority that issued it.
- Extrait de naissance or marriage record. The municipality or civil registry, on a recent extract.
- Procuration (power of attorney). Signed before a Tunisian notary.
- Registre de commerce extract, statuts. The issuing registry or notary. MOFA treats these as commercial papers.
After that first stamp comes the Tunis legalisation office, then the UAE Embassy in Tunis, then MOFA. Where the embassy issues a digital attestation, the MOFA seal comes inside the same result.
Arabic papers and French papers
Tunisia issues documents in both languages, and this decides whether a translation is needed. Civil extracts from a baladiya are usually in Arabic, which MOFA reads directly. University transcripts and many diplomas are in French, which it does not. Those need a certified translation into Arabic or English. We look at your copy, tell you which pages need it, and book a legal translator in Dubai if so.
When you live in the Emirates
Nobody has to fly to Tunis. The original goes by courier or in a family member's luggage, visits the ministry and the embassy, and returns. At the UAE end, a representative can lodge the request for you. A spouse sponsoring a family needs the marriage record done this way, as the marriage attestation page explains, and a child's residence visa needs the birth record attested too.
If part of the family's papers come from across the border, the Algeria page sets out that country's chain.
Mistakes that send Tunisian files back
- Relying on the notary apostille. It feels official, but the UAE Embassy wants the ministry's legalisation underneath its own stamp.
- Diploma without the higher education ministry. The diplomatic office refuses a university signature it cannot verify.
- Two spellings of one name. Arabic and French transliterations drift, for example Ben and Bin. Your passport decides which one the translation uses.
- Plastic covers. Laminated certificates cannot be stamped at MOFA.
Using the diploma for a work permit? Our degree attestation guide covers what employers ask for.
