An official certification confirms that a copy matches the original submitted. It contains the following information: a note that the copy and the original match, the original signature of the certifier and an imprint of the official seal.
The Office of Student Affairs and the TU Berlin Examinations Office only certify documents that have been issued by the TU Berlin.
The Office of Student Affairs certifies copies of original documents such as certificates, diplomas and diploma supplements of postgraduate Master's programmes and doctoral programmes of the TU Berlin. Please note: Certificates of study, course of study and exmatriculation are not officially certified. They can be printed out from the TUB account (tuPORT), contain a verification number and are valid without a signature.
The Examinations Office certifies copies of original documents, such as certificates, diplomas and diploma supplements of all other TU Berlin degrees. But please note: Grade certificates are not officially certified. They can be printed out from the TUB account (tuPORT) and are valid without a signature. Grade certificates with stamp and signature are issued by the Examinations Office for a fee.
The issuing of officially certified copies must be applied for and is subject to a fee, regardless of whether you submit the application to the Registrar's Office or the Examinations Office.
This is how you obtain an official certification:
Important ! :
*A copy of a certificate consisting several pages counts as one document. The same applies to certificates and diploma supplements.
Payments can only be made by bank transfer to the following TU Berlin account:
Bank name: Berliner Volksbank
Account holder: Technische Universität Berlin
IBAN: DE69 1009 0000 8841 0150 03
BIC: BEVODEBB
You can submit the application and all required documents by post or hand them in personally at the Campus Center counter. Please note that official certifications cannot be carried out directly on site and require processing time.
Unfortunately, a loss cannot be ruled out in the case of submission by post, which may result in a replacement issue for which a charge will be made. Please choose a secure shipping method!
If you want to use an official document from TU Berlin abroad, you may need to have it certified with an apostille or legalization. Generally, you first require a pre-certification from TU Berlin, confirming that the signature and seal on the original document are authentic and the person issuing the documents had proper authorization.
In principal, pre-certifications are made on the original document. However, some countries accept a pre-certified copy. Please ask the embassy of the country where you want to use the document whether a pre-certified copy or original is required.
The TU Berlin Office of Student Affairs and Examination Office only offer pre-certification for documents issued by TU Berlin and which contain a signature.
The Office of Student Affairs issues pre-certifications for all certificates of enrollment as well as for certificates, degree certificates, and diploma supplements for continuing education master’s programs and doctoral programs at TU Berlin. The Examination Office issues pre-certifications for certificates, degree certificates, and diploma supplements for all other degrees at TU Berlin.
You must submit a request for all pre-certifications. Pre-certifications of original documents are free of charge, while pre-certifications of copies are for a fee.
How to request pre-certification:
Important:
- Only documents issued by TU Berlin can be pre-certified.
- Documents without a signature will not be pre-certified.
- A maximum of 3 pre-certifications per document can be made.
- You must pay a fee of 2 euros per pre-certificatication copy. Pre-certification of original documents is free of charge.
Payments are only possible via bank transfer to the following account:
Bank name: Berliner Volksbank
Account holder/recipient: Technische Universität Berlin
IBAN: DE69 1009 0000 8841 0150 03
BIC: BEVODEBB
Please submit your application together with the required documents by mail (TU Berlin, Studierendensekretariat IA, Campus Center / SIS, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin) or in person at the central counter in the Campus Center. Please note that documents are not pre-certified immediately on site. We cannot guarantee that documents sent via mail will not be lost in transit resulting in the issue of replacement documents for a fee.
Information about apostilles and legalization
You can obtain an apostille directly from the State Office for Resident and Regulatory Affairs (Landesamtes für Bürger- und Ordnungsangelegenheiten - LABO). However, this can only be done for certain countries. For further information and a list of specific countries, please refer to the Federal Foreign Office website.
For all other countries, you require a legalization. LABO will first issue you a further pre-certification. Take this pre-certification to the embassy or other diplomatic mission of the country for which you need the document. The diplomatic mission can issue you the legalization. Some countries require yet another certification from the Federal Administration Office before the legalization. The Federal Administration Office provides comprehensive information about this topic.
Further information about the procedure and costs is available on the State Office for Resident and Regulatory Affairs website (LABO).
All hard-copy documents required for application and enrollment are to be submitted as officially certified copies, unless originals or uncertified copies are specifically requested.
In the case of an online-only application or online-only enrollment, you simply upload all the required documents - without official certification.
For documents issued in languages other than German or English, an additional German or English translation is required – either as an original document or as a certified copy.
What does an official certification look like?
An officially certified copy always includes
An emblem is generally incorporated into the official stamp. A seal consisting purely of text is not accepted. As a rule, you have to pay for an official certification. Each single page of multi-page copies has to be officially certified, or presented with the seal applied in such a way that it is clear that each page is part of a single official document. If a page is double-sided, then each side must be officially certified or the statement must clearly refer to both sides. Should the certification be provided by a notary (seal with cordon), then a single stamp on just one of the pages of the copy or true copy is sufficient. If the original contains an embossed seal (i.e. one where the seal is merely pressed into the paper), then this will usually not be visible on the copy. If this is so, the statement on the copy must further confirm that the original document bears an embossed seal. Documents containing the sentence “automatically generated and valid without signature” or similar wording can be submitted as uncertified copies or printouts.
Who is permitted to officially certify documents?
The following may NOT officially certify documents:
The following documents are NOT accepted:
TU Berlin will not accept any certifications failing to meet these requirements. Please make sure that the official certification meets the stated requirements and inform the office certifying your document of these requirements. Official certifications not submitted in accordance with these regulations will result in your exclusion from the application procedure and the rejection of your application. Only in cases of doubt will TU Berlin insist upon presentation of originals.
What does a translation look like?
Certificates must always be submitted in the language of the country of origin. Should this not be English or German, a German or English translation of the certificate must also be submitted.
Translations of certificates must be made by official bodies, such as the authorized department of the institution issuing the certificate, or by sworn translators. Translations undertaken by translation agencies not fulfilling these criteria are not accepted. Translations made abroad must be undertaken by institutions authorized to issue sworn translations (or the equivalent thereof) in their countries. For certificates issued in a non-English speaking country which include an English-language version in addition to the original, the English-language version also counts as an original certificate. The same applies to German-language versions of certificates. For exceptions to this rule, please refer to “Info country by country” on the uni-assist website.
Certificates in French will not be accepted and must be translated into German or English.