VERIFICATION, LEGALISATION OF FOREIGN DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS

Generally, all submitted foreign documents, including all certificates and confirmations, must  be verified by the  country of origin and acknowledged by the Austrian representation authorities in that country.  The authentication of a document serves to confirm the authenticity of the attached seals and signatures. Therefore, documents must be authenticated even if they are submitted in the original (except for documents from countries with which Austria has an agreement for the exemption of authorizations.) For further information, please  contact us. There are agreements between Austria and many countries regulating the handling of documents. These agreements can be divided into three categories:

Verification by Apostille
Documents from Member States of the Hague Convention Abolishing The Requirement Of Legalisation For Foreign Public Documents require only special verification in the form of an apostille issued by the respective national authorities. Further information on member of the Hague Convention Abolishing The Requirement Of Legalisation For Foreign Public Documents can be obtained from the representative office  of that country (consulate or embassy). Please also  see  the following link:   Hague Apostille – relevant authorities
Pursuant to Article 4 of the Hague Convention Abolishing The Requirement Of Legalisation For Foreign Public Documents, the apostille should be attached to the document itself or to the annex.

Sample:


No  intergovernmental agreement for authentication
Certificates from the following countries do not need to be authenticated if they are submitted in the original form (with seal or stamp): Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Germany, Finland, France, Italy, Croatia, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway , Poland, Romania, Sweden, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

Double authentication (Ministry of Foreign Affairs plus Austrian Representation Authority)
Applies to all countries with which there is no agreement. The authentication must first be carried out at national level (usually the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the country of issue of the documents). The final decision is then made by the relevant Austrian representative authorities in the country of issue of the documents. The chain of verifications must be closed!
Translation
Non-German-language documents must be translated into German by a certified translator; The admissions  department also accepts English language documents. Please note that the certificates and seals must also be translated and the signature of the translator must be certified. Exceptions to this are translations, which were carried out  by court certified interpreters in Austria. The translation and  the verified document must be attached to each other so they cannot be separated.