Birth Certificate Authentication for United Arab Emirates

Parents working in the UAE attest their children's Florida birth certificates to sponsor them for residence visas and to enroll them in school, and the certificate also proves parentage for health insurance and later passport renewals in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. The certificate must name both parents exactly as on their passports; a short-form record with missing details causes problems at the residency stage. Order a fresh certified copy signed by the current State Registrar, then run it through all four attestation steps before you fly.

A certified copy on Florida security paper, signed by the State Registrar and certified in 2014 or later. We don't accept older certifications because the signature must be one the state can confirm as the State Registrar's. Hospital keepsake certificates, photocopies and laminated copies can't be apostilled, and a Florida notary can't certify a copy of a birth certificate.

Order a fresh certified copy online through VitalChek (vitalchek.com), the only vendor contracted by the Bureau of Vital Statistics, by mail or in person at the Bureau in Jacksonville, or at a county health department (births from 1917 on). Birth records are confidential: the registrant (18 or older), a parent named on the record, a legal guardian or representative, or a court order is needed. The Bureau's and VitalChek's fees are not included in our $220 apostille price.

State fee for this document: $10 — included in our price. Full details on the birth certificate page.

After we return your document with its Florida authentication certificate, it must be authenticated by the U.S. Department of State; the UAE Embassy states that personal and educational documents need that attestation before submission. Next comes attestation by the UAE Embassy in Washington, D.C., through the processing center it designates. Finally, the document is attested in the UAE by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs through its website or app. We don't handle, arrange or refer anyone for those steps.

We don't handle or arrange the U.S. Department of State or embassy steps. See how non-Hague authentication works.

Inside the UAE, attested documents are used by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs (which performs the final attestation), immigration and residency authorities for family sponsorship, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation and professional regulators for employment and licensing, free-zone authorities and economic departments for company setup, and the courts and land departments for estates and property. In the U.S., attestation is done by the UAE Embassy in Washington, D.C., which accepts submissions through an outside processing center it designates.

The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it accepts documents in English or Arabic, or an official translation. Courts, land departments and some ministries may still ask for a legal Arabic translation, often made in the UAE by a legal translator. Ask the receiving office before you translate anything in Florida; if it accepts a Florida translation, it should be certified by the translator, notarized by a different notary and authenticated in Florida.

We found no single published UAE rule on document age. Employers and authorities may want recently issued vital records or background checks, so ask your sponsor or the receiving authority how recent each document must be before you start the chain.

Consular office serving Florida: Embassy of the United Arab Emirates, Washington, D.C.

$220 per document, $380 for two and $160 each for three or more — the state fee, request form, in-person filing in Tallahassee and FedEx shipping inside the U.S. are included. Shipping the finished authentication to United Arab Emirates is a flat $100 per order.

Not included: whatever the issuing office charges for the certified copy or certificate, and notarization (online notarization is $40 for the first document — $10 notarization fee + $30 technology platform fee — and $20 for each additional one).