Certificate of Status Authentication for United Arab Emirates

A Florida certificate of status proves the parent company is active, which UAE free-zone authorities, banks and economic departments ask for when a Florida company opens a branch or subsidiary or renews its UAE license. Order it from the Florida Division of Corporations shortly before you start the chain, since UAE offices may question an old certificate. The certificate, the articles and the resolution are usually attested together. Under the embassy's current corporate-document process, company documents go from the state-level certificate to the embassy's designated processing center without the U.S. Department of State step — check its corporate instructions first.

The original certificate of status, or a new certificate requested together with the apostille; never a photocopy or scan. It can only show the company as active if the annual report is filed and the entity hasn't been dissolved, and it speaks only for the date it was issued.

Order it from the Division online or by mail (listed at $8.75 for corporations, $5 for LLCs and $8.75 for partnerships by mail), or let us request a fresh certificate with the apostille using the two separate payments the state requires. The Division's fee is not included in our $220.

State fee for this document: $10 — included in our price. Full details on the certificate of status 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).