Official certifications can be carried out by all public authorities that have an official seal. These include, in particular, government agencies, notaries, or churches organized under public law. As a rule, you can obtain officially certified copies of original documents from your local municipal or city administration. Abroad, documents can be certified by German diplomatic missions (embassies).

The University of Rostock does not accept certifications from the following institutions: health insurance companies, banks, savings banks, associations, lawyers, or auditors.

Where can I have documents certified?
Documents can be certified by the following institutions:

• The schools and universities that issued the documents,
• The Ministry of Education in your home country,
• German embassies and consulates,
• The cultural department of the embassy of the country in which the certificate was issued,
• Authorities and notaries who are authorized to carry out official certifications in your home country.

Important:
Translators are not allowed to certify documents in their original language.

An official certification must include at least the following:

• A note confirming that the copy or transcript is identical to the original (certification note),
• The signature of the certifying officer and the date of certification, and
• A clearly legible imprint of the official seal.

An official seal usually contains an emblem, the name or designation of the certifying authority, and the seal number.
A simple address stamp is not sufficient.

If the copy or transcript consists of several individual pages, it must be clearly shown that all pages belong to the same document.

It is sufficient for only one page to bear the certification note and the signature, provided that all pages are stacked (e.g., in an overlapping manner), stapled together, and sealed in such a way that part of the official seal appears on each page.

Of course, each page may also be certified separately. In that case, make sure that your name appears on every page of the original. If it does not, your name must be added to each certification note, along with a reference to the type of document being certified.

Forgery of certificates or other application documents is a criminal offense. Such cases will be reported to the authorities and will result in denial of enrollment or deregistration from the university.