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A document which is legally valid in one country may not necessarily be valid in another country. Authorities need to be certain of the status of each other's documents. It’s often difficult to establish this status. It is impossible to know who the authorized official in every country is, and what a particular document should look like. If a Dutch document has been legalised, the foreign authorities know it is valid. By the same token, a foreign document legalised in its country of origin is legally valid in the Netherlands.
Legalisation confirms that the signatures it bears are genuine, it DOES NOT confirm the authenticity of the content.
Some documents need to be signed by several authorities in order to be legalised. This is called ‘the legalisation chain’.

QUESTIONNAIRE 
The request of filling out the questionnaire is made by the Dutch autorities.
When receiving the legalised documents applicants will be requested to fill out a questionnaire (personal questions). Answering the questions is voluntary and can be done at any time that suits the applicant. If the applicant does not wish to cooperate it will be noted on the form. Answering or not answering the questions may affect the chance of being admitted to the Netherlands or being registered in the chosen municipality. For each legalisation you will get a separate questionnaire.

For more information about legalisation, visit the  website of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The original Arabic / Dutch document is the document that should be legalised.

Dutch documents and certificates can NOT be legalised by the Dutch Embassy, these documents can only be legalised by the authorities in the Netherlands. Documents, issued in the Netherlands and used in Egypt require legalisation by  the Egyptian embassy in the Hague after legalisation by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These documents also need to be translated in Arabic by a certified translator.

The signature of a Dutch national can be legalised by the Netherlands Embassy in Cairo. The Dutch national should submit a valid Dutch passport and repeat the signature at the Embassy in front of a consular officer.

All Egyptian documents should be original and should be legalised by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, prior to legalisation by the Netherlands Embassy in Cairo.

For the following original Egyptian documents a translation (Dutch, English) from a certified  translator is required.

Birth certificate
Only the original Arabic computerized version can be legalised.
Legalisation should be done in the following order by:

1. Ministry of Health
2. Ministry of Interior
3. Ministry of Foreign Affairs
4. Netherlands Embassy

Marriage certificate
Legalisation should be done in the following order by:

1. Ministry of Justice
2. Ministry of Foreign Affairs
3. Netherlands Embassy

Urfi marriage certificates and marriage certificates issued by the church can NOT be legalised as they are not recognized by the Netherlands.

Certificate of not being married
If certificate is from an authentication office (Shara Iqari)
Legalisation can be done directly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and then the Netherlands Embassy.

Divorce certificate
Legalisation should be done in the following order by:

1. Ministry of Justice
2. Ministry of Foreign Affairs
3. Netherlands Embassy

Death certificate
Legalisation should be done in the following order by:

1. Ministry of Health
2. Ministry of Foreign Affairs
3. Netherlands Embassy

If in doubt about legalisation requirements, please check with the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, before documents are offered for legalisation.

For more information, please click here.