Question about enrolling children in a foreign school is very relevant nowadays. The reasons for sending a child to study abroad may vary. In some cases, this is due to the parents moving to another country, in other cases – to broaden the children’s horizons and give them the opportunity to study certain subjects deeper. In addition, many parents consider studying abroad as a good way to give their children language practice.
We should understand that transferring a child to a foreign school is usually connected to some complicated bureaucratic procedures. So, what do we need to pay attention to so that the process of immersing a child into a new environment is not overshadowed by any legal problems?First comes a birth certificate. This is the child's most important document. Without that it is almost impossible to enroll a child in an educational institution.
The birth certificate must necessarily be legalised for using abroad. If a country, where a child will study, is a member of the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention, the document can be apostilled. Some countries are not acceded to The Hague Apostille Convention, for example the UEA, China or Canada, in this case the document must be legalised through the consular legalisation procedure.It is always better to think about legalisation of a birth certificate in advance to avoid any hustle. Sometimes it happens for example that the document is in a bad condition or not readable, then it cannot be apostilled and you will have to urgently retrieve a new copy of it. Sometimes it may even happen that a requisite item is missing on the certificate for technical reasons. Therefore, it is better to legalise it as soon as you’ve decided to send your child to a foreign school.
However, just a birth certificate will not be enough for admission to a foreign school. Many educational institutions require a school health certificate with vaccination records. But you should take into account that many countries (including Russia) do not apostille originals of medical documents, except for the documents issued by the Ministry of Health. But in this case you can put an apostille on notarized copies or a notarized translation of the relevant medical certificates and extracts.
Of course the administration of the new school would like to know what subjects your child has already had in his/her previous school and how good his/her knowledge is. For this information parents will have to obtain a school report from their child’s previous school. The original of such a document, as well as the health certificate, cannot be apostilled - a stamp of apostille can be put on a notarized copy of it.
It’s also worth to prepare some documents about the child's extracurricular achievements. These can be certificates of victories in competitions and Olympiads, as well as official certificates which confirm the level of foreign language knowledge. This kind of documents cannot be apostilled as well, but as mentioned above it’s always possible to put an apostille on notarized copies of them.
The set of documents is often complemented by letters of motivation and recommendation. These papers don’t need to be legalised.
In addition to all stated above, all documents must be translated into the official language of the country where the child will go to school. Usually this has to be a sworn translation and it’s easier and faster to do it directly in the country of destination. In our video you can learn more about sworn translations:
As for the parents' documents which have to be attached to the application for enrollment in school, the list of documents usually does not go beyond what is required to stay in the state concerned. But this a topic for a separate article.
We’ve tried to cover the most common situations related to the legalisation of documents required to transfer a child to a foreign school. You may theoretically face other issues during this process, but these are usually individual cases depending on the country. In most cases, legalisation of the documents listed above should be enough to enroll a child in a new school abroad.
