Certification of signatures

By certifying a signature, the consular officer confirms that the person indicated in the document was physically present and signed it in front of him or her. It is a simple form of authenticating a signature.

Following a change in the law, the German missions will no longer be able to carry out identity checks in connection with opening a bank account, taking out a loan and similar purposes. Please ask your bank for further information. The legalisation department is only allowed to certify your signature if you are a student applying for a visa for Germany and need to open a blocked account.

For the certification of a signature, please bring:

• your valid passport
• the document to be signed

Fees:

The Foreign Office and its Embassies worldwide formed a new fee law valid from the 1st October 2021. Through this fees for services just as certifications of signatures or notarizations will change. For further information please check the website of the Foreign Ministry under the link

For certified copies, please bring

• the original documents,
• copies of the original document which need to be certified,

The current fee for the certification of a photocopy is the TZS equivalent of 10 Euros.

No fee is charged for study-related true certified copies (please bring the letter from the university.

Please book an appointment in our online booking System.

Legalization

Foreign documents or certificates are often only recognized by the authorities of a state if their authenticity and evidentiary value has been determined by a special procedure. A range of internationally accepted procedures has been developed for this purpose. In most cases, documents which are to be used in legal procedures in Germany have to be proven authentic through means of either an “Apostille” or legalization.

An “Apostille” is a certificate of authenticity issued by a designated authority in a contracting state to The Hague Convention on Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents of 5 October 1961. Tanzania, unlike Germany, is not a contracting state to this convention. Thus “Apostilles” cannot be issued for Tanzanian documents; they need to be legalized before being submitted to German authorities.

Tanzanian personal documents as birth certificates, marriage certificates etc. have to be issued by RITA or certified by RITA. Please note that for legalization the original has to be stamped, therefore the document cannot be laminated.

The Foreign Office and its Embassies worldwide formed a new fee law valid from the 1st October 2021. The new fees for legalization or copy authentication vary regionally (between 22,92 EUR – 31,50 EUR) and are payable in TSH.  For further information please check the website of the Foreign Ministry under the link

Registration, Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency, “RITA”

Kipalapala Street

P.O.Box  9183

Dar es Salaam

Tel.: +255-22-2153069

Fax: +255-22-2123325

e-mail: info@rita.go.tz

website: http://www.rita.go.tz

Please note that personal documents issued in Zanzibar need the verification of the Tanzanian Foreign Ministry as RITA is no longer able to verify them. After verification by the Foreign Ministry the documents can be presented for legalization at the German Embassy.