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.

Fee for the legalization is 25,-- € payable in TZS. Please book an appointment.

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.