Legalization

After the completion of the Diploma programme (DP) or Career-related programme (CP), students will be in one of the following scenarios: 

Those who fulfill the requirements of the DP receive two documents: The Diploma certificate and Diploma results. 

• The Diploma or Bilingual Diploma certificate is the overall award for fulfilling all the DP requirements. 
• The Diploma results details the courses taken, along with their individual scores and the overall DP score. 

Those who elect to take a selection of DP courses, or do not fulfill the requirements of the DP receive DP course results. 

• The DP course results detail the individual scores for courses taken but does not show an overall DP score. 

Those who fulfill the requirements of the CP receive two documents: The CP certificate and the CP course results.

For most students, legalization is unnecessary. However, sometimes legalization will be required for a few reasons including: university enrollment, legal requirement for the school, and to prevent fraud. Where legalization is required, the results document or, in some cases, both the results document and the certificate will need to be legalized. Legalization is the process of authenticating or certifying a legal document so another country's legal system will recognize it with full legal effect. The graphic below shows what document(s) may need to be legalized depending on a student’s trajectory. 

If you are an IB coordinator, a list of countries that often require legalization can be found below, and more detailed information can be found in the Programme Resource Centre under the Coordinator Notes and Assessment procedures (section B7.5). Please note that the list published below is the most up-to-date list of countries that often require legalization and the Assessment Procedures will be updated in due course.

Candidates are responsible for determining if their preferred destination has legalization requirements and what those exact requirements are (for example, is just the results required, or both the results and certificate). Please note that legalization is typically determined by the destination country. Students should work closely with their IB coordinator to determine what is required in their situation.

Brazil	Bulgaria	Cyprus	Czechia (Czech Republic)
Egypt	Georgia	Greece	Israel
Italy	Mexico	Portugal
Romania	Russian Federation	Saudi Arabia
Taiwan	Ukraine	United Arab Emirates

Requesting Legalization

Before graduating from school

For students who require legalization of the results document or both the results and the certificate, the IB coordinator should submit a request to the IB no later than 15 June for May examination sessions or 15 December for November examination sessions. These requests should be completed on IBIS.

IB coordinators and University and careers counsellors can find useful information to request the legalization service on behalf of their students in section B7.5 of the Assessment procedures located on the Programme Resource Centre (PRC).

All requests received by June 15 (for May session) and December 15 (for November session) will be sent to Geneva, Switzerland to begin the legalization process by mid-July and mid-January, respectively. The IB relies on third-party organizations to obtain the legalization stamps and the time required by the chancelleries, consulates, or embassies for legalization varies. The legalized documents will be sent back to the IB office in Cardiff before being sent to the requesting schools. Legalized documents will normally arrive by the end of September (May sessions) or March (November sessions). 

Unfortunately, the IB is not able to provide a priority service for legalization. 

After graduating from school 

Within the first six months after graduation and the release of results (results issue is 5 July for a May examination session and 2 January for a November examination session), IB graduates must work with their IB coordinator to request legalization services. The IB coordinator will submit a request directly to legalization@ibo.org. Please note that IB graduates cannot place a request in this way. 

Beyond the six months after student results are released, IB graduates who require legalization of their results or both results and certificate must use the IB request for results form (RRS). Graduates must pay for this service.

The IB relies on third-party organizations outside of the UK to obtain the legalization stamps; response times will vary. The legalized document(s) will be returned to the IB Cardiff office before being mailed to the requesting school, which will then send it to the student.

Legalization requirements for Italy

For a student coming from an IB school not included on the Italian list of recognized schools, a university may additionally require a Declaration of Value. IB Schools recognized by the Ministry of Education in Italy are listed on this website > scroll down to “Allegati” and select “Allegato 2”.

Please check whether a university requires a Declaration of Value. If required, students must provide the following to request this service and meet the needs of the Italian consulate who provides the Declaration of Value:

• The original copy of the Diploma
• A copy of the student’s passport
• A copy of the certificate of enrollment or pre-enrollment at the university
• A copy of the university requirement to provide a Declaration of Value.

This service should be requested via the students’ IB World School prior to results being released. Alternately, please contact the IB Legalization Service at legalization@ibo.org for further support. Unfortunately, the IB is not able to process any requests for a Declaration of Value without the required documents.

Statement of Comparability

Alternately, some universities may request a Statement of Comparability issued by CIMEA. For further details on this and to make a request, please contact CIMEA directly.

Updated February 2022

Enrolling at a university in India

Universities in India normally require a migration certificate. The migration certificate is a non-legally binding document which states that a student has taken IB exams in a specific session and that the IB has no objection to them joining a college or university in India, or appear for examination of any board. 

For candidates of the current session, a migration certificate can automatically be included with their transcript if the school’s DP/CP coordinator placed the request before the deadline. The school’s DP/CP coordinator needs to choose the option in IBIS to include a migration certificate with the candidate’s transcript request.

1. Graduates of previous sessions and candidates who did not place their requests to send their transcripts to a university in India before the deadline must place their requests for a transcripts AND migration certificates via rrs.ibo.org.
2. Candidates who placed their requests before the deadline but forgot to choose the option to include the migration certificate must place their requests for a migration certificate (only) via rrs.ibo.org. Please note that all requests made through rrs.ibo.org have a corresponding fee.

For more information please read our FAQs about the IB in India  and our India recognition guidance.

FAQs

How does the IB address the Diploma results legalization if a candidate receives a grade increase due to an enquiry upon results? 

The IB prints grade change Diploma results each week during the enquiry upon results (EUR) period (5 July - 15 September).

Those that require legalization will be sent to Switzerland to begin the legalization process. The legalized document will be sent to the school.

What do I do if the country for which I need to submit a legalization request does not appear on IBIS?

Please email legalization@ibo.org with your request, indicating the candidate details, the country of legalization and which results documents need legalizing.

What should I do if my students request legalization for several countries?

Contact legalization@ibo.org for advice providing as much information as possible.

What should I do if the candidate results documents have arrived at our school, but the Diploma results sheet is missing for a particular candidate(s).

Check to see if there has been a legalization request for the candidate(s). The legalization process will take more time to process than the production of the non-legalized certificates. Any legalized results documents will be sent separately.

If there are no legalization requests, please contact support@ibo.org to enquire. 

How do I request a new legalized Diploma certificate and/or a new legalized Diploma results document if I have lost my original(s)?

You may request a replacement Diploma certificate via rrs.ibo.org. A fee is charged for this service.
In the order form, please indicate that you also require the results certificate to be legalized. A separate fee is charged for this service.

If you have any questions regarding Legalization, please contact support@ibo.org.