For Nigerians planning to relocate to Finland for education, work, or permanent residency purposes, one of the compulsory aspects of the process will be the authentication and legalization of key documents that will be part of your application. These documents may include birth certificates, marriage certificates, bachelorhood or spinsterhood certificates, divorce certificates, academic documents (WAEC and/or degree certificates), Power of Attorney, and other related documents depending on the applicant’s individual circumstances.
Typically, a family seeking to relocate to Finland may need to authenticate and legalize the couple’s marriage certificate as well as the birth certificates of their children. If the purpose of traveling is for schooling, then the academic documents would also need to be authenticated by the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In order for these documents to be admissible for Finland Residence Permit purposes, the first step will be to authenticate the documents at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja (and Ministry of Education, for academic documents). Subsequently, you would need to have the documents delivered to VFS Global Abuja for verification and onward transfer to the Finland Embassy for legalization.
It is important to note that after the applicant has received an email from the Finland Embassy with the instruction to upload the specified documents on the VFS Global Verification Portal, the applicant then needs to get the embassy’s approval before applying for verification by VFS. Subsequently, VFS Global Verification Services will investigate and verify the origin of the document – after which the Finland Embassy legalizes the verified document and then returns the documents to the applicant.
In other words, only documents that have been authenticated by Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and verified by VFS Global can be legalized by the Finland Embassy. It is only after these steps have been completed that the submitted documents can be accepted for your Finland immigration or Residence Permit application.
These procedures can be quite stressful and difficult especially for individuals based outside Abuja. Antarch Consulting can help you handle the Ministry of Foreign Affairs authentication for your documents, and also help you submit the document to VFS Global Abuja if you want that service. Contact us if you need assistance with this procedure.
