Countries with which Austria has concluded a bilateral legalisation agreement are exempt from the legalisation requirement (see list). However, if you wish to send copies instead of originals, these copies must be authenticated and/or certified.

Countries:

• Belgium
• Bosnia
• Bulgaria
• Germany
• Finland
• France
• Italy
• Croatia
• Liechtenstein
• Macedonia
• Montenegro
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Poland
• Romania
• Sweden
• Serbia
• Slowakia
• Slowenia
• Czech Republic
• Hungary

The form of legalisation for certain states is the apostille. Please contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs / Foreign Office / Department of State of the issuing country directly. In some countries, the Ministry or Department of Justice or Education is responsible for these matters.

Countries that accept the apostille certificate:

• Albania
• Andorra
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Argentina
• Armenia
• Australia
• Azerbaijan
• Bahamas
• Bahrain
• Barbados
• Belarus (currently not required) 
• Belize
• Bolivia
• Botswana
• Brazil
• Brunei
• Cape Verde
• Chile
• China, incl. special administrative regions Macau and Hong Kong, excluded Taiwan
• Columbia
• Costa Rica
• Cyprus
• Denmark
• Dominica
• Domenican Republic
• Ecuador
• El Salvador
• Estonia
• Eswatini
• Fiji
• Georgia
• Greece
• Grenada
• Guatemala
• Guyana
• Honduras
• India
• Indonesia
• Ireland
• Island
• Israel
• Jamaica
• Japan
• Kazakhstan
• Korea, Republic
• Latvia
• Lesotho
• Liberia
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Malawi
• Malta
• Marshall Islands
• Mauritius
• Mexico
• Moldova
• Monaco
• Morocco
• Namibia
• New Zealand
• Nicaragua
• Oman
• Palau
• Panama
• Paraguay
• Peru
• Philippines
• Portugal
• Russia
• Samoa
• San Marino
• São Tomé and Príncipe
• Saudi Arabia
• Seychelles
• Singapore
• South Africa
• Spain
• St. Kitts and Nevis
• St. Lucia
• St. Vincent and the Grenadines
• Suriname
• Switzerland
• Tonga
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Turkey
• Ukraine (currently not required)
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Uruguay
• Vanuatu
• Venezuela

Full diplomatic legalisation is required for documents from all those countries with which there is no bilateral legalisation agreement and which are not signatories of the Apostille Convention. For full legalisation, the documents must be authenticated by the Austrian diplomatic mission in the country of origin (embassy, consulate, honorary consulate) after passing through the legalisation procedure in the country of origin (the last step of which must be the Ministry of Foreign Affairs / Foreign Office / Department of State of the country of origin). Please note that only original documents can be authenticated in this step.

• First step: certification by the relevant ministry (e.g. Ministry of Education / Department of Education) in the country of origin
• Second step: attestation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs / Foreign Office / State Department of the country of origin
• Third step: embassy legalisation through Austrian diplomatic mission in the country of origin

Prospective students with documents from the People’s Republic of China must submit confirmation from the Academic Evaluation Centre of the German Embassy in Beijing in addition to the legalised documents.

Countries requiring full document authentication:

• Afghanistan*
• Algeria
• Angola
• Bangladesh
• Benin
• Bhutan
• Burkina Faso
• Burundi*
• Cambodia
• Cameroon
• Canada
• Central African Republic
• Chad*
• Chatar
• Comoros*
• Congo (Brazzaville)*
• Congo, Democratic Republic of*
• Côte d’Ivoire
• Cuba
• Djibouti
• Egypt
• Equatorial Guinea*
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Gabon
• Gambia
• Ghana
• Guinea
• Guinea-Bissau
• Haiti
• Holy See
• Iran
• Iraq*
• Jordan
• Kenya
• Kiribati
• Kosovo
• Kuwait
• Kyrgyzstan
• Laos
• Lebanon
• Libya
• Libyan Arab Jamahiriya / Libya
• Madagascar
• Malaysia
• Maldives
• Mali
• Mauretania
• Micronesia
• Mongolia
• Mozambique
• Myanmar*
• Nauru
• Nepal
• Niger
• Nigeria
• Pakistan
• Palau
• Palestinian autonomous areas
• Papua New Guinea
• Qatar
• Rwanda
• Senegal
• Sierra Leone
• Singapore
• Solomon Islands
• Somalia*
• South Sudan*
• Sovereign Military Order of Malta
• Sri Lanka
• Sudan (Khartum)*
• Syria
• Taiwan
• Tajikistan
• Tanzania
• Thailand
• Timor-Leste (East Timor)
• Togo
• Tunisia
• Turkmenistan
• Tuvalu
• Uganda
• United Arab Emirates
• Uzbekistan
• Vietnam
• Yemen
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

*The legalisation procedure is currently suspended for these countries.

Documents required for the admissions process that were not issued in German or English must be submitted in a legalised or court-certified German or English translation.

The original document should show all the necessary legalisation stamps so that these can also be translated. You should therefore have translations carried out after the authentication process.
Foreign documents can only be accepted and assessed if they bear the prescribed authentications.

More information as well as a list of which legalisation requirements apply for a certain country can be found in the following link:

https://www.bmeia.gv.at/en/travel-stay/documents-and-authentications/authentication