The Consular Section of the British Embassy provides some notarial services:

Certifying photocopies

If you require a certified copy of your passport or any other document you should present the original document.

Attesting or legalising a signature or a seal

If you require your signature to be witnessed, please contact us to make an appointment with the Consul. You will have to come to our office in person and bring your passport with you.

Declaration of existence

We can sign a declaration of existence. The service is free of charge if in connection with pay or pensions payable by a department of Her Majesty's Government or any other Government within the Commonwealth. You will have to come to our office in person and bring your passport with you.


All fees are payable in Euros at the current consular rate of exchange. Payment must be made in cash at time of carrying out a service.

Certification, legalisation and verification of UK qualifications

You may be asked by a Slovenian Ministry or a prospective employer to have your UK educational qualifications “certified”, “legalised” or “verified”, and it is important to understand the difference between these.

Certification

Certification is when a document is signed and stamped to confirm that it is original or that it is a true copy of an original, which the person signing it has seen.  Note that this does not guarantee that the original certificate or the qualification is genuine.

For UK qualifications certification is usually done by a UK solicitor or Notary and, if possible, we recommend that you ask one of these people to certify copies of your certificates when you are in the UK.  The contact details of Notaries in any UK locality can be obtained from the Notaries Society website by using the “find a Notary” function.

Certification can also be done by the British Embassy in Ljubljana, who will charge a fee for this service.  

The person certifying your document must sign in their own name, which they should also clearly print, and stamp the document with the official stamp of the organisation they represent.

Legalisation

Legalisation is the official confirmation that a signature, seal or stamp on a UK document is genuine. This can be done for most documents issued by UK public or official organisations.  Legalisation can only be provided by the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London, who check the signature, seal or stamp against their database and attach an apostille (the legal term for the legalisation certificate) to the document if these are genuine.  Note that having a document legalised does not guarantee that its contents are accurate, nor does it carry any sort of official approval by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

The FCO can legalise photocopies of UK educational certificates as long as they have been properly certified as being true copies of the original (see “certification” above). Note that if you want to legalise a certified photocopy of a particular document you should also confirm with the end users of the document (e.g. the Ministry or prospective employer), that a legalised photocopy is acceptable to them.

Educational documents which are not degrees, diplomas, certificates, qualifications or other awards may be legalised if they have been issued by an educational establishment in the UK. This includes school reports and letters concerning enrolling, attendance, fees and grades.  See this document for more details.

Documents which are degrees, diplomas, certificates, qualifications or other awards can be legalised if they were issued by an educational establishment if it is registered at one of the following websites:

• 'Register of Providers' or the 'Recognised Degrees' sections of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) website,
• the Scottish Qualifications Authority website,
• the National Database of Accredited Qualifications website,
• the British Accreditation Council Website,
• the Open and Distance Learning Quality Council, and
• the Association of British Language Schools

Additionally, qualifications which are or were issued by OCR, Edexcel, Higher National Diploma, City and Guilds, National Open College Network, GNVQ or the American Study Abroad Programme in the UK can also be legalised.  See this document for more details.

To have a document legalised you must first get it certified: you can then send it by post to the FCO.  For details of the address, cost and other important information see FCO website.

Verification

Verification that a qualification is genuine and has been awarded to a particular person can only be provided by the institution awarding that qualification, and can only be requested by the person it relates to (under data protection legislation.  This verification should normally be sent directly to the organisation (e.g. Ministry or potential employer) requiring that assurance.  A sample letter requesting verification from a UK institution can be found here.