How to do degree attestation for Saudi Arabia?

For a foreign educational degree or documents to be acceptable in Saudi Arabia, you need attestation from the Saudi Culture and the Saudi Embassy of the country of origin.

Why do we need a degree attestation?

The degree attestation is required by expats for the following purposes;

• Stamp a Saudi Work Visa on the passport.
• Change the Iqama profession.
• Apply for a Permanent Family Visa.
• Apply for a professional membership such as SOCPA or the Saudi Council of Engineers.

Keep in mind that professionals cannot renew Iqama without professional membership. Hence, degree attestation is required to renew Iqama.

Which Saudi Embassy?

Irrespective of your nationality, you need to send your degrees to the Saudi Culture and Saudi Embassy of the same country which issued the degree.

For example, a Pakistani national got an ACCA degree that is issued from a UK university. He needs to send it to the Saudi Culture and Saudi Embassy of the UK for attestation. The Saudi Embassy in Pakistan would not attest to a degree issued by a foreign country.

Required Documents

The following set of documents is required to be submitted to both the Saudi Culture and Saudi Embassy for degree attestation;

• A request letter to Saudi Embassy for Degree attestation.
• A request letter to Saudi Culture for Degree attestation.
• Iqama copy (if applicable).
• Saudi Visa copy.
• Passport copy.
• The original degree certificate.

Attestation process

Send all the above requirements to a friend, family member, or an agent in your country. He will have to;

• Attest the degree from Education Commission. 
• Attest the degree from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of that country.
• Submit the degree to Saudi Culture.
• Receive the attested degree from Saudi Culture.
• Submit the degree to Saudi Embassy.
• Receive the attested degree by Saudi Embassy.

A degree or document issued by Saudi Arabia does not need any kind of attestation from the Saudi Embassy or Saudi culture.

Online Degree Attestation

Many people who have obtained degrees by studying online want to know if the Saudi Embassy attests to distance education degrees such as IGNOU and AIOU. Are they acceptable in Saudi Arabia?

Generally, the Saudi Embassy and Saudi culture do not accept a distance education degree unless the university or institute is well-known.

For example, the Saudi Embassy does not attest to the degree issued by Allama Iqbal Open University and IGNOU. 

On the other hand, ACCA is accepted by the Saudi Embassy despite distance education.

If the Saudi Embassy does not attest the distance education degree, you cannot;

• Stamp a Saudi Work Visa on the passport.
• Change the Iqama profession.
• Apply for a Permanent Family Visa.
• Apply for a professional membership such as SOCPA or the Saudi Council of Engineers.

Pakistani degrees not attested by Saudi Embassy

Here is the list of Pakistani degrees not certified by the Saudi Embassy;

• Allama Iqbal Open University.
• Virtual University.
• COMSATS University (Virtual Campus).
• Bahauddin Zakariya University (Virtual Campus).