International Authentication
When university academic documents will be used abroad, they will need additional certification through authentication. In these instances, the Registrar’s Office prepares a notarized affidavit to attest to the validity of the academic document(s), which may be a diploma (original or copy submitted by student), an official transcript, or an official verification. The notarized affidavit with the academic document attached is then returned to the student to obtain the required authentication from the South Dakota Secretary of State as described below. Detailed instructions for authentication processing with the state can be found on the South Dakota Secretary of State website.
Notarization of documents may require up to five business days to process by the Registrar’s Office. Please contact the Registrar’s Office if you need documents notarized for authentication purposes.
If the country where the document will be used is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, the South Dakota Secretary of State will affix an apostille* certificate and no further authentication is necessary. If the country is not party to the Hague Apostille Convention, the South Dakota Secretary of State will affix a state authentication certificate. If necessary, authentication of the U.S. Department of State seal should be obtained at the foreign embassy concerned in Washington, D.C.
*An apostille is a certificate issued in Virginia by the Secretary of the Commonwealth for documents intended for use in foreign countries party to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalization of Foreign Public Documents.
Please note that it will take 4 to 6 weeks to order a duplicate diploma.