Attestation Service | British Council

When you apply to universities, most applications need original versions of your academic documents. If you are worried about sending these documents via international mail, you can mail certified copies instead.

The British Council provides an attestation service to our valued customers. Attestation is a confirmation that a photocopy is a true copy of an original document.

This service is available only at the main offices of the British Council located in Dhaka, Sylhet, and Chattogram.

To have your documents certified, please follow these steps :

Step 1: Complete the Attestation Form

Step 2: Submit your original documents along with the photocopy (both sides) to our one of our main offices in Dhaka, Chittagong or Sylhet

Step 3: Pay BDT 500 (Per copy to be attested)

Acceptable mode of payment: Cash at Standard Chartered Bank Service 1 Branches

Step 4: Money receipt will be issued

We usually take 2 working days to return the attested documents.

Please carry the original money receipt when you are visiting the British Council office to collect your attested documents.

Please take note of the list of documents that cannot be attested.

What are the documents that cannot be attested ?

The British Council cannot certify documents that are not in English. In addition, the following are not eligible for this service too:

IELTS Test Report Forms
passports or Identity documents
marriage certificates
photocopies or certified photocopies
scanned images
other non-academic documents.

The British Council reserves the right to reject certification of any document if the programme or institution is not recognised by the UK education board, if the document is found to be too old, altered or defaced in any way or if there is any question regarding the originality of the document.

If you have further queries, please contact us.

What is the difference between attestation, verification and legalisation ?

The British Council provides certification service but not verification or legalisation of documents.

Please see below for an explanation for the difference between the three terms :

Attestation: Attestation is confirmation that a photocopy is a true copy of an original document.

The British Council will not be responsible for confirming the authenticity of the original certificate.

Verification: Verification is the process of ensuring that original documents are genuine. The verifying authority is confirming the validity of the document to the person/organisation relying on the verified document (e.g. an employer, an educational institution, etc.).

If you need this, it is best to write directly to the awarding institution so they can provide a letter to confirm the qualification or student record.

Legalisation: Legalisation is the official confirmation that a signature, seal or stamp on a public document is genuine.

Legalisation is usually required by foreign authorities before they will allow a UK document to be used for official purposes in their country, but it does not certify the authenticity of a document or give Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office approval of its content.

If you have further queries, please contact us.

Please read our Fair Collection Notice

The British Council will require your original documents to provide this service. We will hold these securely until the service is complete and the documents can be returned to you. We will record your name, type of document, the date of transaction and any other relevant details for our records. This will be kept securely and will not be provided to any other parties unless we are legally required to do so.