Dubai: If you’re Irish, or want documents authorised by Irish embassy and consular officials in the UAE, it’s going to cost you more.
Effective Friday, any documentation needing to be authenticated will have to be processed first by officials in Ireland, rather than by officials working in the UAE.
The documents will subsequently have to be endorsed by embassy officials in the UAE.
The current fee of ¤20 (Dh97) will also be revised to ¤40 on Friday.
The extra level of authentication covers official papers like birth or marriage certificates, authentication of degrees and diplomas and special clearance certificates from the police force in the Republic of Ireland.
The changes also affect driving licences or other paperwork that needs to be endorsed by a solicitor or notary public.
Embassy officials in Abu Dhabi say there are no exceptions to the new rules.
Only when documents have been processed in Ireland can local embassy or consular staff endorse them. But embassy staff will continue to authenticate foreign-issued documents which have been authenticated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the UAE, or Qatar or Kuwait.
