THE SINGAPORE ACADEMY OF LAW STEP, HANDLED
An embassy or overseas office has told you the document must be authenticated by the Singapore Academy of Law first. We arrange SAL authentication in Singapore for notarised papers and Singapore government documents, so you never queue at the SAL counter yourself.
Before lodging, we check that SAL can verify the signature or endorsement on your document, and whether it needs our partner Notary Public first. You get back an authentication certificate that is ready for the embassy, or an apostille if your country is in the Hague Convention.
Tell us the document, who issued it and where it is going, and we confirm whether it goes straight to SAL and what it costs.
WHEN SAL COMES IN
Embassies of non-Hague countries in Singapore will only stamp a document once SAL has confirmed the Singapore signature on it. Here are the common reasons clients come to us for SAL authentication.
Degree certificates and experience letters need SAL before the UAE embassy attestation or Qatar document attestation can go ahead.
Marriage and birth certificates issued by ICA go straight to SAL, then on to the embassy of the country granting the visa.
An SPF certificate of clearance can be legalised directly at SAL, so no notary is needed for it.
ACRA Business Profiles and notarised board resolutions need SAL before a foreign bank, registry or partner will accept them.
Powers of attorney, affidavits and declarations are notarised by our partner Notary Public, then SAL authenticates the notarial certificate.
Invoices and certificates of origin endorsed by a Singapore chamber of commerce can be lodged at SAL for overseas buyers or customs.
Transcripts and school certificates need SAL authentication before a foreign university, ministry or school board will accept them.
Wills, death certificates and estate papers need SAL authentication before an overseas court or land office will act on them.
DIRECT OR NOTARY FIRST
SAL authentication only goes ahead when SAL can verify the signature, seal or endorsement on it, which is why some papers go straight in and others need our partner Notary Public first. Telling the two apart is the first thing we do as part of our document legalisation services.
| Document | Issued or signed by | Route to SAL |
|---|---|---|
| Birth, marriage and death certificates | ICA or the Registry of Marriages | Direct to SAL, original or a certified extract |
| Police certificate of clearance | Singapore Police Force | Direct to SAL |
| Degree, diploma and transcript | NUS, NTU, SMU, SUSS, SUTD, SIT, polytechnics, ITE or MOE schools | Direct to SAL; older UniSIM papers need SUSS endorsement first |
| ACRA Business Profile or company certificate | ACRA | Direct to SAL; e-Apostille available for Hague countries |
| Court orders and divorce papers | Singapore courts | Direct to SAL if certified by the court |
| Invoices and certificates of origin | Your company, endorsed by a chamber such as SCCI or SMF | Chamber endorsement first, then SAL |
| Power of attorney, affidavit, board resolution | You or your company | Our partner Notary Public first, then SAL |
| Experience letters, bank letters, private copies | Employers, banks, individuals | Our partner Notary Public first, then SAL |
Not sure which row your paper falls into? See how our notarisation service prepares private documents for SAL.
STEP BY STEP
Behind the counter, SAL authentication is quick, but only when the paperwork is lodged correctly. For non-Hague countries, the authenticated document then moves on to our embassy legalisation service.
We confirm from your scan whether SAL can verify the issuer's signature or endorsement as it stands.
Private documents are notarised by our partner Notary Public, who issues the notarial certificate SAL will authenticate.
We enter the document details on SAL's online legalisation portal and pay the SAL fee for you.
We present the original at SAL at The Adelphi, where the authentication certificate is affixed to the document.
We check the SAL certificate against your instructions, then take it to the embassy or return it to you by hand or courier.
DOCUMENTS
Personal, academic and company papers all pass through SAL before most embassies will look at them. Pick yours to see the full SAL authentication route.
ICA-issued records that SAL can verify without a notary.
Certificates from Singapore institutions, plus employer letters that need our partner Notary Public first.
Clearance certificates go straight to SAL, while signed legal papers are notarised first.
ACRA records, resolutions and export papers for foreign banks, registries and buyers.
UNSURE IF SAL WILL ACCEPT IT?
Send a clear scan of every page and we tell you whether it goes straight to SAL authentication, needs our partner Notary Public, or needs a certified copy from the issuer first.
PRICES
SAL authentication pricing is per document, with SAL's own fee and our lodgement already inside the figure. Anything that happens before or after SAL is listed as its own line so you can see where the money goes.
Priced separately: embassy fees, certified translation (quoted per page and language), courier and any urgent surcharge (quoted with your deadline).
TIMING
SAL's counter works Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 4:30pm, and closes at weekends and on public holidays. Your overall SAL authentication time depends on whether a notary step comes first and how busy the embassy is afterwards.
Heading to Thailand? Embassy legalisation still applies until 28 February 2027, so read our Thailand document legalisation guide.
BEFORE WE LODGE
SAL works from originals and checks them closely. Having these ready keeps your authentication on track.
SAL will not authenticate a laminated original, so we help you request a certified extract from the issuing agency or prepare a notarised copy instead.
Overseas clients can courier originals to us, and documents such as a power of attorney for use abroad can be planned around one notary visit.
WHAT SAL TURNS BACK
Counter staff will not fix a document for you, and their decision on the day is final. These are the problems we catch before lodging for authentication.
✕ Taking a document to MFA
✓ MFA stopped authenticating documents on 20 January 2021, so we lodge everything with SAL directly.
✕ An uncertified printout
✓ We check that e-certificates and computer-generated records carry an endorsement, QR code or agency confirmation SAL can verify.
✕ A private paper with no notary
✓ Letters, declarations and bank statements go to our partner Notary Public first, as SAL cannot accept them on their own.
✕ Mixing up apostille and embassy routes
✓ We match the route to the country, so a degree certificate for a Gulf job does not stop at SAL when an embassy stamp is still needed.
FAQ
Quick replies for anyone about to send a document for SAL authentication. Ask us on WhatsApp if yours is not here.
Ask On WhatsAppNo. SAL's own fee is not refundable once it is paid, even if the counter turns the document back. That is why we check your scan before lodging, and we confirm in writing with your quote how the rest of our charge is handled if SAL refuses.
They can look it up on SAL's online register using the details printed on the certificate. ACRA e-Apostilles are checked on the same SAL website.
No. The certificate is fixed to your document, and separating them can make the authentication invalid. If you also need a clean original for other uses, ask the issuer for a second original or certified extract before we lodge.
Each document gets its own certificate, so a degree and its transcript count as two. Several copies of the same paper need one each too, though certified true copies can sometimes be bundled under one notarial certificate if the receiving country accepts it, which we confirm with your quote.
Yes. We put all your originals into one SAL request and one counter visit, then return them together, though each one still gets its own certificate.
Only if SAL must log in with your Singpass or email to verify it, in which case you have to attend the SAL counter yourself and we plan the visit with you. Otherwise we print the record and our runner lodges it, as SAL does not print digital documents.
For Hague Convention countries it usually is, but the receiving office can still ask for more, so send us their checklist. For non-Hague countries, some also want their own foreign ministry to stamp the document after the embassy, once it arrives there.
We check every SAL certificate against your instructions before handover and raise any error on SAL's side with the SAL counter straight away. If the mistake is in your document itself, the issuer must correct it and the new document needs fresh SAL authentication.
Send a scan and tell us the country, and we confirm the SAL authentication route and price before any work starts. See what past clients say in our client reviews.