Apostille on a Diploma in Poland 2026: NAWA or Kuratorium

You finished a Polish university or school, a foreign employer made you an offer, or you are applying to a university abroad - and someone asks for an apostille on your diploma. So you head to the MSZ (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) office on ul. Krucza, wait in line, and get told: a diploma is not our department. This is the single most common mistake we see among our clients from the former USSR living in Mazowieckie.

Education documents in Poland are not apostilled at the foreign ministry. They go to separate authorities, and which one depends on whether you hold a university diploma or a school certificate. Below we set out exactly where to take your document, what it costs, how long it takes, and why an apostille alone will not do its job abroad without a sworn translation.

Where to get an apostille on a diploma - the short answer

An apostille on a Polish university diploma is issued by NAWA (Narodowa Agencja Wymiany Akademickiej, the National Agency for Academic Exchange) in Warsaw. An apostille on a school certificate (świadectwo dojrzałości, the maturity certificate, or świadectwo ukończenia szkoły, a school completion certificate) is issued by the właściwe kuratorium oświaty (the competent regional education authority) for the location of the school. MSZ does not handle either of these. The opłata skarbowa (stamp duty) is 60 PLN per document.

Remember this split, because it saves weeks. People turn up at the ministry on the assumption that "MSZ issues apostilles" - true for most documents, but not for education. Lawmakers carved diplomas and certificates out into a separate process, and trying to apostille them at the wrong window ends in a refusal and lost time.

Why a diploma does not go to MSZ

An apostille under the 1961 Hague Convention confirms three things: the authenticity of the signature on the document, the validity of the seal, and the authority of the person who signed. The logic is simple - the apostille is issued by the body responsible for the signatories.

Polish university diplomas are signed by rectors and authorised officials of the institution. Their authority and specimen signatures sit within the higher education system, which is overseen by NAWA, an agency under the ministry of science. That is why NAWA holds the register of rectors' signatures and can confirm a diploma is genuine.

School documents are signed by head teachers. The supervisory body for schools is the kuratorium oświaty in each voivodeship. It keeps specimen signatures of the head teachers in its area, so it is the kuratorium that apostilles a school certificate.

MSZ apostilles everything else: civil registry records from the USC (birth, marriage, death), criminal record certificates, notarial and court documents. Just not education. This is not bureaucratic whim - it comes down to who holds the specimen signatures.

University diploma: apostille through NAWA

Which documents NAWA apostilles

• dyplom ukończenia studiów wyższych (a higher education diploma - licencjat, inżynier, magister);
• suplement do dyplomu (the diploma supplement with your grades);
• świadectwo ukończenia studiów podyplomowych (a postgraduate studies certificate);
• dyplom doktorski i habilitacyjny (doctoral and postdoctoral degrees);
• świadectwa i dyplomy potwierdzające kwalifikacje - to the extent they relate to higher education.

If you hold both a diploma and a suplement and the receiving side wants both, these count as two separate documents, and the apostille on each is paid for separately.

How to file with NAWA, step by step

1. Prepare the original diploma. The apostille goes on the original or on a notarised copy (odpis notarialny). In most cases the receiving side abroad wants the apostille on the original, but confirm their requirements in advance.

2. Pay the opłata skarbowa - 60 PLN per document. The payment goes to the account of Urząd Miasta Stołecznego Warszawy (where NAWA is based). Attach proof of payment to your application.

3. Complete the wniosek (application) for the apostille. State the diploma details, the university, the year of graduation, and the destination country.

4. Submit the documents. The standard options apply: in person by appointment, through a representative (by power of attorney), or by post. Out-of-town applicants usually prefer post - you send the original, the payment and the application, and get it back apostilled.

5. Collect the apostilled document. NAWA stamps the apostille onto the paper original with a wet seal and signature. Poland still has no full e-apostille in 2026, so everything is on paper.

Timelines and cost at NAWA

School certificate: apostille through kuratorium oświaty

What the kuratorium apostilles

• świadectwo dojrzałości (the matura, or maturity certificate);
• świadectwo ukończenia szkoły podstawowej / liceum / technikum (completion of primary school, secondary school or a technical school);
• świadectwa szkolne promocyjne and other documents issued by schools.

The key point: the apostille is issued by the właściwe kuratorium oświaty - the kuratorium of the voivodeship where the issuing school is located. If you studied in Warsaw, that is the Mazowiecki Kurator Oświaty. If the school was in another voivodeship, you apply there, wherever you happen to live now.

How to file with the kuratorium, step by step

1. Identify the right kuratorium by the school's address, not by your current place of residence.

2. Pay the opłata skarbowa of 60 PLN per document to the account of the relevant urząd miasta.

3. Prepare the original certificate (or a notarised copy if the receiving side requires one).

4. File the wniosek in person, by proxy or by post. Attach proof of payment.

5. Collect the apostilled certificate - again paper, with the kuratorium's wet seal.

The procedure is almost identical to NAWA; only the authority differs. One thing that trips our clients up is the technikum diploma. A technikum is secondary education, so its certificate is apostilled by the kuratorium, not NAWA. A degree from a politechnika or uniwersytet, on the other hand, is higher education and goes to NAWA.

Why you need an apostille on a diploma at all

You need an apostille when a Polish education document has to work outside Poland. Three typical situations bring people to us:

Working abroad. An employer in a Hague Convention country wants a verified diploma - doctors, engineers, IT specialists, teachers. Without an apostille, the HR department or professional chamber will not accept the document.

Studying abroad. Admission to a master's or doctoral programme abroad: the admissions office wants an apostilled bachelor's diploma plus the suplement with your grades.

Recognition (nostrification) abroad. For a Polish diploma to be treated as equivalent to a local one, the foreign education authority demands an apostille as a guarantee of authenticity. That is a separate procedure in the destination country, and the apostille is a precondition for it. We covered diploma recognition and the reverse situation in our piece on nostrification and sworn translations.

If the document stays inside Poland, you usually do not need an apostille. And a separate point: EU countries apply simplified rules to many documents, but education falls outside EU Regulation 2016/1191 - so for working in the EU on your diploma, an apostille is still generally required. For what an apostille actually is and how it works in Poland, see our foundational article on apostille in Poland.

The apostille is only half the job. You need a sworn translation

Almost everyone stumbles here. The apostille confirms the diploma is genuine, but it does not translate it into the language of the destination country. In Poland the apostille is stamped in Polish (partly in other languages under the Convention form), and the diploma itself is in Polish. To a foreign university or employer, that is a page of words they cannot read.

So after the apostille the document goes to a sworn translator (tłumacz przysięgły). Order matters: apostille first, translation second. The sworn translator translates the whole document together with the apostille already on it, so the translation covers both the stamp and its content. Translate first and apostille afterwards, and the apostille stays untranslated - and some foreign authorities will reject that set.

A typical case among our clients, initials A.K.: she had her diploma translated ahead of time "to save time," then added the apostille, and a German university sent her back to redo the translation with the apostille included. Two weeks and extra money gone.

For how apostille, diploma recognition and sworn translation fit together, see our article on nostrification and tłumaczenia przysięgłe.

Common mistakes with a diploma apostille

• Taking a diploma to MSZ. The ministry does not apostille education documents - only NAWA and the kuratoria do.
• Confusing university and school. Higher education goes to NAWA; secondary school and technikum go to the kuratorium oświaty.
• Applying to the wrong voivodeship's kuratorium. The apostille is issued by the kuratorium for the school's location, not your current registration.
• Forgetting the suplement. The diploma and its supplement are two documents, both are often needed, and the apostille on each is paid for separately.
• Translating before the apostille. The correct order is apostille first, then sworn translation together with the stamp.
• Not checking whether the receiving side wants the apostille on the original or a notarised copy. The whole procedure hinges on this.

How we run a diploma end to end

We take on the whole chain: diploma - apostille - sworn translation. We work out exactly where your document belongs (NAWA or a specific kuratorium), prepare the wniosek, pay the opłata skarbowa, and file by power of attorney or post - so you do not have to travel across the country to a kuratorium in another voivodeship. Once the apostille is on, we hand the document straight to a sworn translator in the required language and assemble the finished set to match the requirements of your university, employer or recognition authority.

This is especially handy when admission or start-date deadlines are looming and you are simply not in the city where the diploma was issued.

A diploma apostille looks simple until it turns out the document has to go to a different authority, then be translated in the right order, all while you race an admissions deadline. We walk that path for you, from identifying the right body to a finished, translated set. If you need to apostille and translate a diploma or certificate, arrange a full-service apostille with LegalWin.

This is general information and does not replace individual legal advice. Requirements of receiving authorities differ, so it is worth confirming the details for your specific situation before you file.