Turkish documents leave for Sudan in several kinds of file: the diploma of a Sudanese graduate of a Turkish university, the marriage record of a couple who married in Türkiye, the authorisation letter of a Turkish company. Sudan has no row in the HCCH status table, so the document collects four certifications instead of a single apostille. This page takes the stamps one at a time, says what each one attests and what none of them checks, and then turns to the Sudanese record arriving in Türkiye.
Sudan and the governor’s office: certification, not apostille
The status table has no line for Sudan, and Sudan is not among the Hague Conference Members. For a document addressed to Sudan, the valilik or kaymakamlık, the provincial or district governor’s office, therefore appears in the chain as the certification step named on the sheet of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, not as an apostille authority; the same sheet states that the Ministry does not legalise an apostilled document. Sudan has not acceded to ETS 063, CIEC 16 or CIEC 17, so no document type is exempt.
Four stamps on a Turkish paper for Khartoum, each on the one before
The first stamp is the notary’s: a sworn translator renders the document, and the notary certifies the translator’s signature. A diploma held in one copy is handled through a notary’s certified true copy, and the translation is made from that copy. The second is the stamp of the governor’s office of the place of issue, which certifies the notary’s signature. The third is the Legalisation Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which certifies the governor’s signature; for the procedure, the Legalisation Unit’s own page is the reference. The fourth is the Sudanese mission’s stamp, which the Ministry’s sheet does not list and the French MEAE table calls double légalisation.
What none of the four stamps checks on a Sudanese file
Each certification in the chain speaks for one signature, the one directly beneath it. The notary answers for the translator’s signature and not for the accuracy of the translation; the governor’s office answers for the notary’s signature and seal; the Ministry answers for the governor’s. The content of the diploma or the record is vouched for by the issuing institution alone. For the same reason the links cannot change places, and a translation added after the governor’s stamp leaves the earlier stamps sitting on an untranslated document.
A Sudanese diploma or birth record entering Türkiye
In the other direction, a diploma or a birth record issued in Sudan follows one of the two methods in the Ministry’s sheet: legalisation at the Turkish mission in Sudan while the record is still there, or a stamp from the Sudanese mission in Türkiye certified afterwards by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or by the governor’s office of the province where the mission sits. The city of the Sudanese mission was not confirmed on this site. The Turkish recognition office or civil registry processes the record after the chain has closed, with a notarised Turkish translation, and that office says whether the legalisation stamps are to be translated as well.
Arabic or English: a preference this site could not confirm
Whether Sudanese institutions want a Turkish document in Arabic or in English was not confirmed on this site. The question is settled with the receiving institution before the chain starts, since a translation made in Türkiye is the first link: the governor’s office, the Ministry and the mission stack their stamps on the notary’s certification of that translation, and a change of language later renews all four. If the Sudanese institution has the translation made on its own side, only the original or its notarised copy goes through the Turkish chain and the translation is added in Sudan.
Two questions for the Sudanese mission
This site did not inquire into the procedure, supporting documents, processing time or fee of the Sudanese mission. Two questions go to the mission before the chain starts: does it accept a document only after the Ministry’s stamp, and is the translation wanted from Türkiye or from Sudan. The answers are kept in writing. A translation office renders the text; it walks no link of the chain and gives no opinion on the Sudanese authority’s decision.