A Turkish high school diploma (lise diploması) is requested abroad in files such as university admission or the recognition of schooling. The diploma is issued by a school under the Ministry of National Education, which makes it an administrative document; its apostille therefore comes from the vali or kaymakam, the provincial or district governor. The detail of the procedure differs from district to district, and there are a few intermediate steps that a school or university abroad may see reflected on the document.
Apostille on the original
The apostille page of the Zile District Governor’s Office states that the originals of primary and secondary education documents, such as a high school diploma, are apostilled by the kaymakamlık, the district governor’s office. The Develi District Governor’s Office says instead that it certifies diploma copies approved by its own district directorate of national education (ilçe millî eğitim müdürlüğü). The two pages reach the same result by different paths: in some districts the diploma is apostilled directly, in others it first passes through the education directorate’s stamp. A receiving institution may therefore see, on an otherwise identical document, either the apostille alone or an education directorate stamp beneath it.
No e-Apostil for a diploma
e-Apostil, the official Turkish electronic apostille system, accepts applications only for criminal record extracts, court judgments, civil registry extracts and the multilingual birth, marriage and death extracts; a diploma is not on that list. Nor can a barcode document downloaded from e-Devlet, the Turkish e-government portal, replace the diploma: a plain printout receives no paper apostille at the district office. Without the issuing institution’s handwritten certification, the paper apostille route does not open. A Turkish diploma presented abroad with an apostille is, in other words, always a physical document with a physical signature under it.
A second apostille on the translation
If the receiving institution wants the diploma in its own language, the diploma is translated by a sworn translator (yeminli tercüman, a translator whose oath is recorded at a Turkish notary) and the translation is certified by a notary. The file then has two certified layers: the apostille on the original diploma and the apostille placed on the notary’s certification of the translation, the latter issued by the governor or district governor. The receiving institution may need only one of the two; its own list of application documents says which, and the Turkish authority does not decide that.
A foreign high school diploma in Türkiye
In the opposite direction, when a high school diploma obtained abroad is submitted for recognition in Türkiye, the directorates of national education ask for the original with an apostille, a consular certification or the certification of that country’s ministry of education, together with Turkish translations certified by a Turkish notary. This description rests on a regulation extract quoted on the FAQ page of a district directorate of national education, a secondary source; the current list of the recognition unit should be checked before the application is made.
Keeping the original
A plain photocopy is never apostilled, whatever the document. Where the holder does not want to part with the original diploma, a notary issues a certified true copy (aslı gibidir) and the apostille is placed on that copy; the apostille then certifies the notary’s signature rather than the school’s. Whether the receiving institution accepts a certified copy in place of the original should be asked before the copy is prepared.
The high school diploma order in brief
Step by step, the order for a Turkish high school diploma is: the district education directorate’s stamp where the district asks for it, the apostille on the original at the district governor’s office, then, if the receiving institution asks for it, a sworn translation, notarial certification and a second apostille on that certification. Whether each step is needed is decided by the list of the institution that will receive the diploma.