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Certification of documents

Bürgeramt · Official certification of copies & transcripts

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With certification (Beglaubigung), the Bürgeramt (citizens’ office) confirms with a stamp, official seal and signature that a copy or transcript matches the original. The legal basis is § 33 of the Administrative Procedure Act (Verwaltungsverfahrensgesetz, VwVfG). This so-called official certification is needed when you want to submit legally reliable copies rather than originals to authorities, universities or employers – for example of certificates, diplomas or official notices (Bescheid).

The fee depends on the fee ordinance of the relevant federal state (Bundesland) or local authority and varies considerably: in Berlin €5.00 per page, in Cologne €2.00, in Düsseldorf €2.50 and in Neuss, according to its by-law, €1.00 to €2.50 – in North Rhine-Westphalia, each local authority sets the rate itself. Important: the Bürgeramt must not certify any civil status documents (Personenstandsurkunde), i.e. birth, marriage and death certificates, nor register extracts or foreign documents – the issuing authority, a notary (public certification under § 129 of the German Civil Code – Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, BGB) or an apostille is competent for these.

Two requirements decide whether the Bürgeramt may certify your copy at all: under § 33 Abs. 1 VwVfG, either the original must have been issued by a German authority – or the copy is needed for submission to a German authority. If the original comes from a private body (such as an Arbeitszeugnis (employment reference) or a tenancy agreement) and the copy is also only going to a private body, certification can be refused. Therefore always name the receiving authority: for private originals, the authority expressly includes this body in the certification note under § 33 Abs. 3 Nr. 3 VwVfG.

A common misunderstanding concerns the legal basis: § 33 VwVfG applies directly to federal authorities. Municipal Bürgeramt offices act under the Administrative Procedure Act of their federal state, whose § 33 is identical or almost identical in wording to the federal provision. For you, this changes nothing in substance – but it does for the fees, because these are set by the administrative fee ordinance of the federal state or the by-law of the local authority and are therefore not uniform nationwide.

Last updated3 October 2026
Legal basis§ 33 VwVfG · § 34 VwVfG
VerificationChecked against gesetze-im-internet.de
Written and reviewed byAndrés Sánchez Botta
Independent information website: we are not the Bürgeramt, not an authority and not a paid advice service – we do not submit applications on your behalf. All information comes from official sources and is explained here in plain language; binding information always comes from the competent body. Procedures and fees can vary depending on the federal state (Bundesland) and the local authority. All information is provided without guarantee. We are neither lawyers nor tax consultants: we document official procedures and check the information against the official source – this is information, not legal or tax advice.
Costsapprox. €1–€5Usually per page, depending on the local authority
Processing timeImmediatelyDirectly at the counter
MethodIn personOriginal required
Legal basis§ 33 VwVfGOfficial certification
Required documents

What you need to bring

Original document (Urschrift)

The original from which the certified copy is to be made – you do not necessarily have to present it yourself: the law does not require you to attend in person for this, so as a rule another person can also bring the original for you (for details, see “Power of attorney if someone represents you”). The authority compares the original and the copy character by character and then confirms that they match; without the original, certification is legally ruled out. Under § 33 Abs. 2 VwVfG, a document must not be certified if there are indications that the original content has been altered – in particular in the case of gaps, crossings-out, insertions, erasures or any similar deficiency. The original remains in your possession and is returned to you directly at the counter.

Copy of the document

Ideally, bring the finished copy with you; many offices also make it on site, but then an additional copying fee is charged. Copies you bring with you should be printed on one side only, because the back is needed for the certification note with the official seal and signature. Copy multi-page documents in full, including reverse sides with grades, stamps or footnotes – partial copies are not certified. For each certified copy you need, you require a separate set of copies.

Intended purpose

Tell the counter staff what you need the certified copy for and which authority requires it. This is not curiosity but a legal requirement: if the original was not issued by an authority, the certification note must, under § 33 Abs. 3 Nr. 3 VwVfG, state that the copy is issued only for submission to the named body. Therefore have the cover letter, the information sheet or the request from the receiving body ready. If this information is missing for private originals, certification can be refused.

Valid identity card or passport

To establish your identity at the counter; for foreign nationals, a passport or residence title is sufficient. For the certification of a signature under § 34 VwVfG, the identity document is mandatory, because the note records whether the official has satisfied themselves of your identity. In some local authorities, certifications are only carried out for people who are registered there – anyone living elsewhere is referred to their competent Bürgeramt. An expired identity document is generally not accepted for identity verification.

Power of attorney if someone represents you

Another person can also handle pure copy certifications for you, because only the comparison of original and copy matters. Whether that person needs a power of attorney for this is decided by each local authority: in Berlin, no power of attorney is needed, and in Munich none in writing. Cologne, by contrast, requires a power of attorney and valid identity documents of both participants – the authorised person and the person granting the power of attorney; Cologne certifies copies of German identity documents only if you attend in person. For the certification of a signature, representation is ruled out in principle: under § 34 Abs. 2 VwVfG, the signature is to be made or acknowledged in the presence of the person carrying out the certification. Check with your Bürgeramt in advance whether it requires a power of attorney.

Means of payment

Cash or EC card, depending on the location – many smaller Bürgeramt offices still accept cash only, and credit cards are rarely accepted. The exact fee is set by the federal state or the local authority in its administrative fee ordinance; charges are usually per certified page, but in some cities, such as Munich, per document. If you have extensive folders of certificates, have correspondingly more money ready, because the amounts quickly add up. If the certification is needed for an application for a social benefit, point this out – the fee is then often waived.

Step by step

How to proceed

  1. 1

    Check jurisdiction and power to certify

    First clarify whether the Bürgeramt may certify your document at all. Excluded are civil status documents (birth, marriage and death certificates), for which the Standesamt (registry office) alone is competent, and extracts from the Grundbuch (land register) and from the commercial, association and cadastral registers, which only the body keeping the register certifies. Foreign documents do not belong at the Bürgeramt either – for them, the route is usually via an apostille or legalisation; for many civil status documents from EU states, neither has been required since 16 February 2019 under Regulation (EU) 2016/1191. For everything else, the rule is: certification is permitted if the original comes from a German authority or the copy is to be submitted to a German authority. A call to the Bürgerservice (citizens’ office) or a look at your city’s directory of services takes five minutes and saves you a wasted trip.

  2. 2

    Determine the purpose and the number of copies

    Read carefully what the receiving body requires: official certification by an authority with an official seal, public certification by a notary, or just a simple copy. Universities, application portals and recognition bodies word this differently in their information sheets. Also count how many certified copies you actually need – anyone applying to several places often needs three to five sets. Having everything done in one appointment saves a second trip, waiting time and possibly another wait for an appointment.

  3. 3

    Prepare the original and the copies

    Have the original document ready and make clean, complete copies printed on one side only – the back stays free for the certification note. Copy multi-page certificates in full, including all reverse sides and annex pages; incomplete copies are rejected at the counter. Make sure that stamps, seals and signatures are legible on the copy, because these are exactly the features that are compared. With very dark seals, a lighter copier setting helps. Finally, check the original itself: crossings-out, removed pages or later additions lead to refusal under § 33 Abs. 2 VwVfG.

  4. 4

    Book an appointment or use office hours

    Many cities allocate appointments exclusively online via their Bürgerservice portal; the wait for a free slot can range from a few days to several weeks, depending on the local authority and the time of year. Other Bürgeramt offices treat certifications as a quick transaction and accept them without an appointment during open office hours, sometimes also at a separate express counter. Also check whether your local authority only carries out certifications for residents registered there. Allow around ten to fifteen minutes for the process itself.

  5. 5

    Present your documents and pay the fee

    Hand over the original and the copy at the counter and name the body to which you are submitting the copy. The staff member compares both documents page by page for complete conformity – this is the actual core of the certification and takes correspondingly longer for multi-page documents. You then pay the fee (per certified page or per document, depending on the local authority), usually in cash or by EC card, and receive a receipt on request. This receipt is important if you want to claim the costs for tax purposes as application costs or as income-related expenses (Werbungskosten).

  6. 6

    Check the certification note and take your original with you

    You receive the copy back immediately – bearing the certification note, the place and date of certification, the signature of the competent official and the official seal. Check whether the document is precisely identified, whether the confirmation of conformity is included and whether the seal has been clearly printed; a faint or missing seal regularly leads to rejection by the receiving body. Also check that you have put your original document away again. Keep the original safe – the certified copy replaces it only for the specific submission, not permanently.

Fee information

Costs and payment

Fees

Certification in Berlin€5.00 per page
Certification in NRW (set by each local authority)Cologne €2.00 · Düsseldorf €2.50 · Neuss €1.00–€2.50 per page
Copying fee on siteapprox. €0.50–€1.00 per page
Certification of a signature (§ 34 VwVfG)depends on the competent authority
Social benefit proceedingsusually free of charge (§ 64 SGB X)
Billingper page or per document – depending on the local authority (Munich: €5 for up to 6 pages; Hamburg: tiered)
Means of paymentcash / EC card (depending on the office)

There is no uniform nationwide fee: each federal state and each local authority sets the amount in its administrative fee ordinance. The figures given are examples – Berlin charges €5.00 per page and Munich €5.00 per document of up to six pages; in North Rhine-Westphalia, each local authority issues its own administrative fee by-law: Cologne charges €2.00 per page, Düsseldorf €2.50 and Neuss €1.00 to €2.50. There is no state-wide NRW rate. The verified range for the certification of a single page is therefore €1.00 to €5.00. For this reason, ask the competent Bürgeramt about the specific amount in advance; the local fee ordinance is always binding. For documents that are particularly difficult to compare – such as technical drawings, collections of formulae or texts in foreign languages – the fee can be higher, because the comparison takes considerably more time. If the certified copy is needed in connection with an application for a social benefit, such as Bürgergeld (citizen’s benefit), Wohngeld (housing benefit) or BAföG (federal training assistance for students and school pupils), the official act is generally free of charge under § 64 Abs. 2 of Social Code Book X (Sozialgesetzbuch Zehntes Buch, SGB X) – point this out actively at the counter, as it is not checked automatically. Be realistic when budgeting for a complete application folder: ten certified pages cost between €10 and €50, depending on the local authority.

Good to know

Important notes

Official certification (§ 33 VwVfG) is not the same as public certification under § 129 BGB – only a notary may carry out the latter, for example for declarations to the Grundbuch or the commercial register.

Bring your own copies and print them on one side only – the back is needed for the certification note. In most local authorities, this saves copying fees and waiting time. In Hamburg, it is the other way round from four pages upwards: there, because of the greater checking effort, the certification of copies you bring with you costs €4 for up to two pages and €2 per page from the third page onwards, while the certification of copies made by the office costs €4 for up to four pages and only €1 per page from the fifth page onwards, plus copying costs of €0.70 per page. In Munich, the Bürgerbüro (citizens’ office) makes all copies to be certified exclusively itself; you should not bring your own copies there. Therefore check your city’s fee ordinance and guidance beforehand.

If you need several certified copies, have them all certified in one appointment. Whether each page is charged individually or the document as a whole differs from one local authority to another – either way, you avoid a second trip to the office.

For foreign-language documents, many offices require a certified German translation – unless the authority has sufficient language skills for the comparison.

To use German documents abroad (or vice versa), you usually need an apostille (Hague Convention of 5 October 1961) or – for states that are not party to the Convention – legalisation by the competent German mission abroad. The competent bodies are the regional government (Bezirksregierung), the regional court (Landgericht) or the Federal Office of Administration (Bundesverwaltungsamt, BVA), not the Bürgeramt.

If the original does not come from an authority – for example an Arbeitszeugnis, a private contract or a certificate from an association – the authority may only certify it if the copy is to be submitted to a German authority. Under § 33 Abs. 3 Nr. 3 VwVfG, the note then contains the addition that the copy is issued exclusively for submission to this body. For a private recipient such as a bank or a landlord, there is no entitlement to certification.

For the certification of a signature under § 34 VwVfG, the signature must be made or expressly acknowledged in the presence of the certifying official. So do not sign the document at home beforehand, but only at the counter. Signatures without accompanying text and signatures that require public certification under § 129 BGB are not certified.

Besides the Bürgeramt, any other body that holds an official seal may also certify: the authority or university that issued the document itself, municipality and Amt administrations, notaries, courts and, in many federal states, the churches recognised as corporations under public law. For university certificates, going through the examination office of your own university is often quicker and cheaper than going to the Bürgeramt.

Certification by email, photo or scan is not possible, because the authority must physically examine the original. § 33 Abs. 4 and 5 VwVfG do allow the certification of printouts of electronic documents and of electronic documents with a qualified electronic signature – but in practice very few Bürgeramt offices offer this procedure. Therefore always plan for an appointment in person.

For immigrants: for the recognition of foreign vocational or school qualifications, the recognition bodies generally require certified copies of the original document and of the translation by a publicly appointed or sworn translator. The translation itself is certified by the translator, not by the Bürgeramt. Never send original documents by post – a loss is often irreplaceable.

Avoid these mistakes

Common mistakes

Forgetting the original. Without the original document, the office cannot check that the copy matches – the certification is refused, the appointment is lost and you have to book a new one, which costs days to weeks depending on the local authority. A photo or scan on your smartphone is not enough.

Choosing the wrong authority. Birth, marriage and death certificates as well as register and cadastral extracts are certified only by the issuing body – not by the Bürgeramt.

Confusing it with public certification. If the receiving body requires notarial (public) certification under § 129 BGB, the official certification by the Bürgeramt is not sufficient.

Foreign document without an apostille. The Bürgeramt must not certify foreign documents – if the apostille or legalisation is missing, the document is generally not recognised in Germany and the entire application, for example for recognition of a vocational qualification, is delayed by months. Exception: since 16 February 2019, Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 has exempted, among others, birth, marriage and death certificates, certificates of good conduct (Führungszeugnis) and nationality certificates from EU member states from the apostille and legalisation requirement.

Bringing a copy printed on both sides. If the back is already printed, there is no room for the certification note, seal and signature. The office has to make the copy again – you pay the copying fee on top and lose time during your appointment.

Copying only part of the document. Anyone who leaves out the reverse side of a certificate with the overview of grades or the seal will not receive a valid certification: what is confirmed is that the copy matches the complete document. Receiving bodies reject incomplete certifications, and application deadlines keep running in the meantime.

Signing at home in advance. For the certification of a signature under § 34 VwVfG, the signature must be made or expressly acknowledged in front of the official. Anyone who presents a form that is already signed and refuses to acknowledge the signature will not receive a certification and has to prepare the document again.

Having too few copies certified. Certified copies usually remain with the receiving body and are not returned. Anyone who has only one copy must book a new appointment for every further application, pay again and risks missing submission deadlines.

Not mentioning the fee exemption. If the copy is needed for an application for Bürgergeld, Wohngeld, BAföG or another social benefit, the official act is generally free of charge under § 64 Abs. 2 SGB X. If you do not point this out at the counter, you pay the full amount – a refund afterwards is usually ruled out.

Not checking the note and the seal. If the official seal is missing or illegible, or the precise description of the document is missing, the note does not meet the requirements of § 33 Abs. 3 VwVfG. The receiving body may then reject the document – check this while you are still at the counter, as long as a correction is possible free of charge.

Frequently asked questions

Questions and answers

How much does a certification at the Bürgeramt cost?

The fee depends on the fee ordinance of the relevant federal state or local authority and varies considerably. In Berlin, certification costs €5.00 per page; in North Rhine-Westphalia, each local authority sets the rate itself – Cologne charges €2.00, Düsseldorf €2.50 and Neuss, according to its fee by-law (Gebührensatzung), €1.00 to €2.50 per page. There is no state-wide NRW rate. Munich charges per document (€5.00 for up to six pages), Hamburg on a tiered basis. For documents that are difficult to compare, such as technical drawings, the fee can be higher. Ask your Bürgeramt about the exact amount in advance.

Can the Bürgeramt certify signatures?

The Bürgeramt can officially certify signatures under § 34 VwVfG, provided the signed document is needed for submission to an authority. However, only a notary may carry out public certification under § 129 BGB – for example for declarations to the Grundbuch or entries in the commercial register. If in doubt, ask which form the receiving body requires.

Which documents can the Bürgeramt not certify?

The Bürgeramt must not certify civil status documents (birth, marriage and death certificates), extracts from the Grundbuch, the commercial register and the register of associations, or cadastral extracts – the issuing authority is competent in each case. Foreign documents usually require an apostille or legalisation and cannot be certified by the Bürgeramt; civil status documents, certificates of good conduct (Führungszeugnis) and nationality certificates from EU member states have been exempt from this under Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 since 16 February 2019.

What is an apostille and when do I need one?

An apostille confirms the authenticity of a public document for use abroad and is issued on the basis of the Hague Convention of 1961. You need one if you want to present a German document in a contracting state or, conversely, use a foreign document in Germany. Depending on the document, the competent body is the regional government (Bezirksregierung), the regional court (Landgericht) or the Federal Office of Administration – not the Bürgeramt.

Do I have to bring the original document?

Yes. Certification is only possible if the original is available, because the authority confirms that the copy matches the original. Without the original, no certified copy can be made. Under § 33 Abs. 2 VwVfG, documents with gaps, crossings-out or alterations must not be certified.

Do I need an appointment for a certification?

That depends on your local authority. Many Bürgeramt offices require you to book an appointment via the city’s online portal, while others offer certifications without an appointment during open office hours. In some local authorities, certifications are only carried out for residents registered there.

How long is a certified copy valid?

A certified copy generally has no expiry date as long as the original document remains valid and unchanged. However, some receiving bodies, such as universities or employers, require a recent certification that is no more than six or twelve months old. Clarify the requirements in advance with the body to which you are submitting the document.

Can the Bürgeramt certify my Arbeitszeugnis (employment reference)?

An Arbeitszeugnis comes from a private employer and is therefore not an original issued by an authority. The Bürgeramt may therefore only certify the copy if you submit it to a German authority – for example the Agentur für Arbeit (Federal Employment Agency), a recognition body or a university. Under § 33 Abs. 3 Nr. 3 VwVfG, the certification note then states that the copy was issued only for this body. For purely private use, for example with a bank, there is no entitlement to certification.

Is certification free of charge if I need it for an application for a social benefit?

As a rule, yes: under § 64 Abs. 2 SGB X, no fees are charged for transactions and proceedings that become necessary in connection with applying for or providing a social benefit. This applies, for example, to documents for Bürgergeld, Wohngeld, Kinderzuschlag (child supplement, KiZ) or BAföG. However, the exemption is not checked automatically – say explicitly at the counter what you need the copy for, and present the authority’s cover letter.

Can I get a certification online or by post?

No, certification by email, photo or upload is not possible, because the authority must physically examine the original to confirm that the copy matches. § 33 Abs. 4 and 5 VwVfG do provide for the certification of printouts of electronic documents and of electronic documents with a qualified electronic signature, but in practice Bürgeramt offices hardly ever offer this procedure. In most local authorities, only the appointment can be booked online.

Who else besides the Bürgeramt may certify?

Any body that holds an official seal and is authorised to do so may certify: the authority or university that issued the document itself, municipality and Amt administrations, notaries, courts and, in many federal states, the churches recognised as corporations under public law. For university certificates, your own examination office is often the quicker and cheaper route. Copy shops, associations, employers or translation agencies are not authorised – a copy stamped there is not an official certification.

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