Verification Service

Overview

For residence permit application you will be required to legalise official certificates concerning family ties, such as birth and marriage certificates and bachelorhood/spinsterhood certificates if they are of Nigerian of West African origin. If the documents are not in Finnish, Swedish or English, they must be accompanied by a translation into one of these languages by an authorized translator. Both the original documents and their translations must be legalised.

The Embassy of Finland can only legalise original documents which have first been legalised (authenticated) by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the country of origin of the document. Both the original document and the translation must be legalised and the fee will be charged for both documents.

For more information about legalisation process in Nigeria please view Embassy of Finland in Abuja

 

Legalizing a document is a twofold process:

Embassy will send an email instructing the applicant to upload documents on VFS Global Verification Portal.

All applicants need to obtain approval from embassy before applying for verification at VFS.

• VFS Global Verification Services investigates and verifies the origin of the document. VFS Global charges the applicant a fee for the verification of a document. The Applicant is liable for all verification charges.
• The Embassy of Finland legalizes the document(s) that VFS Global Verification Services has verified and delivered to the Embassy. The Embassy of Finland then returns the legalized document(s) to the customer.

Countries in West Africa covered for verification by VFS Global

• Nigeria
• Benin
• Ghana
• Liberia
• Burkina Faso
• Ivory Coast
• Gabon
• Gambia
• Guinea-Bissau
• Guinea
• Cameron
• Central African Republic
• Congo (Brazzaville)
• Mali
• Niger
• Equatorial Guinea
• Senegal
• Sierra Leone
• Togo
• Chad

Verification Fee

Calculate total amount of your verification fee according to the fee information given in table below. Note that fee amount is per document. Verification process can only start when complete documents (without any discripancy) and full payment is received.

Classification of Documents issued in Nigeria and rest of West Africa:

For Nigerians documents ONLY, the applicant will be charged in the local currency at the prevailing rates.

Verification fee for “Documents issued in the rest of West Africa” will be required to be paid in Euro only

• Please note:
• *All costs provided are for per document/per check basis.
• Turn Around Time (TAT) depends on the local authorities of the country in question. Enquiries to VFS Global or to the Embassy do not speed up the verification process. Please, be prepared for a Turn Around Time of 60 days and beyond.
• Turn Around Time (TAT) commences on receipt of exact payment and complete documents (Without any discrepancies; mispellings, additions or omittions in names, wrong dates and legibility of documents).
• Additional logistic fee will be applicable if VFS Global will have to manage the task of returning the documents to the applicants by any other means than personal collection from VAC.
• If additional documents are required during the process of verification as advised by the Issuing authority, time taken to complete verification will be adjusted and will be subject to fulfillment of the required documents

Make Payment to VFS Global

Payment should be solely by Bank Deposit (either via Direct Deposit or Wired Transfer) in favour of VFS Global. Please find below our Bank Account details.

Naira Account

Euro Account

It is important to fill in the bank’s information correctly, as the omission of any information may result in the non-receipt of payment. Subsequently, obtain the Deposit Slip or Telex copy of your Payment from your bank and attach to your Application.

*Please endeavor to pay all related Bank charges incurred for transfer of funds to VFS Global Account. Please note that we will otherwise not proceed with verification of your documents., Please note that Citi bank Nigeria does not take charges on FCY inflow. The Remitter should indicate “Full Value Transfer” or “OUR” option in the transfer instructions form so as to avoid funds being received less correspondent bank charges. Kindly see the charges indicator below:

OUR: All transaction charges for the subsequent credit transfer are to be borne by the ordering customer.

Application form

Please fill in Application form providing contact information and information about documents that need to be verified as per Embassy requirement.

Please fill and sign the Authorization letter, authorizing VFS Global and its verification Partners to conduct Background Verification.

Please upload Authorisation letter along with the payment receipt and clear copies of documents that need to be verified. VFS Portal.

Document Uploading

• On successful completion of the verification process, you will be notified that the final report has been submitted to the Embassy. On receipt of the e-mail confirmation, you would need to follow any of the below mentioned process:
• Submit the original documents (unlaminated) to VFS Global, Abuja either on Monday to Thursday except holidays between 08:00 hrs – 15:00 hrs.
• OR Courier the original documents it to the following address: VFS Global Visa Application Center, Finland Document Verification Team, 3rd Floor Sterling Bank Plaza, Plot 1083 Mohammadu Buhari Way, Central Business Dis 900103, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria.
• Important Notes:
• Do not delete/amend/replace any documents, once the same are uploaded on the verification portal, as this may impact the verification process.
• You cannot submit the physical documents (unlaminated) to VFS Global until the verification process is completed.
• Please feel free to contact us for any information regarding Finland Verification Service process:

• Phone: +234 81 5018 8800 (Monday to Friday except holidays 08:00 – 15:00).

  e-mail: info.finlandverification@vfshelpline.com

After payment, please upload the following for verification:

• Copy of Email received from the Finnish Embassy authorizing you to send your documents to VFS Global for verification
• Completed and signed Application Form
• Duly filled and signed Authorisation Letter
• Deposit Slip or Telex Copy of Payment from your Bank
• Originals copies of documents (unlaminated) bearing the stamp/seal and signature of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the originating country
• Photocopy of the documents (Legible copies)
• Photocopy of data page of passport (Legible copies)

Document Sending

Once the documents are verified and report shared with the Embassy, you will receive a confirmation of the same after which you are requested to submit or courier original documents to VFS Global, Abija.

Please write on the envelope “Legalisation Application for Finland” and post it to the below address:

VFS Global

Finland Document Verification Centre

Sterling Bank Plaza, 3rd Floor, Plot 1083 Mohammadu Buhari Way,

Central Business District, Abuja-Nigeria

Legalization by The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the country of origin must be done on original documents

Accepted exceptions in documents from Cameroon and Ghana:

For documents originating from CAMEROON, certified true copies (CTC) of the documents duly stamped and signed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be accepted for verification but the original documents must be sent along for verification. Please note that we shall not commence the verification process if the original documents are not sighted.

For documents originating from GHANA, we accept original documents accompanied with letters of certification from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Judicial Service in Ghana.