Certified copies: who may certify them, and how

A certified copy is a photocopy with a promise attached. Someone the regulator is prepared to trust has held your original, compared it with the copy and signed to say they match. The regulator never sees your degree certificate. It sees that signature, and decides whether to rely on it.

So the question on a checklist is never only “is it certified?” It is “certified by whom, and in what form?” The answers change from one regulator to the next, and the changes are where files come back.

What a certified copy is for

A regulator abroad cannot visit your college or your council. It works from paper, and a certified copy shortens the chain of trust: the certifier vouches for the copy, and the regulator decides whether it accepts the certifier.

In our practice, a certified copy that holds up has three things:

• A statement that it is a true copy of the original, in the words the regulator gives if it gives any
• The certifier’s details: name, role or profession, contact details, signature and date, all legible
• Every page covered, front and back, so nothing can be added or swapped later

The exact form comes from each checklist. Here is how the regulators we file with put it.

Who names what

The HCPC asks for every copy to be correctly certified by a person of standing in the community. A document that is not in English needs a certified copy of an official translation, and what you upload has to be machine-readable.

Source: hcpc-uk.org · Documents you need to prepare and certify · 2026-10-04

CORU asks for documents certified by an approved certifier, or stamped by your university. Its checklist separates certified copies from verifications: forms that your university, your competent authority and, where relevant, an employer sign and stamp themselves.

Source: coru.ie · Guidance Notes: Applying for Registration as an International Qualification Applicant · 2026-10-04

In Australia, the boards that assess a qualification portfolio, including podiatry, occupational therapy and medical radiation practice, ask for a clear colour scan of a certified copy of your registration certificate, and certified copies of your transcript and award certificate.

Source: podiatryboard.gov.au · Assessment of international qualifications · 2026-10-04

New Zealand has no single rule either. The Occupational Therapy Board wants certified copies uploaded, then hard copies of its starred documents by post or courier. The Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians Board asks for certified colour copies. The Dietitians Board accepts a certified copy or an authenticated PDF of a transcript.

Source: otboard.org.nz · odob.health.nz · dietitiansboard.org.nz · Overseas qualified practitioners; I Want to Register as an Optometrist; Checklist – Eligibility for Registration · 2026-10-04

Canada sometimes steps past certification altogether. CAMRT asks for a notarised diploma and a notarised transcript of marks. CAPR asks your school, testing agency and regulator to send their documents to it directly, so no copy you certify can stand in for them.

Source: camrt.ca · alliancept.org · Assessment Process; Providing Documents · 2026-10-04

Never carry one rule to the next

The mistake we see most often is one set of copies, certified once, sent everywhere. A copy certified for one regulator meets that regulator’s standard. The next one may want a different certifier, different wording, colour rather than black and white, or the document straight from your college and not from you at all.

So we read the certification line on each checklist as its own instruction. If a regulator names who may certify, that is the whole list. If it asks for a notarised copy, a certified copy is a different thing. If it wants the document from the issuer, certification does not help.

Why certified copies come back

None of these is about your qualification:

• The certifier is not someone the checklist names
• The statement is missing, or worded loosely
• The certifier’s name, role or date cannot be read
• Only the first page is certified, or the back of a two-sided transcript is missing
• A coloured seal has been photocopied into a grey smudge
• A translation is certified, but the original it was made from is not attached
• The scan is tilted, cropped at the edge, or a photo of a photo

Each one costs a round trip: the regulator writes, you find the certifier again, the file waits for the resend.

Preparing them right the first time

This is the order we work in.

1. Read each regulator’s line first. Write down who may certify, the wording and the format, before you meet anyone.
2. Take originals and copies together. The certifier must see the original. Take every page, both sides.
3. Certify each page, in the regulator’s words where it gives them, with the certifier’s details printed beside the signature.
4. Keep translations with their originals, and certify both where the checklist asks.
5. Check the form each regulator accepts. None of the regulators we file with asks for an apostille or embassy attestation. Each names the copy it accepts: a certified copy (HCPC, CORU, Ahpra, the New Zealand boards), a colour scan of the original (the Australian Physiotherapy Council, OCANZ, AIMS), or a document sent directly by your university or WES (Canada).
6. Scan flat and in colour, every edge visible, with the stamp readable at normal zoom.

How it works in our portal

When we open your application, the portal shows your folders, with a slot for each document on your regulator’s list. You upload each page into its slot, as a photo or a PDF. We review the file page by page before anything goes into your regulator account. A certificate is not ready because its first page is clean if the stamp on the second cannot be read. When a page needs redoing, that page comes back to you with the reason, and the rest stays where it is.

Your documents are stored privately, and every time anyone opens one, it is logged.

Your next steps

• Open each regulator’s checklist and copy out its certification line
• List what needs certifying, what needs notarising and what goes direct from the issuer
• See the certifier once, with every original and every page
• Scan in colour and check each seal is legible

Sources

The certification rules above were read on each regulator’s own pages on 4 October 2026 and are recorded on our sources page. Who decides in each country is on the regulator pages, starting with the HCPC and CORU.

Your regulator’s own list comes with your route. Choose your profession and country in the Route Finder below to see it.