Degree certificate attestation from Tamil Nadu for UAE employment

The UAE is not an Apostille country, so the chain is: (1) authentication of the degree by the Tamil Nadu higher-education authority (Regional Authentication Centre), (2) MEA normal attestation through an outsourced centre — Chennai has one, (3) UAE Embassy attestation in India, (4) MoFA attestation in the UAE.

Steps 3 and 4 can be done in one online application through MoFA's Digital Attestation service: you apply on mofa.gov.ae with UAE Pass, a MoFA-approved provider collects the original, and you receive digitally attested documents by email with the originals returned by courier.

MEA normal attestation: free. Outsourced agency: ₹84 per document + ₹3 per page. MoFA UAE: AED 150 for individual-affairs documents. The UAE Embassy's own fee for Indian documents is not published on the MoFA New Delhi page, so AttestGulf shows it as unconfirmed; pay only the amount shown in the official application. State authentication fees in Tamil Nadu are not centrally published by MEA.

Laminated certificates; name mismatch between the certificate and the passport without a gazette/affidavit; mark sheets submitted instead of the degree certificate; and photocopies submitted where an original was required.