Education institutions (college degrees, vocational/educational certificates, transcripts)
We are not able to authenticate any educational documents, whether issued in the U.S. or in Eritrea, or whether already authenticated by other institutions.

Documents issued by a U.S. state.

State documents are those originating with a state court or agency (birth, death, and marriage certificates, etc.). They must be authenticated by that state’s Secretary of State first.  Contact them or send your original document or its certified copy for initial authentication of the town/county/state’s issuing officer.  Information on the offices of Secretaries of State for the U.S. states:   http://www.statelocalgov.net/50states-secretary-state.cfm

Notarized Documents

The procedure for authenticating documents executed before a notary public, such as affidavits or acknowledgments, varies from state to state. It is advisable to contact the state authentication authority to learn what steps are necessary between the notary seal and the state level authentication. 

Documents issued by federal courts

Documents issued under the seal of a federal court should be sent to:

Justice Management Division, Security Program Staff
Physical Security Office, Room 6531
9th and Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C.  20530
Telephone: (202) 514-2314 or 514-4667

Documents issued by federal agencies

If your document was issued under the seal of a federal agency, it does not require a state level authentication. You may proceed directly to Step Two.

Once you have completed the state level authentication, you must get your document authenticated by the U.S. Department of State Authentications Office.

• All documents that in a foreign language must be accompanied with a certified (notarized) English translation.
• Please submit a completed Request of Authentications Service DS-4194 (PDF 36 KB) form with all of your requests. In Section 4 of the DS-4194(PDF 36 KB), the Country of Use for each document must be specified before the document(s) can be processed.

Mail your complete packet to the following address
Office of Authentications
U.S. Department of State
CA/PPT/S/TO/AUT
44132 Mercure Cir, P.O. Box 1206
Sterling, VA  20166-1206

Processing time for authentication requests sent by mail is at least 15 working days.  There is a walk in service, open 7:30 am to 11:00 am, which allows for the authentication of documents on the same day.  For additional information, call the Federal Information Center at 202-485-8000.

All seals and signatures must be original and all the dates must follow in chronological order.

Additional information is found at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal-considerations/judicial/authentication-of-documents/requesting-authentication-services.html.

The final step of the authentication process is done at the Eritrean Embassy in Washington DC.  Please contact the Eritrean Embassy for more information:

Embassy of Eritrea
1708 New Hampshire Ave, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20009,U.S.A
Tel: 202-319-1991
FAX: 202-319-1304
EMAIL: embassyeritrea

Once you have finished the Final Authentication with the Eritrean Embassy in Washington, DC you may take your document to the Eritrean Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Asmara, Eritrea.  With this final authentication, you should be able to use your U.S. document in Eritrea.  There is no need to have the U.S. Embassy authenticate a document already authenticated by the Eritrean Embassy in Washington, DC.

Authenticate the original document by the Eritrean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Consular Section, Authentications Unit.

To apply for Authentication services, please make an appointment on our online appointment  system and bring the following with you on the scheduled day:
The original document authenticated by the Eritrean Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

• Your valid government ID.
• Fee of $50USD or nakfa equivalent per authentication.