Documents (e.g. copies, copies or printouts) are only officially certified if the original was created by an authority or if the document is to be submitted to an authority.

Documents may not be officially certified if:

• the exclusive competence of another authority is given (e.g. birth, marriage or death certificates - only from the registry office; certified extracts from the real estate cadastre - only from the cadastral office)
• it is reasonable to assume that the original content of the document whose photocopy, copy or printout is to be certified has been altered, in particular if this document contains gaps, strikethroughs, insertions, amendments, illegible words, numbers or signs, traces of the elimination of words, numbers and signs or if the connection of a document consisting of several sheets is broken,
• instead of an official certification, a public certification is required (public certification is the responsibility of notaries and courts and cannot be replaced by an official one),
• the document is not in German and the applicant refuses to provide an official translation.
• they are printouts of unsigned electronic documents (e.g. certificates of exmatriculation).

Certifications of documents are usually processed immediately.