What to do in case of a lost diploma or educational certificate

Education documents are among the most important documents in a person’s life. They are particularly important when applying for employment or pursuing further education.

Losing a diploma or certificate may temporarily complicate employment or admission to further education. However, these documents can be recovered.

Below is the procedure for obtaining a replacement diploma issued by a higher or postgraduate education institution.

Duplicates of documents on basic secondary, general secondary, technical and vocational, and post-secondary education, along with their transcripts (hereinafter - duplicate), are issued in cases where the originals have been lost or damaged, as well as to persons who have changed their surname, name, or patronymic (if any).

The groundings for issuing a duplicate are as follows:

1. an application from a former student or parent (legal representative) of an underage child who has lost or damaged a document containing circumstances to the name of a head of education organization;
2. birth certificate or an ID card (passport) of a former student and (or) an electronic document from the Digital Documents service (for identification);
3. if a surname (name, patronymic (if any) is changed and (or) a document on education is damaged, an original copy of a document on education is attached.

Individuals who are not citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan and do not possess a digital signature must apply directly to the educational institution in order to obtain a duplicate of documents on basic secondary, general secondary, technical and vocational, and post-secondary education.

A duplicate is issued on a free-of-charge basis no later than 15 working days from the date of application submission.

If the educational institution has been liquidated

In the event of liquidation of a secondary, technical and vocational, or post-secondary education institution, individuals should apply to the archive at the institution’s location. Copies and extracts issued by state archives and their branches, departmental and private archives are official documents having the legal force of original copies.

Duplicate documents are issued in the forms valid at the time of decision to issue a duplicate and signed by a head of educational organization, a deputy for academic affairs.

In the upper right corner of an issued document there is a stamp "Duplicate instead of an original copy No. _____".