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Recognition of a school certificate by NAWA is free, and no apostille is needed for it. The apostille on the school certificate is needed later, for the visa: the Polish embassy requires it on all education documents issued in Kazakhstan. The apostille costs 0.5 MRP (monthly calculation index) per document, that is 2,162.50 KZT at the 2026 MRP of 4,325 KZT, and takes 15 working days.
The main takeaway for your calendar: the NAWA application and the apostille can run in parallel. A sworn translation is not needed for NAWA either, if the document is in Russian. These three procedures get confused most often, and this is exactly where families lose money.
Data as of July 28, 2026. The tenge amount is tied to the MRP and changes from January 1, 2027.
Short answer: what is needed and what is not
| Step | Apostille | Sworn translation into Polish |
|---|---|---|
| Application to NAWA via SYRENA | Not needed | Not needed for documents in Russian |
| Visa package at the consulate | Needed on all education documents | No published requirement as a general rule |
| Admission to a specific university | Checked against the university’s rules | Checked against the university’s rules |
Sources: NAWA on document requirements in SYRENA, the document list for a school certificate and the consulate page on the new student visa rules.
The conclusion is simple: do not order the apostille and the translation “for everything at once” until you know exactly where the documents are going.
Apostille on a school certificate in Kazakhstan
| Parameter | Value | Verified |
|---|---|---|
| Processing time for a school certificate | 15 working days via both channels | July 28, 2026 |
| Processing time for a university diploma | 20 working days | July 28, 2026 |
| State fee | 0.5 MRP per document | July 28, 2026 |
| State fee in tenge | 2,162.50 KZT at the 2026 MRP of 4,325 KZT | July 28, 2026 |
Sources: the service card on egov.kz, the service rules and the law on the republican budget for 2026-2028. The MRP is set by the budget law every year, so from January 1, 2027 the tenge amount must be recalculated.
The service is provided through a TsON public service center, that is, the Government for Citizens state corporation, or via the egov.kz portal. The processing time is the same through both channels: applying online does not by itself speed anything up. When applying at a TsON, the day of submission does not count toward the deadline. At submission you need the application form, an identity document, the original document and the payment receipt.
What to check before applying
- Name spelling. The data in the visa application must match your documents, including transliteration, otherwise the application is not accepted. A mismatch between the passport and the certificate is better found before the apostille.
- How many documents go into the package. The fee is charged per document. The certificate and its transcript supplement are two documents and two fees.
- A surname change. If the surname was changed, a document confirming the change is added to the NAWA package.
- The calendar. 15 working days is roughly three weeks, plus the time for payment and submission. Plan the apostille right after receiving the certificate, not against the university deadline.
Sworn translation: when it is actually needed
A sworn translation (tłumaczenie przysięgłe) is done by a sworn translator (tłumacz przysięgły), whose status and fees are regulated by Polish law. Polish procedures do not accept an ordinary translation. But the requirement is not universal, and this is where a family most often pays for nothing.
A sworn translation is not needed for the NAWA application if the certificate is in Russian. NAWA does not require translations for documents in English, Russian, Ukrainian or Belarusian. A Kazakhstani school certificate is printed on a bilingual form: under order No. 39 of the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated January 28, 2015, the text in the state language runs on the left, with identical content in Russian on the right.
The exemption is tied to the language of the document, not to the country. If the certificate, the transcript supplement or a school statement is issued only in Kazakh, a translation will be needed, and this must be checked document by document.
For the university and the visa package there is no general rule: no verified primary source establishes one, and each university sets its own admission rules. That is why EEC says neither “always needed” nor “not needed”: the requirement is confirmed against the specific procedure before ordering a translation. This is the whole point of the sworn translation of a school certificate service.
Why the rate from the Polish regulation is not a student’s price
The official rates in Poland are set by the regulation on translator remuneration: 44,07 PLN per page from Russian into Polish and 57,65 PLN from Polish into Russian, where a page is 1 125 characters (Dz.U. 2025 poz. 312).
But these rates apply only to orders from courts, prosecutors, the police and state administration. A private client pays the market price, and it is higher. Do not build the regulation rate into the family budget: this is the most common mistake in the math.
Official costs on this route
| Cost | Official amount | Verified |
|---|---|---|
| NAWA written information about the certificate | 0, issued free of charge | July 28, 2026 |
| Apostille in Kazakhstan | 0.5 MRP per document, 2,162.50 KZT at the 2026 MRP | July 28, 2026 |
| Sworn translation | Not required by NAWA for Russian, checked per procedure for the rest | July 28, 2026 |
EEC services are not part of this table: official fees and the cost of support are different things. Document review runs through the nostrification service, and the destination as a whole is described on the Poland page. How the recognition procedure itself works: nostrification of a school certificate and whether you personally need nostrification. What goes into the visa package: student visa for Poland.