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Recognition of a school certificate for Poland costs nothing. Since 1 July 2025 it is issued by a single body, the director of NAWA (Narodowa Agencja Wymiany Akademickiej), free of charge, and the application is submitted only online, through the SYRENA system. The main difficulty is not the money or the form but the timing: NAWA does not publish a processing time, so this step is started first.
What certificate nostrification means in plain terms
It is the recognition of a school certificate: confirmation that a Kazakhstani document gives the right to apply for the first year of a Bachelor’s program or a long-cycle Master’s program in Poland.
Officially the document is called not “nostrification” but “written information from the director of NAWA about the certificate”. The difference is not a formality: in Polish law, nostrification (nostryfikacja) applies to university diplomas, it is carried out by a university and it is paid. Asking to nostrify a school certificate will send you to the wrong window.
What this document does not do: NAWA confirms only the general right to apply. It does not convert grades and does not decide whether the certificate is sufficient for a specific program. Admission remains the university’s decision.
What changed on 1 July 2025
From that date NAWA became the only body that issues information about foreign school certificates for admission to a Polish university. Before that, this was handled by the education superintendent (kurator oświaty), who no longer considers such applications. For a graduate of a Kazakhstani school this means one thing: there is one route, with no choice between two bodies.
The change was introduced by the law of 4 April 2025 (Dz.U. 2025, poz. 622), published on 12 May 2025; the key provisions apply from 1 July 2025. The second consequence of the same law concerns the visa: an applicant admitted to the first year on the basis of a school certificate receives a type D student visa only after presenting the written information from NAWA, and failure to present it results in refusal. That is how the Polish embassy puts it, and it also warns that consuls do not take part in certificate recognition and do not forward documents to NAWA on the applicant’s behalf.
The rule has an exception. If a superintendent’s decision on recognition was already issued, before 30 June 2025, it remains valid and universities accept it. The same applies to cases opened with the superintendent before that date: they are completed under the old rules.
It is worth knowing about the sources in advance so you do not lose an evening. The consulate’s page still contains an old paragraph about the kuratorium decision, and one of the visa document lists does not mention the written information from NAWA at all. The current procedure is described by NAWA and Poland’s Ministry of National Education. The consulate’s page remains the source on the visa consequence, but not on the procedure itself.
Why this applies specifically to Kazakhstani documents
A Kazakhstani certificate issued in 2026 is not recognized in Poland automatically. The bilateral basis covers only documents obtained in Kazakhstan before 29 September 2005: the agreement between the Polish People’s Republic and the USSR of 10 May 1974. Everything issued later goes through the written information from NAWA. You can check your case in the NAWA database.
The requirement applies only to the school certificate and only to the first year of a Bachelor’s or long-cycle Master’s program. For second-cycle Master’s programs, postgraduate programs and doctoral schools the NAWA information is not needed, and a Bachelor’s diploma does not have to be nostrified. What you personally need: certificate or diploma, NAWA or kuratorium.
How long certificate recognition takes
NAWA does not publish a processing time and writes that it issues this information as quickly as possible given the very large number of applications. So a specific figure on a third-party website is either outdated news or someone else’s single case.
What is known for certain: the clock starts not from the first submission but from the moment a complete set is sent through SYRENA. If there are formal deficiencies, the period is counted anew, from the day they are corrected. The applicant checks the status in SYRENA, and the system sends an automatic message when the document is ready.
Four things stretch the timeline:
- An incomplete set. The document on the previous level of education is forgotten most often.
- A technical return: NAWA accepts PDF or JPG files no larger than 3 MB each.
- Submission by a third party without a notarized power of attorney: such applications are rejected.
- A mistake in the email address: NAWA warns that the address is case sensitive.
One way to save time is not obvious: an apostille is not needed for the NAWA application, so getting the apostille in Kazakhstan and applying to NAWA run in parallel. The apostille will be needed later, for the visa package.
How much it costs: what makes up the total
The main expense here is zero. The written information from the director of NAWA about a certificate is issued free of charge, whether the application is submitted by the owner or by the university. What you pay for is everything around it.
| Expense | Cost | Verified |
|---|---|---|
| Written information from NAWA about the certificate | 0, free | July 2026 |
| Apostille on the certificate in Kazakhstan | 0.5 MRP per document: 2,162.50 KZT at the 2026 MRP of 4,325 KZT | July 2026 |
| Sworn translation of the certificate into Polish | Not required by NAWA if the document is in Russian; the university’s requirement is checked separately | July 2026 |
The apostille is issued through a TsON public service center or on the egov.kz portal. The period is 15 working days in both channels; when applying through a TsON, the day of submission does not count toward the period. A university diploma is apostilled in 20 working days. The MRP changes every January, so recalculate the amount in tenge for the current year. The procedure: apostille on the certificate and sworn translation.
A sworn translation is not needed for NAWA if the certificate is in Russian: a Kazakhstani certificate is printed on a bilingual form with identical Russian text, and NAWA does not require translations of documents in English, Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. The translation requirement is set by the specific university and is clarified before ordering. The exemption works by the language of the document, so an annex or a certificate issued only in Kazakh will have to be translated.
Nostrification of a university diploma (nostryfikacja) is a different procedure: it is carried out by a Polish university, and the fee cannot exceed 50 percent of the minimum base salary of a professor, that is 4 825 PLN from 17 April 2026. This does not apply to a school certificate: its recognition is free. The cost of EEC’s support is not part of either item and is quoted after the documents are checked: nostrification with EEC support.
Which documents to collect
The application is submitted only online, through SYRENA. The result arrives as a PDF in Polish with a qualified digital signature. NAWA asks you to attach:
- the certificate the information is needed about;
- the transcript, annex or supplement to the certificate, if one was issued;
- a document on the previous level of education, that is, the certificate for an earlier grade;
- sworn translations of all documents, except documents in English, Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian;
- a passport;
- a document on the change of surname, if the surname was changed;
- an application from parents or legal representatives if the applicant is a minor.
Two clarifications remove half the questions. Notarized copies are not needed: NAWA asks for good-quality color scans of the originals. An apostille is not needed at this step either.
Who can submit the application
The application is submitted by the certificate owner or by the institution the document will be presented to. If a third party submits it, a notarized power of attorney and a copy of the confirmation of payment of the stamp duty are sent to NAWA by regular mail. NAWA rejects applications from intermediaries without such a power of attorney. This is worth asking any agency directly: who exactly clicks the button in SYRENA and on what basis.
What happens if you do not start on time
The written information from NAWA is needed twice: the university requires it during admissions, the consul in the visa package, and it is the same piece of paper. So lost time costs not one step but two: without the document the university does not accept the certificate, and without a university place there is no visa.
Admission deadlines are set by each university, so there is no single date: check the admission rules of your university. What you can plan yourself: collect a complete set on the first try, start the apostille in parallel with the NAWA application and do not leave the visa appointment to the last weeks. The month-by-month calendar: admission to Poland from Kazakhstan month by month.