In many areas of everyday life, there is a need to have documents or copies, as well as copies or printouts of documents, certified. The prerequisite for the official certification of documents and copies is that the original was issued by a German authority or that the document or copy to be certified is required for submission to an authority, e.g. certificates, licensing certificates and notifications.

Documents and copies may not be officially certifiedif

• neither the original has been created by an authority nor the certification is intended for submission to an authority (e.g. so-called "Reichsbürgererklärungen und -urkunden Finanzierungsunterlagen, Erbschaftsangelegenheiten),
• the exclusive competence of another authority is given (e.g. civil status documents only the registry office, certified extracts from the land register - only from the land registry office),
• the assumption is justified that the original content of the document whose copy, duplicate or printout is to be certified has been changed, in particular if this document contains gaps, crossings out, insertions, changes, illegible words, numbers or symbols, traces of the removal of words, numbers and symbols or if the context of a document consisting of several sheets has been removed,
• a public certification is required instead of an official certification, which is issued by a notary or a court and cannot be replaced by an official notarization,

If the document is not drawn up in German, a certified translation may be requested in order to verify the existence of a prohibition on certification. The provisions on the confirmation of foreign documents by legalization or apostille remain unaffected.