How to obtain a sealed transcript in Türkiye

A sealed transcript is not a fancier transcript. It is a transcript whose route can be traced: it left the university closed and reaches the receiving body without having been opened. The seal is the evidence, and the moment you open the envelope to look at it, the evidence is gone.

Why bodies ask for it

A transcript is the easiest academic document to alter and the hardest for a foreign body to verify. Requiring it to arrive sealed, or to be posted by the university itself, gives the reader a chain of custody instead of a promise. Evaluating services and admissions offices use one or both of these mechanisms, and some also verify directly with the institution.

The two arrangements, which are not the same

• Direct dispatch. The university posts the transcript to the receiving body itself, at the address you supply. You never handle it. This is the stricter version and the one some bodies insist on.
• Sealed envelope handed to the applicant. The university encloses the transcript, seals the flap and stamps or signs across the seal. You forward the envelope unopened.

Ask the receiving body which it requires before you ask the university for anything, and keep the answer in writing. Ordering the wrong one means ordering again on the university's timetable rather than on yours.

What to ask the university for

Turkish student affairs offices issue transcripts routinely, but sealed dispatch to a foreign body is not routine, and a vague request produces an ordinary printout. Ask, in a written request, for:

1. An official transcript in English, if the university issues one, covering every semester of the programme and the graduation result.
2. The grading scale and its explanation, which is usually printed on the reverse and is exactly what the evaluating body reads.
3. The document to be placed in an envelope, sealed, and stamped or signed across the flap by the issuing office.
4. Where required, dispatch by the university directly to the address of the receiving body, with the sender shown as the university.
5. A second, open copy for your own use.

The second copy is not optional

This is the practical trap. If the only copy you hold is sealed, you cannot have it translated, cannot check it for errors and cannot see what you have sent. Always order at least two: one sealed for dispatch, one open for translation and for your file. Ordering the second copy later means a second wait, and universities are seasonal.

Check the open copy before the sealed one travels

Read the open copy against your own record: dates of enrolment and graduation, programme name, credit totals, and above all the spelling of your name against your passport. An error inside a sealed envelope is discovered by the receiving body, not by you, and correcting it means starting the whole request again. The name spelling page explains why the passport governs.

Seals, stamps and the translation

Whoever eventually translates the transcript translates all of it: the institution's seal, the signature block, the registrar's stamp, the grading legend and any note about the medium of instruction. Institution names stay in their original form with an explanation added, and grades are transferred rather than converted. The seals page and the grades page cover both rules.

Electronic transcripts and the apostille

Many Turkish universities now issue transcripts with a verification code or an electronic signature. Receiving bodies vary in whether they accept them, and the apostille authorities generally work from a wet-signed, sealed document rather than a printout — which is why an apostilled transcript usually has to be requested as a signed original from the start. See the electronic documents page and the apostille page. Whether an apostille is needed at all depends on who is reading the file, so ask first.

What we do

Under a power of attorney we attend the university's student affairs office, make the request in the terms the receiving body has set, obtain both the sealed set and the open copy, arrange the apostille where it is required, and courier the documents with a full colour scan including reverse sides. Where a body requires dispatch by the university itself, we make that arrangement with the office rather than posting it ourselves — the point of the rule is that it should not pass through anyone's hands, including ours. The direct dispatch page covers the federal credential assessment version of the same requirement.