Michael's experience written above indicates to me that the control freaks in national bureaucracies are either paranoid as hell, stupid as hell, or that they really hate people.

Maybe the three syndromes run together.

The age old problem with bureaucracy. New rules are added, but no one phases out the old. Resulting in more complex systems, employing more people to achieve less. Eventually, someone is brave enough to declare that the old system is no longer fit-for-purpose. Then the whole system is redesigned, consulting all of the stakeholders/gov offices can take years, and by the time they have all added their own specific bells and whistles, you end up with a new version of complex.

I can't see a TEFL cert needing authentication.

I say this as most TEFL certs are done outside of an English speaking country so to get the certification you would need to get an apostille from that particular country which would involve messing around in the authentication system of the country that the cert was obtained. IE Australia wouldn't issue authentication on a certificate from France.

In my experience of visas, for all the authenticating I don't think I have ever had to get the CELTA authenticated.

Then again things could be changing.

I can't see a TEFL cert needing authentication.

I say this as most TEFL certs are done outside of an English speaking country so to get the certification you would need to get an apostille from that particular country which would involve messing around in the authentication system of the country that the cert was obtained. IE Australia wouldn't issue authentication on a certificate from France.

In my experience of visas, for all the authenticating I don't think I have ever had to get the CELTA authenticated.

Then again things could be changing.