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The Ukraine has joined the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents in the year 2003. Therefore no diplomatic authentication or legalization of documents from Ukraine is required for the legal communication with another member state of the convention. The documents only need to be stamped with an "apostille" by the issuing state's authorities in order to be valid in the state of destination.
Responsible for issuing the apostille are the following institutions:
- Ministry of Justice for judicial documents
- Ministry of Education for official documents issued by educational institutions
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs for all other documents
An apostille is a stamp of rectangular shape. The heading "Apostille (Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961)" must be in French.
The following documents can be authenticated by apostille:
- Certificates of civil status (certificates of birth, death, marriage and divorce)
- Education documents (school reports, certificates, diplomas)
- Trade register excerpts
- Judicial decisions
- Notarially certified copies of documents
- Notarially certified translations
- Further notarial documents (authorizations, last will, declarations)
- Commercial documents legalized by a state organ of registration (articles of incorporation, registration certificates, tax registrations etc.)
Since August 13, 2014, the following documents can be apostilled as well:
- Identity card
- Workbooks
- Draft card
- Vehicle registration document
Only original documents or notarially certified copies issued by public authorities can be apostilled.
Requirements for the documents:
- An apostille can be issued exclusively on an original document. Hereby, the latter must be in an apparent good condition, all stamps and signatures have to be clear and readable. Furthermore, it must not contain alien marking and labels.
- Birth certificates must not be laminated. If yours is laminated, the apostille can only be issued on a notarially certified copy. In this case, the apostille does not legalize the document itself but the copy. Germany, Austrian and Scandinavian countries only accept original documents. Therefore, inform yourself in advance, if only the original or also the legalized copy is accepted.
- Birth certificates, issued before 2003, can not be legalized by apostille. You have to apply for a new one at the registry responsible. The new document is normally issued within a week. Only then, the apostille can be issued.
We will help you with obtaining a new birth certificate. We can obtain documents from every city. - Important! Currently, Ukraine does not issue apostilles for documents that have been issued after August 11, 2014 on Crimea.
Additional services
In addition to the legalization of your documents, we can provide you with high quality translations.
If you want to bring company information before the court, it needs to be legalised as well. We are therefore offering extracts from the commercial register of Ukraine including apostille and translation.
Ukraine Apostille Service - Original Documents Express Service
Express Service 14 Business Days