Apostille of documents

Those travelling abroad often face a problem that organizations and institutions of any inviting party require authentication of the papers submitted to them for execution, i.e. documents of inheritance, marriage, real estate purchase/sale, etc. To facilitate the solution to such problems, an international procedure of documents apostilling has been established. Apostille is a special stamp for legalization of documents in foreign countries confirming their authenticity and validity.

Apostille is affixed to the original documents and their copies. The stamp title must be in French and the main text must be in the language of the country of the original document or in the French/English language.

Each Apostille has its own unique serial number, and it shall be deemed invalid without providing the original documents. The stamp contains the required information as follows:

• the name of the country, institution and the name of the representative, who signed and affixed the stamp;
  
• the registration number;
  
• the date of drawing up;
  
• the seal, stamp of the institution.
  
  

In case of incomplete filling in the mandatory details of the stamp, the document shall be deemed invalid.

The "Apostille" stamp ("simplified legalization") shall be valid in all the Member States of the Hague Convention of 1961. It is called "simplified", because it is not a long procedure and is carried out in one step in contrast to the lengthy procedure of consular legalization. If a special agreement is signed between the two countries and a simplified method of documents submitting is adopted, apostilization may not be required.

Legalization of documents

Anyone travelling abroad for permanent or temporary residence there shall confirm, as the case may be, the authenticity of its documents or official papers. Consular legalization is applied in the countries that have not taken part in the Hague Convention of 1961, i.e. Latin America, the Arab countries, Africa, China, to confirm the authenticity of the documents.

Consular legalization takes place in several stages. First, you need to stamp the original document in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. Then, translate the document with simultaneous notary's certification of the copy and translation of the document. Again, obtain stamps in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, but this time the stamps shall be affixed to the translation of the document. And finally, certify everything in the Consulate of the destination country. The documents shall be valid only in the territory of the country, which consular stamp is affixed.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine carries out legalization of the papers issued in Ukraine. Documents for legalization obtained outside Ukraine must be submitted to the Consulate of Ukraine in the country that issued them.

There is such a procedure as double legalization. For example, to marry in China, it is necessary to confirm the authenticity of the Birth Certificate in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Then its translation shall be notarized and sent back again to the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. And only then the document shall be sent to the Consulate of Chine in Ukraine. For the Consulate of Brazil in Ukraine, only the original document, to which a copy and notarized translation are attached, shall be certified with the legalization stamp.