Apostille

There are two ways to give the document legal force on the territory of another country:

- affixing Apostille stamp

- legalization (Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Consulate)

An Apostille is a standardized certificate or stamp affixed to documents or issued as an attachment to them. It certifies the authenticity of the seal or stamp this document is affixed with. Documents certified in this way do not require any additional legalization and they shall be recognized at any state level in the Hague Convention countries. Currently, this Convention has been signed by more than 80 countries, including the United States, almost all EU countries, as well as Japan, Australia, Republic of South Africa and Russia.

Apostille shall be affixed to:

- documents issued by the judicial authorities of Ukraine;

- documents issued by the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine, justice bodies;

- administrative documents;

- documents on education and academic rank;

- documents issued by public and private notaries;

- official certificates executed on documents signed by citizens in their private capacity, such as official certificates of registration of a document or fact that existed on a certain date, official and notarized signatures.

Apostille shall not be affixed to:

- originals, copies and photocopies of identification documents, military registration cards, union cards, work books, pension cards, permits to carry weapons, driver's licenses, vehicle registration certificates (technical passports), identity cards, legal acts, explanations and legal grounds for their use, characteristics, documents on belonging to states and religions; documents that have the nature of correspondence; - documents issued by foreign diplomatic missions;

- administrative documents relating to commercial or customs operations.

ATTENTION Apostille SHALL NOT BE AFFIXED for such countries as the United Arab Emirates, Libya, Canada, Qatar, Kuwait, and some other countries. For these countries the legalization procedure is applied.