Legalization

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

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

- affixing Apostille stamp

Legalization means to legitimate documents and comply them with the legislation of a foreign country and it shall be recognized by the state authorities of that country. Documents legalization in Ukraine is carried out for Canada, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, etc. The legalization of documents issued by Ukrainian official authorities and intended for use abroad is carried out by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice, regional and city departments of Justice.

The legalization procedure is the following:

Option 1 - legalization of documents by the regional or city department of justice, then by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after that the document is translated into the required language and notarized (this applies to all documents that are issued by the Vital Statistics Department).

Option 2 - a notarized copy from the original document is legalized by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after that the document is translated into required language and notarized. Please note that in the first case, the documents are legalized in the original, in the second-in the form of a notarized copy.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs carries out legalization of such documents: - originals of official Ukrainian documents of updated form issued by the Vital Statistics Department, certified by the regional Department of Justice in the region where they were issued, by the city Department of Justice for Kyiv city (that is, documents which depict the Coat of Arms of Ukraine i.e. issued after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, are legalized); - certificates issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs; - originals of certificates issued by the Embassies of foreign countries on the territory of Ukraine to foreign citizens who marry on the territory of Ukraine (such certificate is submitted to the Vital Statistic Department for marriage registration). The Ministry of Justice legalizes notarized copies, translations and other documents certified or issued by public or private notaries (statements, notarized copies, residence certificates after notarization of the original copy).

After legalization by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, official documents must be certified at the diplomatic mission of the country where they will be used (for example, if the documents are issued for Canada after legalization by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice, they must be legalized by the Consulate of Canada).