Certification of public documents

The Convention, abolishing the requirement of consular legalization for foreign public documents came into force for Ukraine on December 22, 2003.

The present Convention shall apply to public documents which have been executed in the territory of one contracting State and which have to be produced in the territory of another contracting State. Special certification called “Apostille” (hereinafter - apostille) is affixed to these documents.

Documents completed with an apostille certification must be submitted directly to a member nation to the Convention without any further action or certification (consular legalization).

The present Convention shall not apply to:

a) documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents;

b) administrative documents dealing directly with commercial or customs operations.

According to the Instruction of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of 18/01/2003 # 61 “On Authorization for Apostille certification for public documents” an apostille for the documents issued in Ukraine is placed by:

• the Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sport of Ukraine – for public documents issued by the educational institutions, state bodies, enterprises, offices and organizations in the field of education and science.
• the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine – for documents issued by the judicial bodies and courts and also for the documents issued by the public notaries in Ukraine.
• the State Register Service of Ukraine – for documents issued by this Service and its structural devisions of regional bodies of the Ministry of Justice which provides the realization of State Register Service powers.
• the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine – for all other types of documents.

Аpostille is placed to:

• documents issued by a state court of Ukraine;
• for the documents issued by the prosecutors’ offices, judicial bodies of Ukraine;
• administrative documents;
• for the documents on education and academic status;
• documents executed before a notary public;

official certificates which are placed on documents signed by persons in their private capacity, such as official certificates recording the registration of a document or the fact that it was in existence on a certain date and official and notarial authentications of signatures.

Terms for submission to place apostille on the documents is up to 5 working days. In case the documents are submitted by its owner, apostille is placed in the same day.