Apply an apostille

An apostille for documents from Russia is required for all countries that signed the Hague Convention of 1961. Today, 120+ countries participating in the Hague Convention accept apostille as legalization of foreign documents. These are mainly European countries, the USA, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Japan, Morocco. The rest accept consular legalization and an apostille is not required for these countries. The list of countries of the Hague Convention of 1961 is here. If the documents were issued in another country, but you want to use them in Russia, then the issue of apostille depends on the country. The country must sign the Hague Convention of 1961 for documents from this country to be accepted in the Russian Federation with an apostille. If the country is a member of the Minsk Convention, then no legalization is required. You can find a list of countries of the Minsk Convention here. For other countries, consular legalization is required for Russia.

To find out where to get an apostille for documents, you need to find out which documents need this stamp. If you need an apostille for notary documents, the Ministry of Justice deals with this issue. The same applies to apostilles on translations of documents and on copies of documents, because an apostille for notarial documents can only be obtained from the Ministry of Justice.

If you have a birth certificate or a marriage certificate, then an apostille for documents can be put on the registry office in a special department of the registry office. An apostille for educational documents is put on by the Ministry of Education. An apostille for a certificate of no criminal record is put on by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Government agencies do not accept applications and documents online. To affix an apostille, you must come in person with an application and a paid fee to the agency where the apostille for documents is done.

If you do not have time to go to the authorities, send us a message. We know exactly where to apostille documents, which documents require an apostille and for which country. We will apostille and arrange delivery to any country.

According to the rules established by the Hague Convention of 1961, an apostille can be placed on any personal documents. Unlike personal documents, commercial documents are not subject to apostille. They are subject to another type of legalization through the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Personal documents can be apostilled in the original or in the form of an officially certified copy. If you need an apostille on a birth certificate, marriage certificate or civil status certificate, we will apostille the original document at the Civil Registry Office. If you need an apostille for a diploma or certificate, we will issue an apostille at the Department of Education. We also apostille notarized and other personal documents.

An apostille on the original diploma can be put at the Ministry of Education office or through the MFC. Putting an apostille on a diploma takes about 3 months. It is possible that the diploma or supplement is issued in violation of the regulations. In this case, you will need to get a duplicate of the diploma so that it can be legalized. If you need an apostille on the original diploma urgently, order the diploma apostille service from us.

We often hear that an apostille for documents is not needed now. In fact, if you want to use documents in the countries of the Minsk Convention, an apostille is really not needed. In other countries, your documents without legalization (an apostille is a simplified legalization) will simply not be accepted by official bodies. To correctly answer the question of why an apostille for documents is needed, you must first know for which country they are needed.

In Russia, an apostille is needed for those documents that are issued in the countries of the Hague Convention. In these countries, simplified legalization can be issued for documents so that they are accepted in another country of the Convention.

An apostille is also needed for documents that are issued in Russia, but will be used in another country of the Convention. In this case, the country is a member of the Hague Convention, i.e. accepts an apostille as legalization. Here you can find a list of countries of the Hague and Minsk Conventions.

The answer to the question of whether a power of attorney is needed to obtain an apostille depends on the document. If you want to obtain an apostille on notary documents, apostille on translations of documents, apostille on civil registry office documents, apostille on copies of documents or a certificate of no criminal record, a power of attorney is not needed.

But if you need to apostille Russian educational documents, for example, a diploma or certificate, a power of attorney from the owner of the diploma is needed. Even if your minor child needs an apostille on a certificate. Without a power of attorney, he or she can apostille his or her certificate himself, but only if you formalize consent to apostille with a notary.

Our lawyers will help you understand all the issues of apostille affixing to documents. You can write to us or call us, we will be happy to help.