Apostille from Ukraine

Schmidt & Schmidt offers the legalization of public documents from Ukraine by apostille.

Ukraine acceeded to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents in 2003. Therefore, no diplomatic authentication or consular legalization of public documents from Ukraine is required for successful legal communication with other member states of the Convention. The documents only need to be attested by an apostille certificate with an "apostille" stamp on it by the issuing state's authorities in order to be valid in the state of destination.

The apostille is a stamp of rectangular shape. It should be filled in in the official language of the issuing authority. The heading "Apostille (Convention de la Haye du 5 octobre 1961)" written in French is a necessary requirement for the apostille's validity.

Responsible for issuing the apostille are the following institutions:

• Ministry of Justice for judicial documents
• Ministry of Education for official documents issued by educational institutions
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs for all other documents

The following documents can be authenticated by apostille:

• Certificates of civil status (certificates of birth, death, marriage and divorce)
• Education documents (school reports, certificates, diplomas)
• Trade register excerpts
• Court decisions
• Notarially certified copies of documents
• Notarially certified translations
• Further notarial documents (authorizations, last will, declarations)
• Commercial documents legalized by a state registration body (articles of incorporation, registration certificates, tax registrations etc.)

Since August 13, 2014, the following documents can be apostilled as well:

• Identity cards
• Work record books
• Draft cards
• Vehicle registration documents

Requirements for the documents:

• The apostille can be exclusively issued for the original document. Therefore, the latter must be presented in good condition, with all stamps and signatures clear and readable. Furthermore, it should not contain alien markings or labels.
• Laminated birth certificates cannot be apostillized. In this case, the apostille can be issued for a notarially certified copy. In this case, the apostille does not legalize the document itself but the copy. Germany, Austria and Scandinavian countries only accept original documents. Please, inquire at the authority of destination if only the a legalized copy of the document will be accepted, or only the original.
• Birth certificates issued before 2003 cannot be legalized by apostille. A new document has to be procured at the registry which has issued the original document. Afterwards, the new document can be certified by the apostille. Obtaining a new cirth certificate takes one week on average. Schmidt & Schmidt will help you procure a new birth certificate from any city in Ukraine.
• Currently, Ukraine does not apostillize public documents that have been issued after August 11, 2014 in the Crimea.

Additional services

In addition to the legalization of your public documents, we can provide you with high-quality translations.

Should you require company information for use in court, it needs to be legalized as well. We are therefore offering extracts from the commercial register of Ukraine including apostillization and translation.

On average, processing the documents takes up to 14 days.

Courier services are charged and invoiced separately according to the courier service’s rates.

You can pay for our services by PayPal, bank transfer or credit card.