Russia has adopted a law on consular legalization and request for documents

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the Federal Law of the Russian Federation “On the legalization of Russian and foreign official documents and on the requisition of personal documents.” A message about this was posted on on the official website of the head of state. Previously, the law was adopted by State Duma deputies and approved by the Federation Council of the Russian Federation.

According to current international practice, consular legalization is required for the use of documents on the territory of foreign countries with which there is no agreement canceling this procedure. The main international act that allows documents to be legalized in a simplified manner is the Hague Apostille Convention, to which Russia is also a party. However, approximately a third of the states and self-governing territories in the world do not participate in it. To use documents issued by them in the Russian Federation or Russian ones on their territory, it is necessary to resort to consular legalization. For the Russian Federation, the legalization regime currently applies to 74 countries.

One of the fundamental innovations of the law will be the abolition of the ban on the export of certain personal documents of citizens (for example, work records) from the country, which has been in force since Soviet times. According to the explanatory note to the new regulatory act, citizens traveling abroad often do not have the opportunity to organize the storage of documents in the Russian Federation, or they may need them abroad.

According to the provisions of the new law, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be responsible for the legalization of Russian official documents for use abroad, and foreign ones on the territory of the Russian Federation. Legalization is understood as a procedure that involves verifying the authenticity of the signature, the authority of the person who signed the Russian official document, as well as the authenticity of the seal or stamp that affixes the document submitted for legalization. A more detailed procedure for carrying out the procedure will be established by separate regulations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs adopted on the basis of law.

The law does not provide for the possibility of carrying out consular legalization electronically. It also cannot be applied to the identity cards of foreigners and stateless persons.

Consular officials will be responsible for the legalization of foreign documents, and the central office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and territorial bodies of the ministry will be responsible for the legalization of Russian documents for use abroad.

In addition, the new law spells out a mechanism for requesting personal documents from the Russian Federation and from the territory of a foreign state. It will occur at the request of Russian citizens, foreigners or stateless persons. We are talking, among other things, about documents on state registration of acts of civil status, education, work experience, work activity, and so on. The new rules are due to come into force on January 1, 2025.

Let us recall that consular legalization is a complex multi-stage procedure aimed at confirming that an outgoing document sent abroad complies with the laws of the country whose government authorities issued or compiled this document. As a rule, it involves confirmation of the authenticity of the document, first by the foreign affairs and justice authorities of the country in which it was issued, and then by the consular office of the state in which it will be used. The consular legalization procedure can only be carried out for one specific jurisdiction. To use a document in a new state, it must be done again.