The Government of Cyprus has published instructions on the apostille of documents certified with an electronic signature.
How to apostille documents with an electronic signature in Cyprus
The Ministry of Justice and Public Order of Cyprus has published on the official government portal of the Republic the requirements for apostilling documents with an electronic signature.
To apostille such documents, citizens must appear in person at the Apostille Certification Department of the Ministry of Justice and Public Order (in Nicosia and Limassol) or at Citizen Service Centres and Civil Centres.
At the same time, the citizen must be able to immediately forward the relevant document to the email address of the competent officer of the service in order to verify the electronic signature.
The instructions do not explain in what form the apostille itself will be issued. The Republic of Cyprus is not yet listed on the website of the Hague Conference on Private International Law among the states providing the e-Apostille service.
What an apostille in Cyprus is
The Ministry of Justice and Public Order is the central competent authority for the apostille of documents in Cyprus.
The purpose of the Convention is to abolish the requirement of diplomatic or consular legalisation of foreign public documents and to limit it solely to the certification of the authenticity of the signature on an official document by a special “Apostille” stamp. This applies only to public documents or private documents subject to public control.
The procedure involves certifying the authenticity of the signature on the document, the capacity of the person who signed the document, and the authenticity of the seal with which the document is affixed.
After the signature of an authorised officer is affixed, the apostille is sealed with the official seal of the Ministry. The apostille fee must be paid using special revenue stamps, which can be purchased at local post offices (the Ministry does not provide them).
Original public documents (in particular, civil status registry certificates), as well as court documents, are apostilled directly by the central authority without intermediate certification. Apostilles are affixed to copies of public documents only if the copy is a certified true copy of the original and has been issued by the authority of the Republic that issued the original.
Private law documents, such as wills, agreements, and powers of attorney, should be submitted for apostille to the Ministry of Justice and Public Order. However, these documents must first be presented to a certifying officer appointed by the Ministry of the Interior for certification of the signature on the document, and then to an officer of the district administration at the place where the document is certified for confirmation of their signature and seal.
Translations of official documents are not certified with an “Apostille” stamp. Originals issued by competent state authorities must be submitted for the affixing of the “Apostille” stamp and then translated by a sworn translator registered in the register of sworn translators.
In this case, affixing an “Apostille” stamp to the translation is not required, since the apostille on the original document will already be translated into the required language. Apostille certification of official documents has also been carried out since 2023 by Citizen Service Centres and Civil Centres. However, these centres do not apostille private law documents.
Units of the Apostille Certification Department in Nicosia and Limassol operate from Monday to Friday from 8:00 to 14:30. However, registration closes at 14:00 and 13:30 respectively in order to allow sufficient time to process the submitted documents.
Why an apostille is required
Traditionally the use of documents from one state in the territory of other countries was associated with serious difficulties. Authorities could, at their discretion, accept foreign documents or refuse their use.
Uniform “rules of the game” emerged with the introduction of consular legalisation. This is a special procedure involving certification of a document first by the competent authorities of the state that issued it (usually the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Ministry of Justice), and then by the consulate or consular section of the embassy of the country in which it is intended to be used.
Consular legalisation has a number of serious drawbacks:
- It is associated with bureaucratic red tape;
- It takes a considerable amount of time;
- Fees have to be paid several times.
However, the most serious problem is that such a document can be used only in one state - the one whose consulate legalised it. In order to move to a third country with this document, it is necessary to return to the state that issued it and go through the entire procedure again.
In order to overcome these difficulties, the Apostille Convention was signed in 1961 within the framework of the Hague Conference on Private International Law.
An apostille is an internationally standardised form for certifying the authenticity of a document for use in the territory of states and countries recognising this form of legalisation. It usually takes the form of a special stamp or certificate. However, in recent years the electronic apostille (e-Apostille) has also become widespread - a special digital mark confirming the authenticity of documents issued in electronic form.
For the authorities of any state participating in the Convention, it is sufficient to affix an apostille to a document issued by them for it to be accepted without additional legalisation by all other countries that have ratified this international instrument.
At the same time, a number of states, unilaterally or multilaterally, waive the requirement for document certification. This may apply both to apostilles and to consular legalisation. For example, such procedural simplifications operate within the EU and the CIS.
In addition, states often conclude mutual legal assistance treaties, which also usually provide for the recognition of documents without apostilles and consular legalisation. However, this is generally possible only where there are stable political and legal ties and a high level of mutual trust between the authorities of the relevant countries. For Cyprus, a simplified scheme applies with the member states of the European Union.
What is an apostille?
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