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» 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:

1. documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents;
2. administrative documents dealing directly with commercial or customs operations.

According to the Instruction of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine «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. In case submission of documents is made by a different person from the owner, they will be released on the second working day.

Terms for submission to place apostille can be prolonged up to 20 days in case of necessity to get additional information to determine whether to place apostille. The exact terms will be told by the officer to the applicant during reception time, needed for accepting the documents.

Acceptance and processing of the documents to place apostille is prepared every working day by Apostille and obtaining of Documents Division of the Directorate General for Consular Service from 9 till 12:00; release of documents 16:00 - 17:00 (on Fridays 16:00 - 16:30).  

The updated information on the list of Member-states to the Convention is placed at the website of the Hague Conference on International Private Law.

Consular fees for apostille certification shall be paid directly in the bank office located in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, upon documents subjects to legalization have been handed in:

• 51UAH for documents of private persons;
• 85 UAH for documents of legal entities.

Please apply for the information on apostille certification to:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine:
Postal address: 2, Velyka Zhytomyrska str., Kyiv, 01018 (2-d entrance hall of the Diplomatic Academy)
Phone/fax:+38(044) 238-16-69
E-mail: [email protected],
Web: www.mfa.gov.ua