Ukraine is Party to The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents of 5 October 1961 (hereinafter – the Convention).
The Convention came into force for Ukraine on 22 December 2003.
The Convention applies 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” (hereinafter - 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 Convention does not apply to:
a) documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents;
b) administrative documents dealing directly with commercial or customs operations.
According to the Instruction of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of 18/01/2003 # 61 “On Authorization for Apostille certification for public documents” an apostille for the documents issued in Ukraine is affixed 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 divisions 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 affixed to the following types of documents:
· 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.
Apostille application is processed within 5 working days. In case the documents are submitted by the owner apostille is affixed on the same day. In case submission of documents is made by a non-owner the documents are released the next 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 affix 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 for an apostille are prepared every working day by Apostille and Obtaining of Documents Division of the Directorate General for Consular Service from 9 am till 12:00; release of documents 4.00 pm till 5.00 pm (on Fridays 4.00 pm till 4.30 pm).
The updated information on the list of Member-states to the Convention can be found here.
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.
Please apply for the information on apostille certification to:
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine: Postal address: 2, Velyka Zhytomyrska str., Kyiv, 01018 (2nd entrance hall of the Diplomatic Academy) Phone/fax: +38 044 238 16 69 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.mfa.gov.ua