Which documents are apostilled and which are not?
Legalization of documents in Russia is a very important procedure, since without it, not a single document issued abroad has legal force. One of the ways is the apostille procedure. The documents of the member states of the 1961 Hague Convention of the year are stamped, legalizing these papers on the territory of Russia.
After affixing it, you should contact the translation agency to draw up the document in Russian.
Lists of documents on which it is permitted and prohibited to affix apostille
The list of papers permitted for apostille includes the following:
Extracts from the Unified Register of Legal Entities.
Papers that have been previously certified or issued by a notary.
Documents that are issued in court. In particular, court decisions, sentences, as well as translations made by a forensic specialist.
Official papers issued by the authorities.
Other government documents.
Among those papers that are not subject to apostille, the following can be distinguished:
Commercial contracts.
Consular, customs and diplomatic papers.
Duplicates and originals of documents that contain photos. This list includes a driver’s license, passport, trade union cards, work record book, military ID and other documents.
The place of stamping in Russia depends on the authority that issued the document abroad. In particular, if you need to legalize a birth, marriage, divorce or other document issued by the registry office, after affixing the apostille and translation of the document, you need to contact the local registry office and affix the Russian seal there in order for the paper to be valid. If you need to confirm domestic documents for international organizations, you should also contact the authority that issued you the papers in Russia to go through the apostille procedure.