What is an apostille?

Apostille is a standardized certificate, issued as an annex or supplement to a document, which confirms the competence of the person who signed it. Apostille issued in Estonia is a document drawn using special blank, which is attached to the apostilled document.

Documents certified this way do not need any additional legalization, and they must be recognized at any state level in the countries-participants of the Hague Convention, abolishing the requirement of legalization of foreign official documents. A list of states that have acceded to the Convention can be found here.

The official document must be apostilled if it is to be used in a state that has acceded to the Hague Convention on the abolition of requirements for the legalization of foreign official documents. The document must be apostilled in the state in which it is issued. If an official document is once apostilled, it can be used in all states that have acceded to the Convention.

Only an official document, or a notarized or officially certified copy, as well as a printout or extract can be apostilled. An official document is an administrative document (certification, certificate, diploma), a document issued by a court or an official institution related to it (a copy of a court decision, an extract from the register, a document of a bailiff), a notarial document or a document issued by a sworn translator.

WHICH OFFICIAL DOCUMENT DOES NOT NEED TO BE APOSTILLED?

Documents not subject to apostille:

• Any official document that is intended for use in the state with which the Republic of Estonia has concluded a legal assistance agreement. Such states are the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
• Any official document which is issued by the competent authority of the country which has acceded to the Convention on the abolition of the requirements for the legalization of documents between EU member states of 25.05.1987. Therefore, the public document of Estonia does not need to be additionally apostilled for presentation in Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Ireland, Latvia and France. Documents issued in these countries are acknowledged in Estonia without apostille.
• Multilingual extracts from acts of civil status issued by registry offices or other competent institutions of the countries which have acceded to the Vienna Convention of the International Commission on Civil Status of 08.09.1976. In addition to Estonia, countries such as Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey, France, Croatia, Montenegro, Switzerland have acceded to the Convention.
• Documents issued by diplomatic or consular authorities

ASSISTANCE IN OBTAINING THE APOSTILLE

Our office offers its clients assistance in obtaining the apostille for any necessary official document. Service cost – EUR 50 for one document. The price includes possible notary fees.

You can receive additional information on issuance of the apostilles in the territory of the Republic of Estonia by calling (+372) 6775544 or by sending an e-mail tonotar@kalashnikov.ee