Document Legalisation – Russia

Legalisation is a procedure used to obtain an official proof of the authenticity of the signatures and the stamps on your Irish or British documents. Legalisation and all costs and additional procedures associated with it are inevitable if you intend to submit your private or corporate documents to the authorities in the Russian Federation.

Consular legalisation procedure implies that your Irish or British documents are legalised with the respective Embassy of Russia in Dublin or London. You may however prior to that be required to obtain an additional legalisation from the authorities in Ireland or the United Kingdom.

First and foremost, Russian Federation is a member of the Hague Apostille Convention, meaning that your Irish or British documents destined for use in Russia, must be apostilled.

An Apostille is an official authenticating stamp affixed to your Irish or British documents by the respective competent authority, meaning the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Ireland and Foreign & Commonwealth Office in the UK.

Although this in theory should suffice to prove authenticity of your document to Russian authorities, an additional layer of paperwork (translation and / or consular legalisation) may be required.

Once your Irish or British document has gone through the Apostille legalisation, it will need to be translated into Russian together with the Apostille and then certified. Only after this can it be submitted to the consular section of the Embassy of Russia for consular legalisation.

Consular legalisation procedures, timeframes and fees are fixed by the respective Embassy of Russia and the exact requirements may differ and are subject to change. If in doubt, please do not hesitate to contact us and will provide you with the most up-to-date information.

As part of the consular legalisation service, we will ensure that your original Irish or British document has been professionally and accurately translated into Russian and certified by a competent Irish or British solicitor or notary public.

We offer translation services of any private and corporate documents and can also arrange for urgent translation and certification to accommodate your deadlines.

Some of the most common Irish and British documents that you would need to have apostilled, translated and certified before submitting them to Russian authorities are birth, marriage and divorce certificates, wills, probates, powers of attorney, tax declarations, bank statements, financial statements, balance sheets or any other commercial, trade or legal documents.