It should be noted that the relevant decree of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine of February 27, 2020 No. 702/5 "On Amendments to the Apostille Arrangement on Official Documents Issued by the Bodies of Justice and Courts, as well as Documents Issued by the Notaries of Ukraine" came into force on March 7, 2020.

“Paying attention to that a large number of documents submitted for apostille affirmation are notarized documents, the involvement of notaries in participating in the apostille affair will greatly simplify the said service and make it more convenient for citizens. Therefore, these changes were introduced in order to create conditions for efficient servicing of citizens on the principle of "one cycle and in one place" and to save their time ", - said Deputy Minister of Justice for State Registration Olga Onishchuk.

As they specified in the Office, these changes give notaries the power to accept and issue documents for affixing the apostille on official documents drawn up by notaries of Ukraine, as well as on documents issued by the justice authorities and courts.

Apostille is a special stamp on official documents drawn up in the territory of Ukraine, which respectively certify the authenticity of the signature, the quality in which the person who signed the document acted, and, where appropriate, the authenticity of the stamp or stamp affixed to the document.

Apostille affirmation greatly simplifies the process of legalizing documents for foreign countries.

The apostille may be affixed on official documents drawn up in the territory of Ukraine, which must be presented in the territory of another state, namely:

- on documents issued by the judicial authorities of Ukraine;

- on documents obtained from the bodies of the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine, the bodies of justice;

- on administrative documents;

- on documents on education and academic titles;

- on documents drawn up by public and private notaries;

- on official certificates executed on documents signed by persons in their private capacity, such as official certificates of registration of a document or fact which existed on a certain date, and official and notarial certificates of signatures.

However, please note that the new rules do not apply:

- documents issued by foreign diplomatic institutions of Ukraine;

- administrative documents directly related to commercial or customs operations.

At the same time, it should be understood that only the States that are parties to the Hague Convention, signed in 1961, accept the apostille. Instead, consular legalization is in place for all other countries that have not signed the Hague Convention. The legalization process itself is somewhat more complicated than the apostille affixing, and can consist of several steps.

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