Legalization

1. Legalization of Bulgarian documents for use abroad:

• Municipal documents – birth certificate, marriage certificate, marital status certificate, certificate of permanent address, etc.

The legalization procedure of municipal documents includes their certification by apostille at the respective regional administration office, and then certification of the translation at the Consular department of the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

• Judicial and notary certified documents – criminal record certificate, certificates issued by Bulgarian courts, notarial deeds, etc.

The legalization procedure of judicial and notarial documents includes their certification by apostille at the Ministry of Justice and then certification of the translation at the Consular department of the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

• School and university documents – diploma, supplement to diploma, transcript, certificate of vocational qualification, etc.

The legalization procedure of school and university related documents includes their certification by apostille at the National Centre for Information and Documentation (NACID) and then certification of the translation at the Consular department of the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

2. Legalization of foreign documents for use in Bulgaria:

• The legalization procedure of documents issued abroad includes their certification by a Bulgarian notary public.

Important details related to the legalization of documents

A) Countries which do not require legalization by virtue of an Agreement on Legal Assistance, i.e. Apostille is not required for Bulgarian and foreign documents, and only the translator’s signature has to be certified, respectively at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – for Bulgarian documents, and at a notary’s office – for foreign documents.

Bulgaria has signed Agreements on Legal Assistance with the following countries:

• Austria
• Azerbaijan
• Algeria
• Albania
• Algeria
• Armenia
• Belarus
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Vietnam
• Georgia
• Greece
• Spain
• Italy
• Yemen
• Kazakhstan
• Cyprus
• China
• DPRK (Korea)
• Cuba
• Kuwait
• Libya
• Lebanon
• Macedonia
• Mongolia
• Poland
• Romania
• Russian Federation
• Syria
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Serbia
• Uzbekistan
• Ukraine
• Hungary
• France
• Croatia
• Montenegro
• Czech Republic

B) Countries which have not signed Agreements on Legal Assistance with Bulgaria and which are members of the Hague Convention: Documents coming from and intended for these countries have to be certified by Apostille..

Because the Bulgarian authorities responsible for the legalization of documents are located in Sofia we provide the complete service: translation of the document which will be legalized, legalization of the document at the respective institutions and finally the document is back to our office ready for you.

Prices of legalization fees are fixed and vary across types of documents and execution time.