Notarized translation of a divorce certificate

A divorce certificate is the one document in a family package that confirms not an event but its end: the marriage is dissolved, and no legal ties to the former spouse remain. That is exactly what foreign institutions ask to see before a new marriage, in immigration files, and when a surname changes. There is a catch, though, and it is the reason this page does not start with prices: not every divorced person actually has such a certificate — and that is not a mistake, but a feature of Ukrainian law.

At MovaPro translation agency we have been translating both civil-registry certificates and court divorce decisions since 2012. The notary works right in our office, so translation and notarization do not stretch across several visits. Pricing starts at UAH 570, quotes take 15 minutes, and orders of 5+ pages get a discount.

First, establish which document you actually hold

In Ukraine a divorce is formalized through two different routes, and the route determines what you will be translating:

• Divorce through the civil registry (RACS) — by mutual consent, when the couple has no minor children. The final document is a divorce certificate on a registry form. This is the simplest case: one standard document, one translation.
• Divorce through a court after 2011 — when there are children or a dispute between the spouses. Here no certificate exists or ever will: the final document is the court decision itself, bearing the note that it has entered into legal force. The registry does not separately register such divorces, so no one in Ukraine can demand a “certificate” from you — but a foreign institution may simply not know this peculiarity.
• Court divorces before 2011 were additionally registered with the civil registry, so in those cases both documents usually exist — the decision and the certificate.

The practical takeaway: before ordering a translation, ask the receiving institution what exactly it wants to see — the certificate, the court decision, or a registry extract. If all you have is the court decision, we translate it in full, with the legal-force note, stamps, and signatures: institutions routinely reject abridged translations of the operative part alone.

When you are asked abroad to prove the marriage is over

The four situations that bring clients to us most often:

1. Remarriage abroad. Foreign marriage registrars verify that no marriage is currently in force, and for divorced applicants the only way to prove it is a translated document dissolving the previous one.
2. Immigration files and family reunification. Application forms about marital status require documentary proof of every change to it — consulates cross-check dates and names across the entire package.
3. Surname after divorce. If you took back your maiden name, it is the divorce document that explains to the institution why the surname in your passport does not match the one in your marriage certificate or diploma. Without it, the document chain breaks.
4. Property and alimony proceedings. Courts and lawyers abroad require a certified translation of the divorce decision when child support or division of property is being decided.

Extracts, re-issued certificates, and Soviet-era forms

Besides the certificate and the court decision there is a third document — an extract from the State Register of Civil Status Acts. Some institutions ask for precisely this, as up-to-date confirmation that the divorce record exists. An extract is translated the same way a certificate is.

If the original is lost or damaged, the civil registry issues a re-issued certificate based on the civil record — the application can also be filed via Diia. We handle obtaining re-issued certificates by power of attorney, including for clients who are abroad: the new form goes straight to apostille and translation as a single project.

Soviet-era certificates filled out in Russian have not lost their legal force — there is no need to replace them because of age alone. We translate them from Russian into the required language, with all seals deciphered. The one limitation is the apostille: old-format forms cannot be apostilled, so for countries that require an apostille, a re-issued certificate is obtained first.

Apostille: both the certificate and the court decision go through the Ministry of Justice

Unlike diplomas, which are handled by the Ministry of Education, divorce documents are apostilled by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine — and that applies to registry certificates, court decisions, and extracts alike. The correct sequence: apostille the original first, then translate the document together with the stamp, then notarize. State apostille fees are not part of the translation price and change over time — check them when ordering. The full legalization route is described on our apostille and legalization page. You can verify the apostille route for any other document with our free route finder.

One spelling of your name across the whole package

A divorce document is almost never submitted on its own — a birth certificate, a marriage certificate, and a passport travel with it. If one translation says Kateryna and another says Ekaterina, the institution sees two different people and the package stalls. So we transliterate names strictly per the foreign passport and cross-check the spelling across every document in the set — send a copy of your passport along with the scans, and if some translations were done earlier by another agency, tell us: we will align the spelling with what has already been filed. You can check how your surname is rendered under the official rules with our free transliteration tool.

Pricing and turnaround

The price has two parts: translation from UAH 170 per standard document depending on the language (English — UAH 300, Polish — UAH 430, German — UAH 450 per 1,800 characters with spaces), and notarization of the translator’s signature — UAH 400 per document. Together — from UAH 570. A certificate usually fits within one standard page; a court decision does not, so it is priced by actual volume. Where the receiving institution does not insist on a notary, certification with the agency’s stamp is available for UAH 100.

Standard turnaround is from 2 hours for a typical certificate. Rates for 40+ languages are on the prices page; the certification procedure is detailed on the notarized translation page.

Send a scan or photo of your document — within 15 minutes we will quote the exact price and turnaround and confirm whether your document fits the purpose of submission. Order a translation.