Notarized Passport Translation

A passport is the one document without which a foreigner in Ukraine literally cannot sign anything. No notary will certify a power of attorney, a statement or a contract involving a citizen of another country until the passport has been translated into Ukrainian and the translation notarized. The mirror case applies to Ukrainians: foreign banks, courts and immigration authorities routinely ask for the internal passport or ID card — and accept it only with an official translation.

MovaPro has been doing these translations since 2012. The notary works right in our office at 9 Yaroslaviv Val St. in Kyiv, so there is no shuttling across town between translation and certification: a passport is usually ready the same day.

Price: from UAH 570 per passport (translation — from UAH 170 depending on the language + notarization — UAH 400) Ready: same day; the translation itself — from 2 hours Quote: free, within 15 minutes

When a foreigner needs a passport translated into Ukrainian

This is the most common scenario. Without a notarized translation of the passport, a foreign citizen in Ukraine cannot:

• obtain a tax number (IPN/RNOKPP) — the registration number that almost everything starts from: employment, banking, real estate;
• open a bank account — banks identify the client by the translated passport;
• register a marriage at the civil registry office (RACS) — the registry accepts foreign documents only with a certified translation;
• perform any notarial act — issue a power of attorney, sign a statement, close a real-estate purchase or a prenuptial agreement;
• apply for a residence permit and other immigration documents.

By law, a Ukrainian notary operates in Ukrainian, so the identity of the signatory is established from the passport translation bound to the deed. If the translation is not ready in advance, the transaction simply does not happen on the appointed day — the most frequent reason people come to us “for today, urgently”.

Translating a Ukrainian passport for use abroad

The second direction is translating the Ukrainian internal passport (booklet) or ID card into a foreign language. It is requested by foreign banks when opening an account, by courts, universities, insurance companies and the immigration services of countries that do not accept documents in Ukrainian.

There is a format nuance here. The ID card is a compact document that almost always fits into a single standard page of translation. The booklet passport, with its registration stamps, marital-status and military-service marks, can hold noticeably more text: if the institution requires all filled pages, the price is calculated from the actual volume — 1,800 characters with spaces equal one standard page. For most purposes the personal data pages are enough, so it is worth confirming the receiving institution’s requirements before ordering — we will tell you what is usually expected in your case.

Transliteration: one letter off, and the documents describe two different people

A passport translation contains no difficult vocabulary — but it carries the highest cost of error. The spelling of the name and surname must match the machine-readable zone and the holder’s other documents character for character. If a foreigner’s tax certificate spells the surname one way and a new translation renders it differently, the tax office or the bank formally sees two different people — and the whole chain of documents has to be corrected. To see how a Ukrainian name is rendered under the official rules, try our free transliteration tool.

So this is how we work:

1. We ask for more than the passport scan — send any Ukrainian documents already issued to the holder (tax number, residence permit, earlier translations); the spelling is taken from them.
2. If no earlier documents exist, the name is rendered under established transcription practice; for Ukrainian passports we follow the official Cabinet of Ministers transliteration rules, or copy the international passport exactly when there is one.
3. We confirm the spelling with you before certification — fixing a translation after it has been bound and notarized means starting over.

Passports are not apostilled — and that is normal

A question we hear regularly from clients who were “told to apostille the passport”. Identity documents are outside the apostille procedure as a matter of principle — in Ukraine and everywhere else. When a foreign institution mentions legalizing a passport, what it needs in practice is a certified translation.

It also matters what exactly the notary certifies: not the “validity” of the passport and not a true copy of it, but the authenticity of the signature of the degreed translator who produced the translation. A notarial copy is a separate act, and Ukrainian notaries generally do not make one for foreign passports; for Ukrainian documents that service is described on the notarized copies page.

Price and turnaround

The price has two components. Translation of a standard passport costs from UAH 170 depending on the language pair: English — UAH 300, Polish — UAH 430, German — UAH 450 per document. Notarization of the translator’s signature is UAH 400, so the total starts at UAH 570. Where the receiving institution does not insist on a notary, the translation can be certified with the agency’s stamp for UAH 100 — the fastest option. Rates for the rest of our 40+ languages are on the prices page, and the procedure itself is explained on the notarized translation page.

State duties and administrative fees for the follow-up procedures (tax number, marriage registration and so on) are paid to the respective authorities separately — check the current amounts at the place of submission.

The translation takes from 2 hours, and a discount applies from 5 passports or pages. Send a photo or scan of the data page (plus the stamped pages, if required) together with your preferred name spelling — we will come back within 15 minutes with the exact price and completion time. Order a passport translation.