Notarized Translation of the Ukrainian School Certificate (Atestat)

Nobody translates a school certificate “just in case” — it is translated for admission. Application packages for foreign universities and colleges are put together between May and September, and the biggest source of stress is not the institutions’ requirements but the deadlines: admission campaigns in Poland, Czechia or Germany will not wait while the Ukrainian Ministry of Education processes an apostille. That is why sequencing the steps correctly — and starting earlier than feels necessary — matters more here than with almost any other document.

MovaPro translation agency has been handling educational documents since 2012. A notary works on site in our Kyiv office, so the applicant — or their parents — collect the certified translation in a single visit. A standard document is completed the same day as a notarized translation, we send a quote within 15 minutes, and a discount applies from 5 pages.

Price: from UAH 570 (translation from UAH 170 per document depending on the language, notarization — UAH 400) Turnaround: from 2 hours Consultation: free

First, check which document you actually hold

Ukrainian schools issue two different final documents, and abroad they open different doors:

• Atestat — certificate of complete general secondary education, issued after grade 11. This is the ticket to a bachelor’s degree: it is what universities in Poland, Germany, Czechia, the UK, the US and Canada ask for.
• Certificate of basic secondary education, issued after grade 9. It is used for admission to foreign colleges, technical schools and vocational programmes that do not require complete secondary education.

The two documents are rendered differently in translation, and a mix-up at this stage means the admissions office sees the “wrong” document. State clearly which one you are submitting — or simply send a scan and we will identify it ourselves.

The grade transcript is what the admissions office actually reads

The certificate itself only proves that you finished school. The admission decision is made from the supplement: it lists the subjects and marks from which the university calculates your average on its own scale. Two practical conclusions follow.

First, a certificate without its transcript is worth very little abroad — the two must be submitted together and translated together. Second, the translator has no right to “convert” the marks into GPA, the German scale or anything else: conversion is strictly the job of the university or the recognition body. Our translation renders the subjects and marks exactly as they stand in the original — which is precisely what admissions offices require.

The transcript is charged by actual volume: 1,800 characters with spaces equal one standard page. The certificate and the transcript are separate documents, so each is counted separately for both translation and notarization.

Where school leavers apply: the three most common routes

Poland. The most popular destination. Polish universities accept the Ukrainian atestat with a sworn or notarized translation — which type of certification is needed is decided by the individual institution, so check its requirements before ordering. For admission purposes the Ukrainian certificate is recognised as equivalent to the Polish matura, and separate nostrification is normally not required for bachelor programmes. If your university insists on a sworn translation, we can arrange a sworn translation into Polish. General requirements are on the Poland page.

Germany. Know this in advance: on its own, the Ukrainian school certificate usually does not qualify you for direct entry to a German university. The typical route is a year at a Studienkolleg followed by the Feststellungsprüfung qualification exam, which opens the door to bachelor studies. You can check how your certificate will be assessed in the anabin database before applying. A translation is needed at every stage of this route — details on the Germany page.

Czechia. Admission requires nostrifikace — recognition of the certificate by the regional education authority. The application must include the translated certificate together with the list of subjects studied and hours taught, so the transcript matters even more here than elsewhere: without it, nostrification simply will not start. Details on the Czechia page.

For the UK, the US and Canada, requirements vary by institution and often involve a credential evaluation — see the country pages for orientation and verify the admissions office’s requirements directly.

The apostille: through the Ministry of Education, with time to spare

Educational documents are apostilled by the Ministry of Education and Science (MON), and before the stamp is affixed the document is verified in the EDEBO education registry. For recent certificates this is a formality. For certificates issued before the registry existed it is not: MON sends an archive request to the school, and if the school has been reorganised, closed or is located in occupied territory, the timeline stretches unpredictably. For a summer admission campaign this means one thing: order the apostille in spring, not in July. Our free apostille route finder will tell you which authority handles the rest of your package.

The sequence is always the same: first the apostille on the original certificate and transcript, then the translation of both documents including the stamps, then notarization. MON government fees are paid separately — we do not publish the amounts because they change: check them at the time of ordering.

Why admissions offices send packages back

Working with applicants year after year, we see the same three scenarios every summer:

1. The certificate was submitted without the transcript. The admissions office has nothing to calculate the average from — processing stops until the package is complete, while the deadline keeps ticking.
2. The name spelling does not match the international passport. To an admissions system, “Kovalenko” spelled two different ways is two different people. Send us a copy of the passport together with the certificate scans.
3. The document was translated before the apostille. The stamp is left untranslated — the translation and notarization have to be redone and paid for again.

Each of these is far cheaper to prevent than to fix in August. That is why, before we start, we confirm the destination country, the institution and whether an apostille is needed.

Price and turnaround

Translation of a standard document costs from UAH 170 depending on the language: English — UAH 300, Polish — UAH 430, German — UAH 450, Czech — UAH 450. Notarization of the translator’s signature is UAH 400 per document, so the total starts from UAH 570. The grade transcript is charged by actual volume (1,800 characters with spaces = 1 standard page). The full price list for 40+ languages is on the prices page.

The notarized translation itself is ready from 2 hours; the overall timeline is driven by the MON apostille. Send scans of the certificate, the transcript and the international passport — within 15 minutes we will quote the cost and tell you exactly what your university requires. Request a quote.