Apostille on a Ukrainian police clearance certificate: the full route

This procedure contains exactly one fact that costs people the most time: the apostille on a Ukrainian police clearance extract is issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. That has been the case since 1 January 2023, yet half the instructions online — and plenty of advice in community chats — still send people to the MFA, which returns such documents without considering them.

Below is the whole route: what to order, in what sequence, how long it takes, and when you do not need an apostille at all.

First, which document you actually need

What everyone calls a “police clearance certificate” is officially an extract on the absence of a criminal record, issued from the personal reference records of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It comes in two versions, and the difference is decisive:

• full — covers convictions, their removal and expiry, and also whether the person is wanted or facing criminal proceedings;
• short — only the fact that a criminal record does or does not exist.

Most institutions abroad — immigration authorities, employers, licensing boards, universities — want the full version, and some countries state that requirement in their own document reference sheets. Ordering the short version “because it is faster” almost always means redoing the package.

The extract itself is issued free of charge. The apostille carries a fee — check the amount and the payment method at the time of filing, as tariffs are revised periodically.

Who issues the apostille, and why this changed

Apostille powers in Ukraine are allocated by Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 61 of 18 January 2003, on the principle that whoever issued the document confirms it. For years that allocation was threefold: the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which handled everything else.

The resolution was amended in 2022, and from 1 January 2023 part of what the MFA used to apostille moved to the bodies that issue the documents: the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the State Migration Service and the State Tax Service. The police clearance extract is an MIA document, so the MIA now apostilles it.

Document	Apostille authority
Police clearance extract	Ministry of Internal Affairs
Civil-registry certificates, court judgments, notarial deeds	Ministry of Justice
Diplomas, school certificates, education documents	Ministry of Education and Science
Tax certificates	State Tax Service
Medical certificates and most other state-issued certificates	Ministry of Foreign Affairs

You can check the route for a specific document with our apostille route-finder, which is built on this same allocation of powers.

Three ways to order, and which is shortest

1. Diia — extract and apostille in a single request. The shortest route available: the service is run by the Ministry of Digital Transformation together with the MIA, so the extract and the apostille can be ordered online without visiting any office, with the paper copy delivered to you. For most cases this is the option that makes sense.

2. The MIA “single window” web service. Access with a qualified electronic signature. The electronic extract is generated quickly and arrives with an electronic seal and a QR code. Right choice when no paper document is needed.

3. An MIA service centre, or a representative under a power of attorney. The slowest route, but the only one available if you have no electronic signature and you are abroad.

Indicative timing: a paper extract takes up to 30 days to prepare, and the apostille adds a few working days on top. Exact timings change, so plan the package with slack and do not leave the procedure to the last week before filing.

Electronic versus paper: where the line runs

This is the topic’s most common misunderstanding. An apostille is a physical stamp, so it cannot be applied to a PDF in an app. That does not make the electronic extract useless.

An electronic extract bearing a qualified electronic seal and a QR code is a full document, and many institutions accept exactly that: when scans are uploaded, when an employer verifies a hire, for internal procedures. The apostille is needed where an institution requires a paper document and foreign-state confirmation of its origin.

So the right sequence of questions is:

1. Does the institution accept an electronic document?
2. If not, does it want an apostille, or is a paper extract enough?
3. In what language and certification format does it want the translation?

The answers determine both the price and the timeline.

When no apostille is needed at all

A separate saving comes from realising the stamp is unnecessary:

• Poland, Czechia and other countries with which Ukraine has legal assistance treaties. Official documents are exempt from legalization. Institutional practice varies, so ask for the requirement in writing.
• US consular visa procedures. Instructions for immigrant and K-visa applicants state plainly that a police certificate does not need an apostille. Details in our guide to the police clearance certificate for the USA.
• Canadian immigration programmes. IRCC does not ask for an apostille at all; its requirements concern the age of the document and the translation. See our guide to the police certificate for Canada.
• Countries outside the Hague Convention. There the apostille does not apply — consular legalization is required instead: the issuing ministry, then the MFA, then the embassy of the destination country. The general logic is on our page about legalization and apostille.

Translation comes after the apostille

There is no debate about the order: apostille the original first, translate second. The apostille stamp contains text that must also be translated, and a document where it is missing comes back.

The certification format depends on the destination country, not on Ukraine. English-language immigration procedures usually accept a certified translation; Germany wants a translator authorized by a German court for state authorities; Poland wants a translator from the Ministry of Justice register for the USC and the courts. We cover both cases separately: sworn versus notarized translation for Germany and when you need a tłumacz przysięgły.

Translating the extract into English costs from UAH 300 per page with us; notarial certification is UAH 400 per document. The full list is on the prices page.

One Ukrainian extract rarely closes the question

One more thing worth planning for: immigration programmes usually ask for a certificate not from your country of citizenship but from every country where you have lived longer than a set period — most often six consecutive months since turning eighteen. For the cohort that since 2022 has lived in Poland, then Germany, and is now filing for Canada, that means three different certificates, three procedures and three sets of legalization rules.

The Ukrainian extract is the easy part of that set: issued remotely, free and fast. Foreign certificates have to be ordered under the rules of the country concerned, and they are usually what holds the package up. Plan from them, not from the Ukrainian document.

A separate case is foreign nationals who lived in Ukraine. The extract confirms the absence of a criminal record on Ukrainian territory, so non-citizens receive one too, on the basis of a travel passport with a Ukrainian translation or a residence permit. The apostille route is identical: the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

And one more point: validity in this topic runs from the date of issue, not from the date of the apostille or the translation. The logic of “I will order the extract now and apostille it when needed” therefore works badly — by filing day the document may no longer fit a 90-day rule. The better approach is the reverse: wait until the package is nearly complete, then run the whole chain — extract, apostille, translation — in one go.

Common mistakes

1. Taking the document to the MFA. The current authority is the MIA; the MFA returns such documents.
2. Ordering the short version of the extract. It is often rejected abroad.
3. Translating before the apostille. The stamp stays untranslated.
4. Ordering the extract long before filing. Validity runs from the issue date, not the apostille.
5. Assuming the apostille can be obtained abroad. A Ukrainian document is apostilled only by a Ukrainian authority, inside Ukraine.

If you need help

We handle the extract, the apostille and the translation as one package — without your presence, with delivery by Nova Poshta or courier abroad. Details and pricing are on our police clearance certificate page. Send us a scan of your passport and tell us which country and institution the document is for, and within 15 minutes we will tell you whether you need an apostille at all and in what format the translation should be certified.