The Ministry of Justice apostille: the 2026 procedure

Short answer: the Ministry of Justice apostilles civil-registry, notarial, court and archive documents — but you do not file them with the ministry. Since 1 February 2026 a new procedure applies: the application is made at a civil-registry office or with a notary, registered in the Electronic Register of Apostilles, and a decision follows within three working days. Below: what that means in practice, when the term is suspended, and why a refusal costs money.

Which documents the Ministry of Justice apostilles

Competence follows who issued the document (Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 61 of 18 January 2003, as amended). The Ministry of Justice covers:

Group	Examples
Documents of civil-status registration bodies	birth, marriage, divorce, death and name-change certificates; extracts from the State Register of Civil Status Acts
Notarial documents	powers of attorney, declarations, consents for a child’s travel, notarised copies, contracts
Court documents	judgments, rulings, court orders, court certificates
Documents of state archive institutions	archival certificates, copies and extracts
Documents of the penitentiary and probation service	certificates of served sentences and similar

Anything outside that list travels elsewhere: diplomas, school certificates and supplements go to the MON apostille; medical certificates, pension-fund documents and most other certificates to the MFA apostille; and the criminal-record extract to the Ministry of Internal Affairs since 2023, covered in apostille on a police clearance certificate. If you are unsure, use our apostille route finder.

What changed on 1 February 2026

The procedure that had applied since 2015 was repealed and replaced by a new Ministry of Justice procedure effective 1 February 2026. Four things matter to an applicant:

1. The entry point is local. Applications are filed in person at a civil-registry office or with a notary; state-archive documents with the State Archival Service. Electronic filing is also provided for. There is no trip to Kyiv and no queue “at the ministry”.
2. Everything runs through the Electronic Register of Apostilles. The apostille is issued using the register’s software, and entries are made by the ministry, its territorial bodies, the State Archival Service and the courts.
3. The decision term is three working days from registration of the application, with suspension of up to one month where specimen signatures or further verification are needed.
4. Verification through the register or a QR code. A foreign institution can confirm authenticity itself.

Reading those three working days as a “ready by” date is this year’s most common mistake. It is the decision period, not the time until the document is back in your hands: filing, transfer, return and any suspension all add to it. Our own price list quotes 5–7 working days for a certificate apostille precisely because that is the realistic end-to-end cycle rather than the statutory minimum.

The charge, and the detail that stings

The amount is tied to the subsistence minimum set by the annual budget law, so it moves every year: for 2026 it is quoted as UAH 670 per document for individuals and UAH 1,160 for legal entities (the subsistence minimum being UAH 3,328). Confirm the rate where you file before paying.

A detail largely absent from commercial descriptions: if the apostille is refused, the charge is not refunded. That turns a quick look at the document from a formality into a saving. Before paying, examine the form critically — what blocks an apostille is set out next.

Why applications are refused

• Lamination. The ministry has specifically explained that a laminated certificate remains a valid document, but it cannot be apostilled: there is nothing to bind the certificate to and no surface to stamp.
• Unrelated marks and handwritten additions — a blood-group stamp, notes, manual corrections.
• A form of another state. Documents of former Soviet-republic authorities are not apostilled in Ukraine.
• A copy instead of the original. The apostille goes on the original document or on a register extract; an ordinary photocopy will not do. The exception is a notarised copy: it is itself a notarial document and is apostilled as such — but that is a different thing from an apostille on the original, and the receiving institution has to tell you which one it wants.

In every one of these cases the fix is the same: order an extract from the State Register of Civil Status Acts and apostille that. For birth certificates we cover the route in detail in apostille on a birth certificate.

If you are already abroad

An apostille is a physical certificate that a Ukrainian authority attaches to a Ukrainian document, so the document has to be in Ukraine. You cannot file “from Berlin” yourself, but there are three workable options:

• a representative under a power of attorney. The power of attorney is executed at a Ukrainian consulate or before a local notary and then certified (in Hague Convention countries, by an apostille of the country you are in). The representative obtains the register extract, files the application and collects the finished document.
• through a consulate. A Ukrainian diplomatic mission can accept documents and forward them to the competent authority in Ukraine — the apostille itself is still issued by that Ukrainian authority. Timelines here are the longest, so ask the specific mission.
• by courier to an agency. If you hold the original, it is sent to Ukraine; we file for the apostille, translate and return the package electronically or by post.

If you do not hold the document at all, the starting point is not the apostille but the register extract — which can also be arranged remotely through a representative.

The double apostille: when one stamp is not enough

A scenario worth knowing about in advance: some countries — Italy, Spain and France among them — require the apostille not only on the document but also on the translation certified by a Ukrainian notary. The sequence then lengthens: apostille on the original → translation → notarisation of the translation → a second Ministry of Justice apostille, this time on the notarial document. Two separate procedures, two payments, double the time. Whether a double apostille applies to you is for the receiving institution to say; we summarise the country routes on the legalisation and apostille services page.

Notarial documents: a separate story

With powers of attorney and consents the logic inverts: what is apostilled is not the content but the notarial act. The order is therefore notary drafts the document → Ministry of Justice apostille on the notarial document → translation. And one practical question is best settled before you see the notary: which language the document itself should be in. Some countries accept a bilingual notarial document (Ukrainian plus the destination language), in which case the post-apostille translation covers only the apostille text. Other institutions want the whole package translated in the destination country. The receiving side answers that, not the notary, and the answer drives both price and timeline. We cover outbound powers of attorney separately in a Ukrainian power of attorney for use abroad.

Translation: only after the apostille

An apostille is additional text on the document, and it is translated too. Translate the certificate before the apostille is affixed and you will pay for the translation twice. A document carrying an apostille contains more text, so our price list counts it as 1.5 standard pages: translating a certificate with an apostille into English costs UAH 450, against UAH 300 without one (see prices).

Certification follows the institution’s requirement: agency stamp (UAH 100), notarisation (UAH 400), certified translation for the USA, Canada and the UK (UAH 200), or a sworn translation in the destination country. We set out the differences on the notarised translation page.

When you do not need this apostille

• A country outside the Hague Convention (the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt) — there you need consular legalisation, in which the Ministry of Justice is one link rather than the final one.
• A bilateral legal-assistance treaty (Poland and Czechia among others) — formally no legalisation is required, yet in practice an institution may still ask for the stamp. Get the requirement in writing before paying.
• Documents for USCIS in the United States — there a full translation with the translator’s certification is required, without a notary and without an apostille; an apostille in that package is wasted money.

If you need help

We run the whole cycle: obtaining a registry extract where the original form is unusable, filing for the apostille, translating the document together with the apostille text, and certifying it as the institution requires. An apostille on civil-registry, notarial or court documents costs UAH 2,300 per document over 5–7 working days, state duty included. We work remotely, with the notary receiving clients at our office on Yaroslaviv Val — a quote within 15 minutes.

For a ready-made package built around civil-registry or court documents, see civil registry extract translation, court decision translation and the general legalisation and apostille services page.