Last Updated on April 10, 2022 by Bulgarian attorney
How to legalize foreign documents for official use in Bulgaria
- Always a valid option is to certify the documents in the nearest Bulgarian embassy or consulate (NB: honorary consulates cannot attest documents, they have only representative functions).
- You may certify your documents with a notary public in Bulgaria.
- If the country where you reside is a member to The Hague Convention on Apostilles, you can apostille legalize the documents.
| Signatory states to the Hague convention abolishing the requirement of legalization for foreign public documents: | |||
| Albania Andorra Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brunei Bulgaria Cape Verde China (only Hong Kong and Macao) Colombia Cook Islands Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic |
Denmark Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Estonia Fiji Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Grenada Honduras Hungary Iceland India Ireland Israel Italy Japan Kazakhstan Korea Latvia Lesotho |
Liberia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malawi Malta Marshall Islands Mauritius Mexico Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Namibia New Zealand Niue Norway Panama Poland Portugal Romania Russian Federation Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines |
Salvador Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Serbia Seychelles Slovakia Slovenia South Africa Spain Suriname Swaziland Sweden Switzerland The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia The Netherlands The United States of America Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom Vanuatu Venezuela |
- If your country has signed a Legal Aid Agreement with the Republic of Bulgaria, you can attest the set of incorporation documents with the nearest notary public in your country. (please note: attesting the documents with a local notary public in your country, the set of incorporation documents need to be further legalized with the Bulgarian Foreign Affairs and incur an extra fee of 50 € per attested document);
| List of countries with which Bulgaria has signed bilateral legal assistance treaties (Legal Aid Agreements) providing for exemption of documents from legalization: | |
| Austria Algeria Azerbaijan Armenia Belarus Vietnam Georgia Italy Yemen Cyprus People’s Democratic Republic of Korea Cuba Kuwait |
Libya Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia Mongolia Poland Romania The Russian Federation Syrian Arab Republic Serbia (as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Croatia) Uzbekistan Ukraine Hungary France Czech republic (as well as Slovakia) |
- N.B. In extreme cases, where due to political instability or another verifiable reason, the applicant is unable to obtain certification from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in his own country (the issuing state of the document), it may be possible for us to arrange the legalization in Bulgaria. The fee, which includes all state and other fees, for the service is EUR 245 for documents issued by states that have embassies in Bulgaria and EUR 480 if there is no Embassy of the issuing country in Bulgaria. Please note that this service will be applied only in extraordinary cases and there is no guarantee that the legalization process can be successfully administered in all cases.
Please note that all company documents need to be signed in blue ink.
The above attestation and legalization procedures apply for the certification of signatures and content on Powers of Attorney for the opening of a company or personal bank account, set of incorporation documents in Bulgaria, VAT registration, accounting & bookkeeping service and many others.
If you are not sure which method of attestation/ legalization to follow, please do not hesitate to contact us.
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