Government of Republic of Moldova

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Moldova

Legalization of documents

Legalization

Directorate of Consular Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration legalizes:

  • documents issued in the Republic of Moldova which are to be presented to the authorities in another country. Documents are legalized with a stamp confirming that the signature on the document is authentic. After the document has been legalized by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and European Integration, it is usually certified by the diplomatic mission of the country in which the document will be used.
  • documents which are to be presented to the authorities of the Republic of Moldova. It must be first legalised by the foreign diplomatic or consular mission of the country where the document has been issued, and thereafter by the Directorate of Consular Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of the Republic of Moldova.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs and European Integration does not apply the Apostille. These should be sought from the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Moldova

What documents does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration legalize?

  • documents issued by official authorities of the Republic of Moldova;
  • documents issued by the Public Services Agency, except for identity documents;
  • diplomas from higher education institutions, along with the confirmations of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research;  
  • documents signed by a public notary;
  • civil status certificates;
  • court decisions:
  • seniority certificates issued by the National Social Insurance House;
  • criminal records certificates issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs;
  • medical certificates issued by the specialized medical centers for medical examination of emigrants and immigrants, and the National Scientific and Practical Centre of Preventive Medicine / Center for Prevention and Control of AIDS.

A list of documents to be submitted:

  • Application;
  • document to be legalized, where copies of documents, they must be authenticated by the public notary and the Ministry of Justice;
  • document certifying the applicant’s identity (passport or ID card);
  • in case of applying for legalization by proxy, power of attorney. First-level relatives - mother, father, brother, sister, husband, wife – do not need power of attorney for the submission of documents.

Consular fee

Documents issued by the authorities of the Republic of Moldova intended for use in a foreign country Individual person - 100 lei
Legal entitity - 250 lei
Documents issued by the authorities of foreign states intended for use in the Republic of Moldova Individual person - 250 lei
Legal entity - 650 lei

Directorate of Consular Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration

Address: 80 Alexei Mateevici street, Chisinau, MD – 2009
Phone: (+373 22) 788722; 0 800-90-990
E-mail:  dac@mfa.gov.md; callcenter@mfa.gov.md;
Visiting hours: Monday – Friday, 8.30 – 11.45 

The diplomatic and consular missions of the Republic of Moldova abroad legalize documents issued by authorities of the state of residence or with their participation and intended for use in Moldova, previously legalized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or other empowered official authority of the state of residence.

The diplomatic and consular missions legalize:

  • notary acts and decisions of the court (attorneys, declarations, applications, contracts, wills, copies of documents, decisions of the courts, etc.);
  • acts of civil status and registration of companies (certificates: birth, marriage, divorce, death, marital status, change of family name and / or name; extracts: after act of birth, after act of marriage, after act of divorce, after act of death; notices: on change of name or family name, on the cancellation, completion and / or rectification of the act of civil status; certificate of registration of business etc.);
  • acts of studies (diploma of degree, analytical syllabuses as a supplement to diploma, diploma of baccalaureate, supplement to the diploma of baccalaureate);
  • criminal records.

Documents which cannot be legalized in original:

  • employment certificates,
  • military service records,
  • identification cards,
  • documents produced in Moldova and removed or sent by international mail abroad, without being certified under the legislation,
  • consular officer has doubts concerning the adequacy of documents to be legalized with the law of the state of residence.
List of countries and documents recognition procedures

The following list includes the countries for which bilateral and multilateral treaties on mutual recognition of official documents apply. These treaties relate to recognition of documents issued by the authorities of these countries to be used in Moldova, and respectively of documents issued by Moldovan authorities to be used in these countries.

The documents issued by the authorities of the countries not listed below and the documents issued by Moldovan authorities to be used in those countries are recognized only after consular legalization.

Last update: February 2, 2017


No

Country 
(common name)

The documents are recognised without any legalisation or Apostille in accordance with existing treaties

The documents are recognised with an Apostille provided in accordance with the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961

1

Albania

 

2

Andorra

 

3

Antigua and Barbuda

 

4

Argentina

 

5

Armenia

13

1

6

Australia

 

7

Austria

 

8

Azerbaidjan

4, 13

1

9

Bahamas

 

10

Bahrain

 

11

Barbados

 

12

Belarus

13

1

13

Belgium

 

14

Belize

 

15

Bosnia and Herzegovina

 

16

Botswana

 

17

Brazil

 

18

Brunei Darussalam

 

19

Bulgaria

 

20

Burundi

 

21

Cape Verde

 

22

Chile

 

23

China

 

3

24

Colombia

 

25

Cook Islands

 

26

Costa Rica

 

27

Croatia

 

28

Cyprus

 

29

Czech Republic

5

1

30

Denmark

 

31

Dominica

 

32

Dominican Republic

 

33

Ecuador

 

34

El Salvador

 

35

Estonia

 

36

Fiji

 

37

Finland

 

38

France

 

39

Georgia

13

1

40

Germany

 

2

41

Greece

 

42

Grenada

 

43

Guatemala

 

■ from 18.09.2017

44

Honduras

 

45

Hungary

6

1

46

Iceland

 

47

India

 

48

Ireland

 

49

Israel

 

50

Italy

 

51

Japan

 

52

Kazahstan

13

1

53

Korea Republic

 

54

Kyrgyzstan

13

1

55

Latvia

7

1

56

Lesotho

 

57

Liberia

 

58

Liechtenstein

 

59

Lithuania

8

1

60

Luxemburg

 

61

Macedonia

 

62

Malawi

 

63

Malta

 

64

Marshall Islands

 

65

Mauritius

 

66

Mexico

 

       

67

Monaco

 

68

Mongolia

 

69

Montenegro

 

70

Morocco

 

       

71

Namibia

 

72

Netherlands

 

73

New Zeeland

 

74

Nicaragua

 

75

Niue

 

76

Norway

 

77

Oman

 

78

Panama

 

79

Paraguay

 

80

Peru

 

81

Poland

 

82

Portugal

 

83

Romania

9

1

84

Russia

1013

1

85

Saint Kitts and Nevis

 

86

Saint Lucia

 

87

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

 

88

Samoa

 

89

San Marino

 

90

Sao Tome and Principe

 

91

Serbia

 

92

Seychelles

 

93

Slovakia

11

1

94

Slovenia

 

95

South Africa

 

96

Spain

 

97

Suriname

 

98

Swaziland

 

99

Sweden

 

100

Switzerland

 

101

Tajikistan

13

1

102

Tonga

 

103

Trinidad and Tobago

 

104

Turkey

 

105

Turkmenistan

13

 

106

Ukraine

1213

1

107

United Kingdom

 

108

Uruguay

 

109

USA

 

110

Uzbekistan

13

1

111

Vanuatu

 

112

Venezuela

 

 

Legend: ■ – is applicable; □ – is not applicable (see Note 1 and 2) or applicable to certain territories (see Note 3).

Notes:

1 In accordance with Art. 8 of the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (in force for the Republic of Moldova from 16.03.2007), When a treaty, convention or agreement between two or more Contracting States contains provisions which subject the certification of a signature, seal or stamp to certain formalities, the present Convention will only override such provisions if those formalities are more rigorous than the formality referred to in this Convention.
http://www.hcch.net/

2 Until the withdrawal of the objection raised by Germany to the accession of the Republic of Moldova to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, this Convention will not be applicable in relations between the Republic of Moldova and Federal Republic of Germany.
http://www.hcch.net/

3 The Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documentsapplies only to the following Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China: Hong Kong and Macao.
http://www.hcch.net/

4 The legalisation between Moldova and Azerbaijan is abolished in accordance with Article 13 paragraph 1 of the Treaty between the Republic of Moldova an the Republic of Azerbaijan on legal assistance and legal relations in civil, family and criminal matters, concluded in Baku on 26.10.2004, in force from 12.02.2005.

5 The legalisation between Moldova and the Czech Republic is abolished in accordance with Article 11 paragraph 1 of the Treaty between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic on mutual legal assistance and legal relations in civil, family and criminal matters, concluded in Moscow on 12.08.1982, in force between Moldova and the Czech Republic by succession from 26.08.2005.

6 The legalisation between Moldova and Hungary is abolished in accordance with Article 14 paragraph 1 of the Treaty between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Hungarian Popular Republic on mutual legal assistance in civil, family and criminal matters, concluded in Moscow on 15.07.1958, in force between Moldova and Hungary by succession from 19.10.2007.

7 The legalisation between Moldova and Latvia is abolished in accordance with Article 13 paragraph 1 of the Treaty between the Republic of Moldova and the Republic of Latvia on legal assistance and legal relations in civil, family and criminal matters, concluded in Riga on 14.04.1993, in force from 18.06.1996.

8 The legalisation between Moldova and Lithuania is abolished in accordance with Article 13 paragraph 1 of the Treaty between the Republic of Moldova and the Republic of Lithuania on legal assistance in civil, family and criminal matters, concluded in Chisinau on 09.02.1993, in force from 18.02.1995.

9 The legalisation between Moldova and Romania is abolished in accordance with Article 13 paragraph 1 of the Treaty between the Republic of Moldova and Romania on legal assistance in civil, family and criminal matters, concluded in Chisinau on 06.07.1996, in force from 20.03.1998.

10 The legalisation between Moldova and Russia is abolished in accordance with Article 13 paragraph 1 of the Treaty between the Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation on legal assistance and legal relations in civil, family and criminal matters, concluded in Moscow on 25.02.1993, in force from 26.01.1995.

11 The legalisation between Moldova and Slovakia is abolished in accordance with Article 11 paragraph 1 of the Treaty between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic on mutual legal assistance and legal relations in civil, family and criminal matters, concluded in Moscow on 12.08.1982, in force between Moldova and Slovakia by succession from 26.05.2006.

12 The legalisation between Moldova and Ukraine is abolished in accordance with Article 15 paragraph 1 din Treaty between the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine on legal assistance and legal relations in civil and criminal matters, concluded in Kiev on 13.12.1993, in force from 24.04.1995.

13 The legalisation between Moldova with other CIS member countries and Georgia is abolished in accordance with Article 13 paragraph 1 of the Convention on legal assistance and legal relations in civil, family and criminal matters, concluded in Minsk on 22.01.1993. In force between Moldova and Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine from 26.03.1996, Azerbaijan, Georgia from 11.07.1996, Turkmenistan from 19.02.1998. 
http://cis.minsk.by/