If you plan to start a business in Bulgaria by a company registration or a commercial representation of your foreign business, it may be necessary to provide documents from abroad, subject to certification and legalization. This text will help you understand what is apostille, when and for which countries it is mandatory to be used and where it is issued.
For a document issued by a foreign state to be recognized by Bulgarian institutions, it shall be arranged in a way which depends on whether the respective state is a party to the Hague Convention, whether between the two states there is a Legal Aid Agreement that is still in force or whether this state does not fall in any of the first two groups.
Requirement for apostille
All documents issued in a foreign state which is party to the Hague Convention shall have an apostille from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
List of the parties to the Hague Convention – CHECK HERE.
List of institutions issuing apostille in different countries – with addresses and contact details.
Example of apostille
| Apostille
(Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961) 1. Country: …………………………………………. This public document 2. has been signed by …………………………… 3. acting in the capacity of ……………………. 4. bears the seal/stamp of ……………………. Certified 5. at ……………………. 6. the ……………………. 7. by ……………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………….8. No. ……………………. 9. Seal/stamp: 10. Signature: ……………………. ……………………. |
Translation in Bulgarian
Documents with apostille need to be translated in Bulgarian in one of the two ways below:
1/ by a consular or diplomatic official in the country where the document is issued;
2/ by a translation agency authorized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria.
Certification of the translation
The translation of the document shall be certified in Bulgaria.
STATES WITH WICH THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA HAS BILATERAL LEGAL AGREEMENTS
For states with which the Republic of Bulgaria has bilateral legal aid agreements with provisions for exempting the documents from legalization with apostille, documents issued by the foreign state must bear the stamp of the respective authorized institution as per the bilateral agreement. The thus issued document is recognized by the Bulgarian institutions and it only needs its Bulgarian translation which shall be certified.
List of the states with which the Republic of Bulgaria has bilateral legal agreements – CHECK HERE.
FOR ALL OTHER STATES
In case the documents have no or cannot have any apostille, in order to trigger actions on the territory of Bulgaria, they need to be certified (legalized) in line with the generally accepted practice:
- The document is required to be certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the state that issues it;
- The stamp of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the foreign state shall be certified/ legalized by the Bulgarian diplomatic or consular mission in that state.
Source: mfa.bg
Global Consult Europe will advise you on any questions and assist you for the legalization of documents in Bulgaria – just contact us.