Legalization of Foreign Documents

In accordance with Part 13 of Article 107 of the Federal Law 273-FZ, dated 29 Dec. 2012, "On education in the Russian Federation" and Part 7 of Article 6.2 of the Federal Law 127-FZ, dated 23 Aug. 1996, "On science and the state science and technical policy", foreign educational documents, recognized in the Russian Federation, must be legalized in accordance with the procedure established by the legislation of the Russian Federation, unless otherwise provided by an international agreement to which Russian Federation is a party.

Educational documents can be legalized only in the territory of the country where they were issued. In this regard, it is necessary to take care of the legalization before arriving in Russia.

There are three categories of countries in terms of requirements for the legalization of educational documents:

1. Consular legalization: usually, a legalization procedure involves a certification of documents by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as by a Russian Consulate in a country where the documents were issued.
2. Apostille: for the member countries of The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents of 5 October 1961. The list of competent authorities responsible for issuing the apostille can be found here.
3. Documents may be accepted without legalization: for member countries of bilateral treaties with Russia that abolish the requirement of legalization for documents as well as for member countries of the Minsk Convention on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal Matters of 22 January 1993.

To identify the type of legalization and whether it is necessary, find your country in the interactive table: