Legalisation of documents and issuance of certificate Apostille

Legalisation of documents and issuance of certificate Apostille

A document legalisation or issuance of certificate Apostille is needed so that the documents of one country can be considered by the institutions of another country, these documents would cause legal consequences in another country, except in cases where according to the international treaties of the Republic of Lithuania or the legal acts of the European Union, an Apostille certificate is not required for the legalization or approval of documents.

If the documents that will be submitted to the institution in Lithuania were issued in a state that joined the Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, they must be certified by an Apostille in the country that issued the document.

Certification of documents with an Apostille certificate – confirmation of the authenticity of the signature in the document, the duties of the signatory and the stamp by the competent authority with an Apostille certificate, provided for in Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents.

If the documents are issued in a state that has not joined the Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, they must be legalised.

Legalisation of documents – confirmation of the authenticity of the signature, the position of the signatory and the stamp on the document by a competent authority, usually the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and / or the diplomatic mission or consular post of that country.

A document is considered legalized only if it is certified twice – in the country that issued the document, and in the country to which the document will be submitted. This means that the documents must first be submitted for approval to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the country that issued the document and / or the diplomatic mission or consular post of that country, after that the document must be approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania or the diplomatic mission or consular office of the Republic of Lithuania and only then the translated document is suitable for submission to the institutions of the Republic of Lithuania.

The following official documents can be legalised and certified with an Apostille:

• issued by state and municipal institutions or officials, as well as issued by a prosecutor, a court official or a person executing court decisions;
• administrative documents;
• notarial deeds;
• official confirmations of documents signed by natural persons;
• notarized copies of official documents.

Persons, who hold an official document, issued in Lithuania, what needs to be certified with Apostille, or persons, who holds official documents, issued in Lithuania, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal or Sri Lanka what needs to be legalized, may apply to the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in India in person or by a representative.

Documents issued in Sri Lanka must be legalized at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka High Commission, New Delhi.

In accordance with the legal acts regulating the legalization procedure of documents of the Republic of Lithuania, the possibility of legalizing electronic documents is not foreseen, i.e. the document must be authenticated with physical marks.

The legalization of Police Clearance Certificates for foreign citizens who intend to study in Lithuania is done at MFA of the Republic of Lithuania through the educational institutions. The students should contact the educational institutions in Lithuania, in which they plan to study and to clarify the process of legalization of documents. Foreigners who have come to Lithuania to study must apply to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania for the legalization of documents for their family members.

Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in the Republic in India also accepts legalized documents issued by states to which the Lithuanian diplomatic mission is not accredited, if they meet the following criteria:
• the foreign citizen submitting the document legally resides in the state of accreditation of the Lithuanian diplomatic mission;
• the foreign citizen personally submits documents of himself or his family members (husband, wife, parents, children and adopted children);
• the submitted document was additionally legalized by the diplomatic mission of the country that issued the document, which operates in the state of residence of the Lithuanian diplomatic mission.

In order to submit documents at the Embassy, please register here.

When submitting documents for legalisation, following elements are to be included:

• the document (original or a notarised copy [in case of documents originating from Lithuania]) to be legalised;
• one (1) appointment is for presentation of up to 3 documents;
• valid passport or other identity document of the person submitting the document for legalisation;
• a free-form request (an application letter including following information: country in which the legalised document is to be submitted and applicant’s contact details (e-mail address and telephone number);
• consular fee for legalisation of one document - 20 EUR.

Documents have to be orderly and readable. If the document consists of few pages, they have to be affixed or sewn together.

Each document is approved separately (e. g. diploma and its appendix are two separate documents). 

You can find more information about document legalization and Apostille approval in Lithuania on the Consular Information page of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania.

Documents issued in India are certified with an Apostille by the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India and are valid in the Republic of Lithuania without additional certification.

ATTENTION

• Documents issued before March 11, 1990, and having the attributes of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, are neither legalized nor certified with an Apostille. They must be replaced with new documents.

• Legalization of documents is not required when the documents are drawn up and/or issued by diplomatic missions or consular offices of foreign states residing in the Republic of Lithuania.