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Verification of foreign public documents

 Česky

Documents issued by courts and authorities abroad that are valid in the place of issue as public documents have the probative power of public documents in the CR too, if they are supplemented by a prerequisite verification (§ 12 Act No. 91/2012 Coll., on International Private Law, as amended). In accordance with this, it is necessary for all documents issued abroad and submitted for official purposes to be authenticated by the pertinent bodies of the state whose body issued the document and superlegalised by the Czech Embassy, unless specified otherwise by an international treaty (see below). If the document was issued by a state with which the CR does not have an agreement on legal assistance in civil and family affairs and this state has not acceded to the Convention on Abolishing the Requirements for Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, the Hague Convention , then the foreign document must be provided with superlegalisation and an official translation into the Czech language (Act No. 36/1967 Col., on Experts and Interpreters, as amended). Only for such a document is there a guarantee that it was issued by the authorised body of the foreign state in the requisite form.

Thus, if a foreign document is submitted for official pusrposes and it was issued by a state that has acceded to the Hague Convention, also called the “Apostille Convention”, just as the CR, this document must then have an “Apostille” affixed to it and be officially translated into the Czech language (Act No. 36/1967 Col., on Experts and Interpreters, as amended). The list of states parties to the cited convention can be found here. Here is a list of the offices of each state that are competent to issue an Apostille.

An exception to the superlegalisation is when it comes to documents issued by diplomatic representatives or consular officers of states that are signatories to the European Convention on the Abolition of Legalisation of Documents Executed by Diplomatic Agents or Consular Officers (pdf, 97 kB). This exception to superlegalisation likewise concerns documents issued or confirmed by the pertinent foreign consulates if a bilateral consular treaty has been signed.

With effect from February 16th, 2019 the public documents issued by the Member States' authorities to citizens of these Member States are excepted from the requirement of a further verification (Apostille, superlegalization), in accordance to the Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 of the European Parliament and the Council. You will find a list of these public documents at the European e-Justice Portal at this link.

The CR signed an Agreement on Legal Assistance in Civil and Family Affairs with some states, on the basis of which documents issued or verified by the pertinent foreign body have the probative power of public documents and can be used in proceedings before Czech authorities without further verification, or, if needs be, they clearly set out which body must verify the document for it to have the probative power of a public document in the territory of the other contractual party. Such a document is submitted for official purposes with just an official translation into the Czech language (Act No. 36/1967 Col., on Experts and Interpreters, as amended) a list of these agreements can be found here (Point V.).

Public documents issued by a Member State of the European Union to a citizen of this Member State, mentioned in the list at this link and accompanied by a a multilingual standard form in accordance to the Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 of the European Parliament and the Council will be accepted without an official translation. All the other documents have to be submitted in original with an official translation to Czech. Translation of public documents could be made by a person registered in the list of interpreters in accordance to the Section 16(3) of the Administrative Procedure Code or by a person registered in the list of qualified persons to carry out certified translations to the Czech in the other Member State, in accordance with national law, in accordance to the Regulation (EU) 2016/1191

As concerns an application for a Blue Card or Employee Card, the main requirements are education certificates or diplomas. It is not necessary to superlegalise this or affix an Apostille, but it is necessary to have it validated  by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the CR (primary, secondary, vocationalandhigher education).

  


Department for Asylum and Migration Policy, February 25th, 2019

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