What an apostille looks like, and the papers you file with it

The form of the apostille stamp is fixed by the annex to the 1961 Hague Convention and is the same in every contracting state, Russia included. What differs is the detail of how it is filled in and which part of the document a given Russian authority attaches it to — and there is less uniformity there than one might expect.

The form of the apostille: ten fields

A square stamp at least 9 by 9 centimetres. At the top, the heading in French, as the Convention requires: ‘Apostille (Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961)’. Below it, ten numbered fields: the country the document comes from; who signed it; in what capacity that person acted; the seal or stamp on the document; the place and date the apostille was affixed; the authority that affixed it; the number of the apostille; the seal of that authority; the signature of the official. If the French heading or some of those fields are missing, what you are looking at is not an apostille but some other endorsement — an ordinary notarial certification, for instance.

Civil registry, Ministry of Justice, education, police: one stamp, four appearances

The content of the ten fields is the same for all of them, but who signs and where the stamp is physically attached differ by authority, because each works with a different kind of document. The apostille on a civil status certificate and the one on a criminal record certificate from the Ministry of Internal Affairs are as a rule placed on the reverse of the form itself: these are single-sheet documents. The apostille of the Ministry of Justice on a notarised copy or translation, and the apostille of an education authority on a diploma, are usually issued as a separate sheet bound to the bundle, because a copy, a translation and a diploma with its transcript run to several pages. The comparison is set out in the table below; which authority is responsible for which document is on the Where to apply page and in the Documents section.

The electronic apostille and the register

Since July 2022 civil registry apostilles can be checked in the electronic register of the Unified State Register of Civil Status Records, by the number and date of the apostille and the name of the registry office, or by the QR code on the stamp itself. Separately, the Russian Ministry of Justice issues electronic apostilles for electronic documents under the international e-APP programme, but this does not replace the paper one: in most cases — civil status certificates, diplomas, criminal record certificates — the apostille is still an ordinary paper stamp on a paper document. Whether a particular destination country accepts an electronic apostille is best checked with its authorities on the day you apply: practice here changes quickly.

The application for an apostille

Each authority approves its own application form in its regulations, but they come to much the same thing. The application usually asks for: the applicant's full name exactly as in the passport (and, where a representative applies, their details and those of the power of attorney); the exact name of the document with its number and date of issue; the destination country — a named state, not a phrase such as ‘abroad’ or ‘several countries’; and the applicant's telephone number and email. The form can normally be downloaded from the authority's website or collected on the spot when you file.

The receipt for the state fee

The state fee for an apostille is fixed: RUB 2,500 per document under subparagraph 48 of paragraph 1 of Article 333.33 of the Russian Tax Code, whatever the authority. The payment details, however — the payee and the budget classification code (KBK) — are anything but uniform: they differ not only between authorities (civil registry, Ministry of Justice, education authority, police) but between regions for one and the same authority, because the fee goes to the budget where the service is provided. There is no universal set of details covering every case: take the current ones from the official page of the very authority you are filing with, on the day you pay, rather than from a set of instructions a year old.