EU Regulation Exempts Public Documents from Apostille

Starting from 16th February 2019, the EU Regulation No.1191 of 2016 exempts public documents from the Apostille requirement if issued by EU countries (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Hungary) certifying certain facts:

• birth
• death
• name
• marriage, including capacity to marry and marital status
• divorce, legal separation or marriage annulment
• registered partnership, including capacity to enter into a registered partnership and registered partnership status
• dissolution of a registered partnership, legal separation or annulment of a registered partnership
• parenthood
• adoption
• domicile and/or residence
• nationality
• absence of a criminal record, provided that public documents concerning this fact are issued for a citizen of the Union by the authorities of that citizen’s Member State of nationality

This exemption does not apply to:

• public documents issued by the authorities of a third country
• certified copies of documents referred to in point above made by the authorities of a Member State