Apostille (legalization)
An apostille is an international certification that confirms the authenticity of public documents for use in countries that are signatories to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents. The apostille certifies the authenticity of the signature, seal, and official stamp on a given document. A document issued in one contracting state can therefore be used in another contracting state without the need for special recognition. The Hague Convention thus simplified the legalisation process between the contracting parties.
The Republic of Croatia has also concluded bilateral agreements with a number of other countries by which legalisation has been completely abolished. Therefore, a public document issued in one contracting state may be used in another without any additional certification.
Exceptions
In the Republic of Croatia, in addition to the Hague Convention and bilateral agreements, Regulation (EU) No 2016/1191 on public documents also applies directly. This Regulation provides that certain public documents and their certified copies issued within the European Union as of 16 February 2019 are exempt from legalisation and the formal requirements relating to apostille certification. Specifically, this applies to public documents relating to birth, proof of a person being alive, death, marriage (including the capacity to marry and marital status), registered partnerships (including the capacity to enter into a registered partnership and the status of a registered partnership), residence and/or domicile, and the absence of a criminal record. Therefore, for the use of these documents within the European Union, it is no longer necessary to obtain an apostille. Furthermore, the competent authority is obliged to issue these documents in a multilingual standard form if requested by the applicant.
Proceedings
Thus, when issuing certain documents in the Republic of Croatia for use abroad, it is first necessary to determine in which country the document will be used and what type of document it is. If an apostille is required, any municipal court in Croatia will, upon request, affix an apostille to documents issued by authorities that have their seat within that court’s jurisdiction, while the Croatian Ministry of Justice will certify documents issued by authorities within the jurisdiction of any municipal court in Croatia. The request must be submitted in writing and accompanied by proof of payment of the court fee.
