Apostille requirement abolished in EU for many public documents

[murphaph 7,931]

I did a search for 2016/1191 but nothing came up and this one somehow passed me by so I thought others may have missed it too and it's interesting information.

 

Essentially since January 2019, certain public documents issued or reissued  (since then) do not have to be apostilled for presentation to the authorities in another member state of the European Union. These documents include the big ones like birth, marriage and death certificates.

 

It is also now expected that citizens can request standard multilingual forms with official translation aids which legally nullify the need for certified translations. It will often be cheaper for example to request a reissued copy of a birth certificate with translation aid, rather than pay for a certified translation.

 

https://newlandchase.com/european-union-apostille-no-longer-required-on-public-documents-issued-by-eu-member-states/#:~:text=Under%20the%20Public%20Documents%20Regulation,of%20another%20EU%20member%20state.

[WhyNot_DE 148]

I can confirm that the birth and marriage certificate are issued with an European template where all fields are translated in all EU languages. This document is white stamped and signed. I have not had to notarize nor translate such documents issued in 2016 onwards 

[yourkeau 7,289]

On 8/18/2021, 11:14:01, murphaph said:

Essentially since January 2019, certain public documents issued or reissued  (since then) do not have to be apostilled for presentation to the authorities in another member state of the European Union. These documents include the big ones like birth, marriage and death certificates.

 

Really since 2019? I thought this has been the case since forever. 

 

At least my Poland-issued Ph.D. diploma was accepted everywhere in Germany. When I applied for EU Blue Card back in 2013 the Auslaenderamt requested Polish original rather than English translation (kindly provided by my alma mater for free).

 

I always thought that Apostille is something for non-EU-issued docs. I stand corrected this was not always the case. 

[murphaph 7,931]

Yep, the directive was made in 2016 but the member states had until 2019 to implement. Some presumably implemented it sooner than others. For non-EU an apostille will often not be sufficient and the document will have to be formally legalised in a consulate (of the country you want to present it in) located in the country of issue. This is more complicated than the already simplified apostille process.

[yourkeau 7,289]

1 hour ago, murphaph said:

For non-EU an apostille will often not be sufficient and the document will have to be formally legalised in a consulate (of the country you want to present it in) located in the country of issue. This is more complicated than the already simplified apostille process.

This was the case in Ukraine and I recall it has something to do with the implementation of the Hague Convention. Anyway, at the time I was moving to Germany (2011) the consulate requirement was cancelled, so Apostille was accepted in Germany. 

[BethAnnBitt 2,070]

1 hour ago, murphaph said:

For non-EU an apostille will often not be sufficient and the document will have to be formally legalised in a consulate (of the country you want to present it in) located in the country of issue. This is more complicated than the already simplified apostille process.

I had no trouble in 2019 having an apostille for my marriage certificate recognized.  It was issued from an office in Louisiana. And no apostille for my birth certificate was required.  No translations were done.  But, as always, I suspect these things may vary from office to office.  

[murphaph 7,931]

They sure do. I was required to get my (English language) Irish birth certificate translated here. Thankfully no apostille was required however.

 

If asked today I could just get a new cert from Ireland and it would conform to the EU template.

[Metall 13,842]

I needed an Apostille for some US documents... and translated them myself. Nobody cared.