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The apostille is not placed on everything. There is a list of documents that will not be accepted for apostille at all, and it is better to learn about this before you pay for the service and send the originals a thousand kilometres away. Below is the list from clause 3 of the Rules on the issuance of the apostille (order of 17.03.2023 No. 125/209/293/139/999/5) and the solution for each item.
Source: Rules on affixing the apostille – order of 17.03.2023 No. 125/209/293/139/999/5 · as of 2026
Passport and other identity documents
The apostille is not placed on originals of documents that prove identity and confirm Ukrainian citizenship, nor on documents confirming a person's special status.
What to do: such documents are accepted for apostille in the form of notarized copies. First the notary, then the apostille.
Certificates of the Soviet type
Originals of documents issued by institutions of the former union republics within the USSR are not accepted for apostille on the territory of Ukraine. The exception is stated separately: documents on education and academic degrees issued by the Ukrainian SSR. That is, a Soviet diploma can be apostilled, and a Soviet birth certificate cannot.
What to do: order a reissued certificate or a register extract from the Ukrainian civil registry and apostille that instead. Retrieval of documents through the Diia portal: the fee is UAH 0.51 for a reissued certificate and UAH 73 for an extract, and processing takes 3 working days. The apostille can be placed on the reissued documents received.
Why a Soviet certificate in particular is not apostilled, and what to do instead, we covered in a separate article.
Documents of Ukrainian consulates
The apostille is not placed on documents issued by the foreign diplomatic missions of Ukraine.
What to do: nothing. Such documents do not need an apostille, because the Hague Convention does not apply to them. For example, a certificate issued by the Consulate of Ukraine in Germany is accepted by German authorities with no apostille at all.
Correspondence, clarifications, extracts from the register of rights
Legal acts, clarifications and legal conclusions on their application are not apostilled, nor are documents in the nature of correspondence. No apostille is provided for information from the State Register of Real Property Rights either: it is issued on ordinary A4 sheets without special forms.
What to do: there is no direct substitute here. Check in advance with the receiving party in what form it is prepared to accept this information.
The rule about copies that is forgotten
Copies of documents from the sphere of education and science are apostilled only after the apostille is already on the original. For civil registry documents the rule is similar: a notary certifies a copy for use abroad only after the original has been legalized or apostilled. That is why a copy does not help where the original cannot be apostilled.
Hague Convention exclusions: diplomatic and commercial-customs documents
Article 1 of the Hague Convention expressly excludes two categories from the apostille: documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents, and administrative documents dealing directly with commercial or customs operations (for example, customs declarations, invoices, certain certificates of origin). For diplomatic/consular papers the convention itself provides no apostille. For commercial-customs documents a different route is normally used – certification through the Chamber of Commerce and, where required, consular legalization according to the destination country's rules.
Ukrainian practice: lamination, missing seal, plain copies
In practice an apostille is refused if the original is laminated – the seal and signature cannot be verified under the film, so a duplicate is issued first (for example, a fresh certificate via ДРАЦС, the civil-registry office). It is likewise refused if the document has no official seal or signature, or if it is a plain photocopy that has not been notarized. Old (pre-1991) or worn certificates usually also need a fresh re-issued certificate via ДРАЦС. Birth, marriage and death certificates are apostilled through the Ministry of Justice.
Documents for non-Hague countries: consular legalization
If the destination country has not joined the Hague Convention, the apostille does not apply there – consular legalization is required (Ministry of Justice / Ministry of Foreign Affairs → that country's embassy), and for commercial papers often also certification at the Chamber of Commerce. For example, the UAE is not a party to the convention, so documents for the UAE are legalized through the consular route. Membership does change, though: China joined the Hague Convention effective 07.11.2023, so documents for China are now apostilled rather than consular-legalized (a recent change that many sites still get wrong); Canada joined on 11.01.2024. Always check a country's current status before filing.
Not sure whether your document can be apostilled – send us a photo and we'll suggest a solution and arrange the apostille or legalization for your country.
If a document is refused for an apostille, it is almost always fixable: lamination and outdated forms are replaced with a duplicate, plain copies with notarized ones, and for countries outside the Hague Convention a consular legalization is arranged. The exact route depends on the document type and destination country, and countries' status changes from time to time, so the final requirements are worth confirming with the relevant authority (Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Send us a photo of your document and we'll point you to the correct path without unnecessary steps.
