How to legalise documents for use in Russia from Countries that do not use Apostilles - Russian Ukrainian Belarus Travel Music Woman Dating News

	The Russian Meeting Place: A place to meet people and talk about all things Russian... International Discussions about Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Travel, Music, Russian News, Ukrainian culture, Belarusian Dating, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kiev and other intelligent topics about life in the former Soviet Union.

Pages: 1

How to legalise documents for use in Russia from Countries that do not use Apostilles
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)

Posted by: deccie

Hi Guys,
I am currently proceeding with the process of trying to arrange the documentation needed for our wedding date.

Normally, this is a little tedious to do in America or Australia or any country but the process is well outlined but now I am working in the Middle East it is anything but easy.

Normally the process on my side is:

1. Apply for a search of the Births/Deaths and Marriages Registry in my state of residence and perform a marriage search in my name, get the results sent to DFAT. At DFAT they apply an Apostille. This document is now ready to be sent to Russia.
Note 1: This document is not strictly needed but they (DFAT) like you to do it.

2. Fill in the Application form for a Certificate of No Impediment to Marriage.
Get the signature notarised. Send this document to DFAT. DFAT then issue the CNI. DFAT use the results of the marriage search when deciding on the wording in this document. When they issue the CNI, have it Apostilled.

3. Notarised copies of your passport information and Visa pages.
Get an Apostille applied to these.

4. A letter saying you want to marry and that you are free to marry. Get this notarised and apply for an Apostille.

Now, here is my problem.

I completed steps 1 and 2 without a problem and sent those documents off to Russia and they have been received. 3 and 4 are causing my grief even though they *should* be easy. Here's why.

Only DFAT can apply an Australian Apostille to a document. DFAT can only apply an Apostille to a document notarised by an Australian Notary public. (Embassy or consulate will do). There is no Australian Embassy in Oman.

The closest is Saudi. I cannot send the documents to Saudi by post because one of them requires the notarisation of my signature which can obviously only be done when I am in their presence. I am also reluctant to send my passport off to them to get the copy notarised because of previous events that happened back in Australia.. So, I got copies and the signature previously notarised by the British Embassy here in Muscat and sent them back to Aus. But the Australian government refused to apply the Apostille for the reasons outlined above.

Now, the question is where to from here:

Not all governments are signatories to the Hague convention that decides on Apostilles so there MUST be a process to legalise the document for use in Russia without an Apostille. I need to find out what that is..

I have also sent an email to the local Russian Embassy here to see if they will apply an Apostille for me. After all, a Russian Apostille should be good in Russia. (-:

Can anyone think of any other alternatives or outline the process to legalise a document to be used in Russia?

Thanks

Posted by: deccie

It looks like I have a possible fix to the problem but I won't know for sure for a few days.
I am going to bypass the Australian government completely and get the Russian Embassy here to legalise the documents instead.

I will post the result of what happens.