All accompanying documents submitted as part of applications must be duly certified/authenticated as described below. Where the accompanying documents requested are copies, these should be certified/authenticated in the same manner.

Document languages ​​and translations
All documents submitted with the application must be in Greek or English. Otherwise, they should be accompanied by an official translation into one of these languages from sworn translators or by a Consular Authority of the issuing country or a government department of the issuing country.

Apostille certifications of public documents
All accompanying public documents issued in other states that have ratified the Convention on Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, also known as the Hague Apostille Convention of 5.10.1961, must be duly authenticated, in accordance with the Law on the Abolition of the Requirement to Legalize Foreign Public Documents of 1972 (Apostille stamp). The Ministry of Justice and Public Order is responsible as the Central Authority for the implementation of the Hague Apostille Convention of 5.10.1961. For more information follow this link (information from the competent Ministry, Ministry of Justice and Public Order).

Diplomatic certification of public documents
In the case of public accompanying documents issued in states that have not ratified the Hague Apostille Convention of 5.10.1961, these should bear diplomatic certification. Diplomatic certification is done in one of the following ways:

If there is an accredited diplomatic/consular authority of the Republic in that country, the chain of diplomatic certification is as follows:

• Certification of the document by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the issuing country.
• Certification of the signature of the official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the issuing country by the diplomatic/consular authority of the Republic based in that country.
• Certification of the signature of the official of the specific diplomatic/consular authority of the Republic by the competent Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic.

If there is no accredited diplomatic/consular authority of the Republic in that country, the chain of diplomatic certification is as follows:

• Certification of the document by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the issuing country.
• Certification of the signature of the official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the issuing country by a diplomatic/consular authority of the issuing country in a third country.
• Certification of the signature of the official of the specific foreign diplomatic/consular authority by an official of the diplomatic/consular authority of the Republic in the specific third country.
• Certification of the signature of the official of the diplomatic/consular authority of the Republic in the specific third country by the competent Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic.

Certification of non-public documents
In the case of non-public accompanying documents issued in other states, they should be certified by a certifying authority of that state (eg certifying officer).

Documents exempted from the obligation of any certification/ authentication
By virtue of bilateral state agreements that have been concluded, documents issued by Russia or Serbia are exempted from the obligation of any certification/ authentication provided that they are properly signed and bear the official seal of the competent state authority that issued them.

Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 exempting certain public documents from authentication and notarization (Apostille)
According to EU regulation 2016/1191, from 16 February 2019, certain public documents and their certified copies are exempted from authentication and apostille within the EU. For some of these documents (see below in bold), the citizens can request a multilingual standard form which is a translation aid, in which case it is not necessary to provide an official translation of the official document.

The exemption from authentication and notation applies only to documents and their certified copies issued by the public authorities of an EU Member State and submitted to the public authorities of another Member State. These refer to:

• documents emanating from a court or a court official;
• administrative documents;
• notarial acts;
• official certificates placed on private documents;
• diplomatic and consular documents.

In addition, the exemption only applies to documents that certify one or more of the areas listed below. The indications in bold indicate that a relevant public document is issued in Cyprus for which a multilingual standard form is also available. Please note that not all standard forms are issued in all Member States.

• birth
• death
• a person being alive
• 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
• the right to vote and stand as a candidate in municipal elections and elections to the European Parliament.

A multilingual standard form can only be used in another Member State and must be submitted together with the public document to which it is attached.

Where a Member State allows the submission of a certified copy of a public document instead of the original, the authorities of that Member State must accept certified copies issued in the Member State where the public document was issued.

When the authorities of a Member State to which a public document or its certified copy is submitted have reasonable doubt as to the authenticity of that public document or its certified copy, they shall use the Internal Market Information system – “IMI” for the following:

• check the available sample documents in the IMI repository
• if they are still in doubt after examining the specimen, they submit an information request via IMI to the authority that issued the document.

A separate repository will be made available in the IMI system in which anonymized falsified public documents identified and deemed appropriate to be posted for the information of other Member States will be posted.

More information on the Regulation and the multilingual standard forms are available on the EU e-Justice web portal.