How is certification done by a notary?

In what cases is it necessary to notarize the translation of documents?

Notarized confirmation of the translator's signature gives the translation of the document legal force; this is necessary for submitting documents to various authorities and authorities. Notarization is required when:

• translation of official documents;
• opening a representative office of a foreign company;
• contacting government agencies (embassy, ​​consulate);
• obtaining a loan from a foreign bank;
• traveling abroad (study, work, tourism);
• confirmation of a copy of the document.

Where and when can a translation be certified?

You can order a notarized translation from us. As a rule, we carry out certified translations within 24 hours from the date of receipt of the application. With the exception of days before weekends or holidays, when the notary does not work.

— What is the certification procedure?

1. 1. The finished translation is sewn to the original or copy of the document.
2. 2. The translator puts his signature under the last sentence of the text confirming the correctness of the translation. This happens in the presence of a notary.
3. 3. The notary certifies the authenticity of the translator's signature with his signature and seal.
4. 4. The notary enters the translation into the notary register under an individual number.

Rules for certifying a copy of a document

• the inscription “Correct” or “Copy is correct” is affixed
• position of the person who certified the copy,
• personal signature of the person who certified the copy,
• decryption of signature (initials and surname),
• date of certification,
• seal of the organization/individual entrepreneur.
• in a multi-page document, a certification inscription is placed on each sheet OR the document is stitched and the certification inscription is made at the place of stitching.

Correct/Copy is correct General Director Personal signature I.I. Ivanov Date Stamp

The period for certification of documents at the time of submission should not exceed:

• copy of passport – 3 days
• copies of other documents - 1 month

Do notarized translations have a validity period?

The validity period of the translation is the same as that of the original document. If changes occur in the document, it must be translated again.

2. Document requirements

• Are there external requirements for documents to be certified?
• What documents can be legalized?
• What documents are not subject to legalization?
• Is it possible to attach a translation to the original document?
• Do I need to present the original at the time of ordering?
• Do you give a receipt for the safety of documents in your office?
• Is it possible to translate only part of a document?

Document requirements

— Are there external requirements for documents to be certified?

For a translation to have legal force, the document must have a signature, seal and date.

— What documents can be legalized?

• Ø Legal: statutory,
• constituent,
• certificates, licenses, protocols, etc.;
• Ø personal : (more details in the “Personal Documents” section) birth/death/marriage/divorce certificate;
• ID cards (passport);
• diplomas, certificates, grade books;

What documents are not subject to legalization?

The following cannot be certified by a notary:

• documents on which the seal is laminated,
• documents with unspecified corrections/strikeouts,
• documents issued by government agencies and without an apostille,
• agreements between legal entities without a seal and signature,
• unstitched documents,
• documents where the name is written by hand,
• documents that contradict the legislation of the Russian Federation,
• documents that are directly related to foreign economic activity (certified by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry).

If you provide a copy of the document, it must be clear, all inscriptions in seals/stamps must be readable.

Procedure for certification of copies of documents

The procedure for certifying copies of documents is actually quite simple, although it is regulated simultaneously by several legislative acts , one of which has been in force since 1983:

• Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of August 4, 1983 No. 9779-X;
• State standard of the Russian Federation GOST R 6.30-200 dated March 3, 2003 No. 65-st.

The legislation provides for 2 main certification options:

A notary is most often required by businesses, but for employees a simple thing is enough - the employer’s signature. In remote rural settlements where there is no notary, this function is performed by the head of the municipality or his authorized deputy. Those acts that are prepared within the company itself are certified independently: orders and contracts. It is legal to endorse documents created by another institution only when the originals are stored in the company itself. This rule most often applies to the work record book.

Preparation of documents

Let's look at the general rules for certifying copies of documents. To obtain a certified copy, the employee orally or in writing contacts the employer or the human resources department directly. A written application is prepared in free form. Usually the problem is resolved within one business day, but in some cases it takes 2-3 days. For certification you need the original and its copy.

If the original is kept by the employer, he himself makes a copy, certifies it and gives it to the employee. A citizen's signature is not required.

Check the quality of the original. If some of the inscriptions have been erased, there are erasures or fragments that are difficult to read, simple photocopying will not be enough. The copy will be of poor quality and will not be accepted. What to do in such a situation? Try scanning the original and then printing the scan. The quality will be better, and for the receiving institutions it does not matter exactly how the copy is made.

Who has the right to certify a copy?

The following have the right of internal certification:

• manager/director;
• deputy chief;
• head of the HR department;
• an authorized person, if this right is recorded in the organization’s statutory documents.

If the organization has a seal, the signature must be secured with it. The stamp is placed in such a way as not to overlap the visa, position and surname. A sample of the “Copy is correct” stamp is shown in the images accompanying the material. If a legal entity operates without a seal, the papers are certified only by signature. The institution accepting copies must take this nuance into account and does not have the right to refuse acceptance due to the lack of a seal.

Certification inscription

The authenticity of the copy is confirmed by the wording “Correct”. If a copy is being prepared for another organization - for example, for a bank - according to the new requirements, it is necessary to add the storage location of the original to this inscription. Thus, the inscriptions on copies of the same document will be as follows:

1. Inside, the position and signature of the person endorsing the document.
2. For another institution: “True”, “The original employment order/other act is stored in Tekhnika LLC, file No. 03-1861 for the year 20..,” as well as the position and signature of the responsible compiler.

Sometimes the question arises: “the copy is correct” or “true” - which is correct? The updated GOST suggests writing “True”, it is better to use it. However, different wording will not invalidate the copy. An example of how to properly certify a document is presented in the images accompanying the material.

Notarization

Notarization of a copy is required only when this is expressly stated in the description of the set of papers. Entrepreneurs and legal entities often encounter notarization, for example, when registering an LLC. But in some cases, ordinary citizens are forced to use such services. For example:

• marriage contracts;
• acceptance of inheritance;
• translations of documents from foreign languages;
• powers of attorney with transfer of rights;
• contracts for the purchase and sale of real estate, if the number of owners is more than one.

Notary services are paid; certification of one page will cost 1-2 thousand rubles. For endorsement, the notary will definitely need the original.

In what cases will a notary refuse?

The notary may refuse to certify documents. There are quite a few reasons, the most common include:

1. The applicant provides documents with laminated surfaces. The specialist cannot verify their authenticity and therefore refuses to certify them.
2. Papers of foreign origin, not legalized in accordance with Russian legislation, written in a foreign language.
3. Acts on several sheets, but not sewn or numbered (the problem can be solved very easily: count and sew the sheets, stick a label on the last sheet with the number of sheets).
4. The original contains damaged portions that are difficult or impossible to read. Also, papers with notes and corrections, the legality of which has not been confirmed by Fr., are not certified.
5. Some of the text is written in pencil.

If you have doubts about the condition of the document and the ability to endorse it in the proper manner, it is better to initially consult with a specialist and try to find a solution to the problem together. After verification, the notary puts his seal: a sample of the seal is shown in the image above.

Legalization of documents

Documents issued on the territory of the Russian Federation have legal force only on the territory of the state. If you are going to travel to another country, you need to translate and legalize all the necessary documents. Legalization

gives the document legal force. This means that your document will be recognized by the official bodies of foreign countries, otherwise it will mean nothing.

There are two types of legalization of documents: consular legalization

and affixing the “
Apostille
” stamp. The second option is a simplified method of legalization, which is carried out to submit documents to the official bodies and institutions of one of the countries included in the Hague Convention. You can read more about this in the “Apostille” section.

How to certify documents with a notary

You can check the activities of a notary on the website of the Russian Ministry of Justice. Follow the link notaries.minjust.ru/#/registry/list.

Please note: if a person is on this list, this does not mean that he has been hired as a notary.
It contains information about those who passed the exam but have not yet been appointed to a position, and those who have lost this position. Therefore, be sure to look in the far right column of the table (Acting) to see if the notary is active. (function(w, d, n, s, t) { w[n] = w[n] || []; w[n].push(function() { Ya.Context.AdvManager.render({ blockId: "RA-834760-17", renderTo: "yandex_rtb_R-A-834760-17", async: true }); }); t = d.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s = d.createElement(" script"); s.type = "text/javascript"; s.src = "//an.yandex.ru/system/context.js"; s.async = true; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t) ; })(this, this.document, "yandexContextAsyncCallbacks"); .xbejt60aedd1cd193d { background: #efefef; padding: 15px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 10px; } @media screen and (min-width: 1201px) { .xbejt60aedd1cd193d { display: none; } } @media screen and (min-width: 993px) and (max-width: 1200px) { .xbejt60aedd1cd193d { display: block; } } @media screen and (min-width: 769px) and (max-width: 992px) { .xbejt60aedd1cd193d { display: block; } } @media screen and (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 768px) { .xbejt60aedd1cd193d { display: block; } } @media screen and (max-width: 767px) { .xbejt60aedd1cd193d { display: block; } } (function(w, d, n, s, t) { w[n] = w[n] || []; w[n].push(function() { Ya.Context.AdvManager.render({ blockId: "RA-834760-10", renderTo: "yandex_rtb_R-A-834760-10", async: true }); }); t = d.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s = d.createElement (“script”); s.type = “text/javascript”; s.src = “//an.yandex.ru/system/context.js”; s.async = true; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); })(this, this.document, "yandexContextAsyncCallbacks"); .fziks60aedd1cd17d1 { background: #efefef; padding: 15px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 10px; } @media screen and (min-width: 1201px) { .fziks60aedd1cd17d1 { display: block; } } @media screen and (min-width: 993px) and (max-width: 1200px) { .fziks60aedd1cd17d1 { display: block; } } @media screen and (min-width: 769px) and (max-width: 992px) { .fziks60aedd1cd17d1 { display: none; } } @media screen and (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 768px) { .fziks60aedd1cd17d1 { display: none; } } @media screen and (max-width: 767px) { .fziks60aedd1cd17d1 { display: none; } }

What is “consular legalization”?

Consular legalization is confirmation that a document complies with the laws of the state in which it was issued. This type of legalization is necessary for countries that are not parties to the Hague Convention (as opposed to an apostille) - these are the majority of Arab countries, countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America, Canada.

Consular legalization is carried out after a notarized translation and includes certification of the signature and status of the official and the seal of the authorized body, the passage of the document by a number of authorities: the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, the Consular Service Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the consulate of the country where it will be used (and the document will only have legal force in this country).

Question and answer: legal force of a copy of a document

Question:

Does a notarized copy of a document have the same legal force as the original itself?

Answer:

A notarized copy of a document does not replace the original. It has higher legal force than a regular copy, but is not equivalent to either the original or the duplicate. "GOST R 7.0.8-2013. National standard of the Russian Federation. System of standards on information, librarianship and publishing. Record keeping and archiving. Terms and definitions" (approved by Order of Rosstandart dated October 17, 2013 N 1185-st) {ConsultantPlus}

20. authentic document: A document, information about the author, time and place of creation of which, contained in the document itself or identified in another way, confirms the authenticity of its origin.

21. original document: The first or only copy of the document.

22. duplicate document: A duplicate copy of the original document.

23. copy of document: A copy of a document that fully reproduces the information of the original document.

25. certified copy of a document: A copy of a document on which, in accordance with the established procedure, details are affixed that ensure its legal significance.

At the same time, in a number of decisions, courts recognize a notarized copy as equivalent to the original

Experts explain the following.

Art. 77, “Commentary on the legislation of the Russian Federation on notaries” (article-by-article) (edited by D.Ya. Maleshin) (“Statute”, 2018) {ConsultantPlus}

On the one hand, a notarized copy of a document does not have the legal force of the original. On the other hand, it differs from a regular copy of a document, which has no legal force at all.

The lack of legislative regulation has led to diversity and contradiction in judicial practice on this issue.

The first position is that a notarized copy of a document has the legal force of the original. The Third Arbitration Court of Appeal directly ruled that “a notarized copy of a document has the same legal force as the original document” <1>. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation confirmed a similar approach: “a notarized copy of the power of attorney has the legal force of the original power of attorney” <2>.

———————————

<1> Resolution of the Third Arbitration Court of Appeal dated December 25, 2012 N 03AP-4596/12 (case A33-8612/2012).

<2> Ruling of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of February 27, 2021 N 304-KG16-20906.

The second position of the courts comes down to considering a notarized copy of a document as a duly certified copy. It is based on the provisions of Part 8 of Art. 75 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, which provides for the possibility of submitting written evidence to the arbitration court both in the original and in the form of a duly certified copy. The definition of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation establishes that “duly certified copies of documents include only those copies whose identity is certified by a notary or certified by the signature of the competent official from whom the corresponding document comes” <1>, i.e. The Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation, in fact, put an equal sign between a copy of a document certified by a notary and a copy of a document certified by another person, for example an employer. If we consider the legal force of notarization of a copy of a document from a similar perspective, then, firstly, its status is reduced; secondly, it is not entirely clear what is meant by “duly certified copies of documents” and how to compare them with the originals.

———————————

<1> Determination of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated December 20, 2010 N VAS-14501/10 “On the transfer of the case to the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation.”

Thus, in modern judicial practice and doctrine, an outwardly generally balanced position has emerged regarding the legal force of a notarized copy of a document as the indisputability of its evidentiary value or its unconditional reliability.

Ch. II, § 1, “Defects, errors and troubles: legal regulation” (Bychkov A.I.) (“Infotropic Media”, 2017) {ConsultantPlus}

In business practice, originals (originals) of documents are used, their duplicates (documents produced to replace damaged or lost originals), as well as copies. The original document and its duplicate are equivalent in their legal force, subject to the following conditions. The duplicate must reproduce the entire contents of the original, contain the necessary details (Appeal ruling of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Mari El dated April 26, 2016 N 33-679/2016), in appropriate cases must be notarized if the original was made in this form, and compiled in compliance established requirements (Appeal ruling of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Tatarstan dated June 18, 2015 in case No. 33-8887/15).

The receipt by the lender of a duplicate of the loan agreement from a notary in replacement of the lost original cannot in itself indicate either the preservation of the obligations between the parties arising from the loan agreement, or the failure of the borrower to fulfill this agreement. Moreover, this duplicate cannot indicate that the lender lost the original agreement and did not return it to the borrower. If evidence other than a duplicate of the agreement confirming the borrower’s failure to fulfill obligations under the loan agreement is not presented in the case materials, then the lender’s claim against the borrower will be rejected in full (Appeal ruling of the Rostov Regional Court dated July 6, 2016 in case No. 33-11150/ 2016).

This quality (equal legal force as a general rule) distinguishes originals and duplicates from a copy of a document, the compliance of which with the original can always be questioned. In court proceedings, original documents are presented to the court if the circumstances of the case can be confirmed exclusively by such documents. The originals must also be submitted at the request of the court if it is impossible to resolve the case without the originals or the submitted copies of the same document are different in content (clause 2 of Article 71 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, clause 9 of Article 75 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation and clause 3 of Art. 70 CAS RF).

The originals are submitted to the case file or for review by the court in order to understand all the factual circumstances of the dispute and their correct assessment. It should be taken into account that the court cannot consider as proven circumstances confirmed only by a copy of a document or other written evidence if the original document is lost and not handed over to the court, the copies of this document presented by each of the disputing parties are not identical to each other and it is impossible to establish the true content of the original document using other evidence. A fact to be established with the help of a lost original is not considered proven (clause 7 of article 67 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, clause 6 of article 71 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, clause 7 of article 84 of the Code of Arbitration Procedures of the Russian Federation). However, such a requirement does not apply if only one copy of the document is presented in the case materials and there is no other copy that does not correspond to it. In this case, there are no grounds for rejecting this evidence (Resolution of the Arbitration Court of the Ural District dated May 17, 2016 N F09-3113/16).

The review was prepared by specialists from the Consulting Institute of the Group of Companies "Zemlya-SERVICE"