Notary services

In accordance with the Hague Convention of October 5, 1961, in which both the Russian Federation and the Luxembourg are participants, documents authenticated by an Apostille of a participant country are exempted from validation (i.e., from verification of the authenticity of the signatures, the authority of the persons signing, and the authenticity of the seals and stamps) by the consular establishments of other participant countries.

Documents with Apostille do not require any further legalization.

The Apostille is a stamp established by the Hague Convention, placed in documents by a competent authority of the country in which the document was issued. In the Luxembourg, the Apostille is placed by the Ministry of Foreign Affaires of Luxemburg,

• Ministère des affaires étrangères Bureau des Passeports, Visas et Légalisations
  6, rue de l'Ancien Athénée, L-1144 Luxembourg Luxembourg.

The following documents are considered official documents in accordance with the Hague Convention (documents for public use), and an Apostille may be placed on them:

• Documents issued by organizations or officials associated with courts or state tribunals, including documents issued by a public prosecutor, court secretary, or bailiff;
• Documents of administrative (executive) authorities;
• Documents certified by a notary public;
• Official validating endorsements, placed on documents signed by individuals acting in a personal capacity, such as official certificates of the registration of a document or of its existence on the date indicated, as well as official and notarial verifications of signatures.

The Hague Convention does not cover the following documents:

• Documents issued by officials of diplomatic missions or consular establishments;
• Documents of administrative authorities that have direct bearing on commercial transactions or customs operations;
• IDs.

The Consulate section provides authentication of powers of attorney, drawn up in Luxemburg to be used in Russia. A power of attorney can be certified on behalf of one or multiple Principals in the name of one or multiple Agents.

Authentication of any type of power of attorney requires Principal’s personal appearance at the Consulate. The Consul certifies Principal’s identity and mental competence.

The Consulate section accepts only debit or credit cards. The fees are as follows:

1. Power of Attorney for Possession and/or Disposition of Property in Russia    

• for  relatives — 47 €   
• for all others — 94 €.

2. Other types of Special Powers of Attorney — 47 €.

A certified copy is a photocopy of a filed document (the original), legal or other, in its entirety that is sworn to be a true copy by a competent authority. 

When presenting copies of specific documents, this official confirmation is sometimes required in order for the copy to serve the same legal purpose as the original document.

To certify a true copy, you must:

- submit the original document;

- submit the copy/copies of the document;

- present your identification (passport, ID card);

and

- pay the administrative fee 16 € for each page of the document.

Signature authentication is an official confirmation that a signature on a document belongs to the person who has signed it. On some specific documents, such as various declarations or powers of attorney, this official confirmation is required in order for the document to be considered legally valid or serve its intended legal purpose.

To authenticate your signature on a document, you must:

- appear in person at the Consulate section,

- present your identification (passport, ID card), and

- pay the administrative fee 16 € for each signature.

NOTE: A consular signature authentication conveys no judgement on the part of the authentication officer as to the validity or truth of an authenticated document. Despite the fact that only signature, and not the contents, is authenticated, Consulate section will not authenticate signatures on documents that conflict with Russian legislation. Also, signatures on blank pages will not be authenticated.

The official language in the Russian Federation is Russian. Thus, foreign documents which need to be used in the Russian Federation must be accompanied by the corresponding translation into Russian and subsequent authentication of the translation by the Consulate section.

In Luxemburg there are 3 official languages: French, German and Luxembourgish.   

To authenticate a translation, the applicant must:

• submit the original document
• submit the translation (we advise to present translations made by certified translators)
• present an identification (passport, ID card)
• pay the application fee (translation into Russian – 39 € per page, from Russian — 54 € per page).