The public documents are acknowledged abroad if they are legalized. Such documents are issued by state institutions.

Legalization means that the documents issued by the authorities of a certain country or which are made up with their participation comply with the legislation of this country. The whole procedure is in the certification of the clerk’s signature and the seal of the authorized government body as well as in the comparison of the content with the requirements of the legislation of the country acknowledging their legal force. If you present the document before a state institution you would most probably need to legalize it.

The use of an apostille as a form of legalization of documents is regulated by the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents, signed in Hague on October 5, 1961. For Bulgaria, the Hague Convention entered into force on April 30, 2001. The Convention provides for a unified method of formalizing a certain category of documents (public documents) intended for use abroad – by placing on the document itself or in an annex to it a special certificate – an apostille.

Documents with an apostille are not legalized by a Bulgarian diplomatic or consular mission accredited to the respective country. These documents are recognized by the Bulgarian authorities when an apostille is affixed to them or attached to them in original form. Documents bearing an apostille are recognized and can be effective in any of the states parties to the convention.

For countries with which the Republic of Bulgaria has signed bilateral legal assistance agreements and which contain texts exempting documents from legalization with an Apostille, documents issued by the foreign country should bear the stamp of the authority authorized in the agreement. The document issued in this way is recognized by Bulgarian institutions and only requires a translation into Bulgarian and certification of the translation by a Notary.

Certified translation:

Written certified translations from Bulgarian into a foreign language are made by a sworn translator and certified by the Consular Relations Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Written certified translations from a foreign language into Bulgarian are made by a sworn translator and certified by a Bulgarian notary.

A sworn (certified) translator is an individual who is authorized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to translate documents and other papers.