Legalisation of foreign public documents

Legalisation of foreign public documents

Legalisation of a document is undertaken for official documents issued in one country to be recognised when presented in another country. It is a verification of the signature, the position of the signatory and the stamp in the document in cases of bearing the stamp applied on the document. The public documents issued in countries which are not member states of the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 “Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents” must be legalised before presenting them in Lithuania.

The Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Australia only accepts third country legalised documents for consular legalisation provided all the following criteria are met:

• the foreign national submitting the document must legally reside in Australia or New Zealand;
• the foreign national submits the documents at the Embassy in person for himself/herself or for members of the immediate family only (spouse, parents, children and adopted children);
• the document has been already legalised by the issuing country’s diplomatic mission in Australia.

Documents that do not meet the requirements above should be submitted at the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania accredited to the issuing country, or to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania in Vilnius.

For document legalisation at the Embassy you must book an appointment in advance via KONSREG electronic registration system.

When applying for legalisation please bring the following to your appointment:

• the document (original);
• valid passport or identity card of the person submitting the document for legalisation;
• if submitting on behalf of immediate family members (spouse, parent, child, or adopted child), the following additional documents are required: copy of the representative’s passport or ID card and proof of relationship: marriage certificate, birth certificate or adoption documents;
• a free-form request (an application letter) including following information: country in which the legalised document is to be submitted and applicant’s contact details (e-mail address and telephone number);
• 30 EUR consular fee for legalisation of one document (payments are made by card during the appointment).

Following official documents are accepted for legalisation:

• Issued by government or municipal institutions or officials, also by prosecutor, court official or person implementing court decisions;
• Administrative documents;
• Notarial acts;
• Official confirmations of documents signed by natural persons;
• Notarial transcripts of official documents.

Documents must be orderly and readable. If the document consists of a few pages, they have to be affixed or sewn together. Each document is approved separately (e. g. diploma and its appendix are two (2) separate documents).

IMPORTANT: The legalization of Police Clearance Certificates for foreign citizens who intend to study in Lithuania is done at MFA of the Republic of Lithuania through the educational institutions. The students should contact the educational institutions in Lithuania, in which they plan to study and to clarify the process of legalization of documents.

For more information please visit the webpage of MFA of Lithuania.