Certification and legalization of documents for Estonia
Follow the certification requirements below, the levels of which depend on where the documents are signed or issued
Legalisation-free countries
only notary certification required
If your documents are from countries listed below, then notary certification of the document is sufficient (i.e. apostille and legalisation is not required).
Belgium
Ireland
Italy
France
Denmark
Russia
Latvia
Lithuania
Ukraine
Poland
Apostille countries
notary certification and apostille required
In case your documents are from member countries of the Hague Apostille Convention, then you need to certify them at the notary and then add an apostille. The document must be apostilled in the country where it was issued.
There are around 120 contracting party states to this Convention. When a document has been certified with an apostille, its authenticity is recognised in all other countries that have ratified the Convention without any additional formalities.
List of apostille countries:
Member States of the Hague Convention
Legalisation countries
notary certification and 2-level legalisation is needed
A public document should be legalised if it is intended to be used in a country that has not acceded to the Hague Apostille Convention
China, Canada and Chile are most well-known countries, the documents of which require full 2-step legalisation.
A foreign document destined for use in Estonia should be first legalised by the Foreign Ministry of the country where the document was issued, and then legalised either by the Estonian embassy in that foreign country, or by the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In case the Estonian embassy is located too far from you, the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs generally does the second legalisation step itself (without involving the embassy).
Requirements for foreign company documents
Required registry documents
Generally the Estonian notaries require the following registry documents from foreign legal entities:
Registry extract with board member and shareholder information
Articles of Association
UBO excerpt
In case of no official UBO registry, UBO form must be filled in
Required info in documents
The name of the company
Registry code
Address
The names, birth dates or personal codes of the directors or board members
Representation rights of directors (jointly or separately)
No bearer shares or unallocated shares allowed
UBO form or excerpt from UBO registry required
The names of the directors
must not be different from how their names are written in their passports (or on other documents presented in Estonia to the notary)
Bearer shares
No bearer shares or unallocated shares allowed
Document languages
Only English, Russian or Estonian language documents are accepted without translation
Corporate documents can't be older than 3 months, to be valid in Estonia.
List of countries, the notaries of which are accepted in Estonia
The following information is related only to powers of attorney and other documents signed by the client. Foreign legal entity registry documents and criminal records are still accepted from every country.
Accepted countries
Remote services can be applied, in case you certify the power of attorney and passport copy in a country from the following list. The list includes countries, the notaries of which are accepted in Estonia:
Albania;
Andorra;
Armenia;
Australia, excluding Christmas Island, Cocos Islands and Norfolk Island;
Austria;
Belarus;
Belgium;
Bolivia;
Bosnia ja Herzegovina;
Brazil;
Bulgaria;
Canada (including Quebec province notary);
Chili;
Columbia;
Costa Rica;
Croatia;
Czech Republic;
Cyprus;
Denmark;
Dominican Republic;
Ecuador;
Finland;
France;
Georgia;
Germany;
Greece;
Guatemala;
Honduras;
Hong Kong (Xianggang);
Hungary;
Iceland;
India;
Ireland;
Israel;
Italy;
Japan;
Latvia;
Liechtenstein;
Lithuania;
Luxemburg;
Macedonia;
Malta;
Mauritius;
Mexico;
Monaco;
Mongolia;
Montenegro;
Morocco;
Netherlands;
New Zealand, excluding Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau;
Nicaragua;
Norway;
Panama;
Paraguay;
People’s Republic of China, excluding Macau;
Peru;
Poland;
Portugal;
Puerto Rico;
Republic of Korea;
Romania;
Russian Federation;
Salvador;
San Marino;
Singapore;
Slovakia;
Slovenia;
South African Republic;
Spain;
Sweden;
Switzerland;
Turkey;
Ukraine;
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (including London city scrivener notary), excluding Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Gibraltar, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, Saint Helena, Turks and Caicos, Channel Islands (Guernsey, Jersey), Isle of Man and Pitcairn Islands;
United States of America (including Louisiana State notary public), excluding United States Virgin Islands and Northern Mariana Islands;
Uruguay;
Uzbekistan;
Vatican (Holy See);
Venezuela.
Not accepted countries
The notaries of countries, which are not mentioned in the left list, are not accepted in Estonia. The list includes, but is not limited to:
Malaysia
Indonesia
Vietnam
Egypt
Pakistan
United Arab Emirates
Kazakhstan
Serbia
Jordan
Lebanon
In case you are located in a country, the notaries of which are not included in the above list, you have two options:
You travel to a country from the list of accepted notaries
You travel to Estonia for a day (we can provide a business visa invitation letter, if required)