When submitting documents issued by foreign state institutions (or their copies) to Lithuanian state institutions, those documents must be legalised or certified with an Apostille.
The legalisation procedure is more complex. A document issued by a foreign state institution must first be legalised by that foreign state and then by Lithuania. Apostille certification is simpler and faster, but Apostille is not available in every country.
Apostille certification is available in countries that have acceded to the 1961 Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents. Countries where Apostille certification is available:
- Albania;
- Andorra;
- Antigua and Barbuda;
- Argentina;
- Armenia;
- Australia;
- Austria;
- Azerbaijan;
- Bahamas;
- Bahrain;
- Barbados;
- Belarus;
- Belgium;
- Belize;
- Bosnia and Herzegovina;
- Botswana;
- Brazil;
- Brunei Darussalam;
- Bulgaria;
- Burundi;
- Cape Verde;
- Colombia;
- Cook Islands;
- Costa Rica;
- Croatia;
- Cyprus;
- Czech Republic;
- Denmark;
- Dominica;
- Dominican Republic;
- Ecuador;
- El Salvador;
- Estonia;
- Fiji;
- Finland;
- France;
- Georgia;
- Germany;
- Greece;
- Grenada;
- Honduras;
- Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region of China);
- Hungary;
- Iceland;
- India;
- Ireland;
- Israel;
- Italy;
- Japan;
- Kazakhstan;
- Korea (Republic of);
- Kyrgyzstan;
- Latvia;
- Lesotho;
- Liberia;
- Liechtenstein;
- Lithuania;
- Luxembourg;
- Macao (Special Administrative Region of China);
- Macedonia (Former Yugoslav Republic of);
- Malawi;
- Malta;
- Marshall Islands;
- Mauritius;
- Mexico;
- Moldova;
- Monaco;
- Mongolia;
- Montenegro;
- Namibia;
- Netherlands;
- New Zealand;
- Nicaragua;
- Niue;
- Norway;
- Oman;
- Panama;
- Paraguay;
- Peru;
- Poland;
- Portugal;
- Romania;
- Russian Federation;
- Saint Kitts and Nevis;
- Saint Lucia;
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines;
- Samoa;
- San Marino;
- São Tomé and Príncipe;
- Serbia;
- Seychelles;
- Slovakia;
- Slovenia;
- South Africa;
- Spain;
- Suriname;
- Swaziland;
- Sweden;
- Switzerland;
- Tajikistan;
- Tonga;
- Trinidad and Tobago;
- Turkey;
- Ukraine;
- United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Northern Ireland);
- United States of America;
- Uruguay;
- Uzbekistan;
- Vanuatu;
- Venezuela.
Documents issued by institutions of foreign states not listed above should be legalised.
In Lithuania, legalisation or Apostille certification is not required for documents issued by institutions of the following countries: Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Estonia, Latvia.
Without legalisation or Apostille certification, Lithuania must also accept civil status records (birth, marriage, death) issued by institutions of foreign states, provided that the country whose competent institution issued the document has acceded to the 8 September 1976 Convention on the Issue of Multilingual Extracts from Civil Status Records, and that the civil status extracts were issued in the form approved by that Convention.
Countries that have acceded to the Convention:
Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece (not ratified), Spain, Italy, Montenegro, Croatia, Poland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Netherlands, Portugal, France, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey, Germany.
