Apostil EN
Pursuant to the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents (hereinafter referred to as the Convention), to which the Slovak Republic is also a signatory, it follows that public documents issued by Slovak authorities need a certificate for their use before foreign authorities or an international agreement does not provide otherwise. If the public documents are provided with the prescribed certificates either in the territory of the Slovak Republic or abroad, they have the power of proof.
The above-mentioned Convention applies to authentic instruments. These instruments may have been drawn up in the territory of one of the signatories to the Agreement and are to be submitted to the other signatory to the Agreement. The advantage of this convention is that if a person needs to certify an authentic instrument, these instruments do not need to be certified to varying degrees before several authorities. Under the Convention, it is sufficient for the authority having that power to provide the document with a special certificate, which is called the Apostille.
Also translations made by translators or experts‘ testimonies
• The Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic for other court documents that were not specified above.
• The Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic for public documents issued in its department, with the exception of documents whose apostille falls within the competence of district authorities.
• Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic for public documents issued in this department, such as certificates, diplomas.
• Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic for public documents issued in this department.
• Ministry of Defense of the Slovak Republic for public documents issued in this department.
• District offices for registration documents (except decisions on personal status) and public documents issued by local authorities.
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic for all other public documents issued in the Slovak Republic (criminal record, documents issued by the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic, chambers of commerce, tax authorities, cadastral extracts, certificates issued by state drug control authorities, etc.).
In case that you are forced to use your Slovak birth certificate, extract from the criminal record, commercial register or any other public document in a Contracting State to the Convention, you no longer need to certify this public document in several stages. If a person needs to certify an authentic document with an apostille, it is enough to apply to one of the above competent authorities.
If the competent authority certifies an authentic document in the form of an apostille, it must subsequently submit it to the country that has signed the Hague Convention.
You have noticed that there is no single apostille body in Slovakia, and it all depends on a separate document.
In case you are not sure to which authority you have to submit a public deed to be certified by the apostilles, then contact a professional such as Apostila s.r.o., who will arrange it for you immediately and without any problems.
Under the Convention, each Contracting State may decide to which authority it shall designate jurisdiction for apostille proceedings.
The Slovak Republic designates these bodies as follows:
• Certificates have the right to be executed by the Regional Courts of the Slovak Republic for public documents issued by district courts, notaries or bailiffs in the territorial district of the Regional Court for documents.