Certification of Documents Issued in Abkhazia, description of the service and price in Moscow, Russia, CIS states, and in foreign countries

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The predicament in certifying Abkhazian documents is that the Republic of Abkhazia was declared an independent republic by the Supreme Council of Abkhazia on November 26, 1994; however, the country's independence has been recognized by only a few countries: a total of just 6 to be precise! For the rest of the world, the territory of Abkhazia is just a part of Georgia. Consequently, documents issued on the territory of Abkhazia are not recognized in practically every country in the world (even if you manage to legalize them).

Thus, only documents issued before 1992 will be recognized. Otherwise, there are two available routes to resolve this issue:

1. Have an apostille stamped on a notarial copy in Russia.

Russia is the legal successor to the USSR, so you can prepare a notarial copy on the territory of the Russian Federation in the event that the document is fully in Russian or all of the labels in the foreign language are duplicated in Russian and an apostille can be stamped on it at the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.

The important thing in this route is to find out ahead of time whether a document formalized in this way will be accepted at the location where the document is to be submitted.

2. Claiming a duplicate certificate and having an apostille stamped on an original in Georgia.

Since in 1992, Abkhazia was part of Georgia, a duplicate for it can be obtained and an apostille can be stamped on it in Georgia. Like in Russia, the document owner will have to be present or a notarial (consular) power of attorney on their behalf must be brought.

We will warn you right away: be prepared for the possibility that the archived information might not be preserved and you may get a refusal. Unfortunately, in most cases these requests are denied. This is because during the Georgian-Abkhazian war of 1992-1993, a large portion of the archives were not able to be preserved intact. However, there is a solution for this issue as well. We will have an apostille stamped on the refusal issued by the Ministry of Justice of Georgia that can be used on the territory of the other country.

If you still have questions, we will be happy to answer them and organize this challenging but workable process of certifying Civil Registry Office documents issued in Abkhazia.