How to Obtain a Document from Ukraine Without Traveling: Procedure for Those Abroad

A missing document stops everything: applying for status, enrollment, marriage registration, and processing aid. And traveling to get it is not always possible. The procedure for remote document retrieval has long been established, but it only works if done in the correct order, and most delays occur because steps are not taken sequentially.

Step 1. Find out exactly which document is needed

This is not a formality. Foreign institutions phrase their requirements differently, and what you order depends on the wording:

• “marriage certificate” — the certificate is needed, and if the marriage has already been dissolved, the civil registry office (DRACTS) will issue not a certificate, but an extract from the register;
• “divorce decree”: refers to a court decision, not an extract from DRACTS;
• “birth certificate” — a reissued certificate, but for older records this will be an archival extract.

A written requirement from the institution saves the most time of all the steps, as it avoids the risk of ordering the wrong document. A list of institutions by document type and the procedure for requesting documents from Ukraine with apostille and translation is laid out at the translation agency “Etalon”.

Step 2. Arrange a power of attorney

The request in Ukraine is submitted by a representative, and for this a notarized power of attorney is required. Two ways:

• Ukrainian consulate — the document is ready for use in Ukraine;
• local notary — cheaper and closer, but an apostille from the issuing country and a notarized translation in Ukraine are required. With countries with which Ukraine has a legal assistance agreement (Poland, Czech Republic, Moldova, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Baltic countries), the apostille is often not needed: a translation is sufficient.

It is worth including both the civil registry office and the archive in the power of attorney right away: until the record is found, it is unknown where the request will be sent, and reissuing a power of attorney from abroad takes another two to three weeks.

Step 3. Gather record data

The body searches using data at the time of the event, so you need:

• last names at the time of registration — not current ones;
• date and place of the event;
• spelling of the name as in the vital record;
• information about the parents, for a birth certificate;
• fact of a last name change, if there was one.

If you do not specify the last name change, the response will be “record not found” — formally correct but practically pointless.

Step 4. Obtain the document

Then the appropriate office acts: the civil registry department if the record is in the State Register; the state archive if the record is old or not digitized; the court if a decision is needed. The archival search duration is set by the archive, and for Soviet-era records you should plan with a buffer.

Step 5. Apostille, then translation

In this exact order: the apostille text is also translated, so a translation done in advance will have to be redone.

Documents from civil registry offices, archives, and courts are apostilled by the Ministry of Justice: up to three business days, 670 hryvnias for individuals (rate from January 1, 2026). From March 1, 2026, the apostille has an electronic version with a QR code: the institution abroad can verify authenticity itself on apostille.minjust.gov.ua, removing the question “is the stamp genuine” previously resolved by correspondence.

What most often goes wrong

• The document was ordered before reading the institution’s requirement.
• The power of attorney covers only the civil registry office, but the record turned out to be archival.
• The request used the current last name instead of the one at the time of the event.
• The translation was done before the apostille.
• They counted on an electronic document where a paper form with an apostille was required.

The commonality in all five is the step taken before knowing exactly what the institution requires. And it’s the cheapest: one letter with requirements.