Legalization is the process of certifying a document so that it will be recognized by the legal system of a foreign country. The process is used routinely in international commerce.

The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalization for Foreign Public Documents has supplanted this procedure with the use of an apostille for countries that are signatories to that convention.

Countries and regions which require document legalization, include:

Algeria, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Chile, China, Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyz Stan, Laos, Lebanon, Libya, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uganda, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Legalization is not needed if you are a citizen of a country that is not in the list.

If you are a citizen of China or if you want papers issued in China to be certified for Russia, you need to do the following:

— translate the document into Russian (in a translation agency);

— notarize the translation;

— submit the document to the local office of foreign affairs (Waiban, see the list in Chinese);

— the Waiban will deliver the document to the Consulate to execute the legalization. Afterwards, the document will be sent back to the Waiban.

Legalization fee is 290 RMB.