Recognition and legalization

The document, which was issued in one country is recognized in another one if this document has been preliminary legalized.

There are two main types of document legalization - the apostille and consular legalization.

1)   If the document is issued in the country, which is the party of the Hague Convention of 1961, the legalization is made by apostille.

2)   The consular legalization is a procedure that provides the authentication of signatures, the authority of the person signing the document, the authentication of seal or stamp as well as the legal status of the document. 

The choice of the legalization type in every case depends on the country of destination, the country to which authorities the document on education will be presented afterwards.

Some international agreements of the Russian Federation stipulate the abolish the legalization of documents.

Afterwards applicants in order to use of their foreign diplomas in the Russian Federation must undergo the recognition (nostrification) procedure. Recognition of foreign educational certificates is a standardized form of legalization in the Russian Federation of the education received abroad. In this case, the applicant receives a document certifying the recognition and equivalence of the educational qualifications.

The decision on recognition is made by the Federal Education and Science Supervision Service (Rosobrnadzor).

If there’s a mutual recognition agreement between Russia and the country educational certificate was issued in, recognition procedure takes place in VVSU:

Expert Centre for Estimation of Foreign Education Certificates
41, Gogolya str., Office 3404, Vladivostok city, Russia, 690014
+ 7 (423) 240-41-38

Every year, Rosobrnadzor publishes a list of countries with which Russia has mutual recognition agreements on educational certificates.  

If there’s no country educational certificate was issued in, the Russian education authority Rosobrnadzor, with the organizational and technical assistance of Glaveksperttsentr, recognizes educational certificates and deems them equivalent in the Russian Federation (see: http://obrnadzor.gov.ru/ru/about/subordinated_organizations/glavekspertcentr/).