The Apostille is a stamp or certificate issued by the competent authorities of a state party to the Hague Convention, for official documents drawn up in that country, which are to be presented in the territory of another state party to the Convention.

The purpose of issuing the apostille is to authenticate the origin of an official document, to prevent the use of false documents in order to produce legal effects.

The procedure for issuing the apostille for official administrative documents issued by central or local public administration authorities, as well as by other administrative authority bodies in Romania, which organize an activity of public interest within strictly established competencies by law, is carried out through the apostille office organized within the prefect's institutions.

The issuing of the apostille is free of charge and is carried out by the prefect's institution in the county where: the holder of the document or his/her spouse or a relative up to the second degree has their domicile/last domicile; or where the issuer of the document is headquartered.

By exception, criminal record certificates and civil status certificates can be apostilled at any prefect’s institution.

IMPORTANT! Applicants may choose, before submitting the documents to the apostille office, to personally go to the headquarters of the involved institutions (or their territorial structures) in order to verify the signature, the capacity in which the signatory acted, and, if applicable, the identity of the stamp or seal that the document bears for which the issuance of the apostille is requested. In this case, in accordance with the provisions of the Memorandum on the topic "Necessary measures to improve the activity of public services," the issuance of the apostille is carried out within 2 hours.

​More information regarding the Hague Apostille is available in the Apostille section.
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