You can place three different types of orders with us for legal translations:

• translations verified by a notary or sworn translator (for further information contact anna@luisa.ee);
• translations verified with Luisa’s official stamp (for further information contact anna@luisa.ee); or
• legal texts which do not require verification e.g. contracts, legal acts and court rulings (for further information contact juriidika@luisa.ee)

Translations verified by a notary or sworn translator

If you need to use a public document issued in Estonia abroad, or vice versa, it first needs to be apostilled (or legalised), then translated, and finally verified. The translation is bound to the original or to a transcript of it. (Only extracts from the commercial register, fixed-term notifications such as notices from the punishment register and other similar types of certification designed for single use are bound to the original.)

Orders for verified translations can be placed with Luisa into Estonian, English, Russian, Finnish, German, Latvian, Lithuanian, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Slovene or Turkish.

The content and format of document translations must meet specific requirements. Translations to be verified by a notary must be translated by a translator registered in a notary’s office (or offices) as a trusted translator. Such documents may also be translated and verified by sworn translators.

If you need to submit a public document issued in Estonia to a public agency abroad, you should take the following points into consideration.

1. If you need to use the document in Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Russia or Poland, you’ll only need to have it translated and then verified by a notary or sworn translator. These countries have entered into a reciprocal legal assistance and legal relations agreement with Estonia. This means that public documents issued in Estonia can be used in these countries once translated and verified without having to have them apostilled or legalised.

2. If you need to use the document in any other country, the original will need to be apostilled (if the country has signed up to the Hague convention) or legalised i.e. officially stamped (if the country has not signed up to the Hague convention). You’ll find more information about this on the website of the Estonian Ministry of Justice (www.just.ee/34357). Once this is done, you can then have the document translated by an agency or sworn translator and finally verified by the sworn translator or by a notary. Luisa can arrange to have your document both translated and verified. Remember though that depending on the requirements of the country in which you need to use it, you may also need to apostille or legalise it in addition to obtaining a notary or sworn translator’s verification.

If you need to submit a public document issued abroad to an Estonian public agency, you should take the following information into account.

In order to be able to use a document issued abroad in an Estonian public agency, you’ll first need to have it apostilled (if the country has signed up to the Hague convention) or legalised i.e. officially stamped (if the country has not signed up to the Hague convention) by the relevant agency or institution in that country. Different procedures apply in different countries. After this the document can be translated into Estonian and verified by a notary. It can then be submitted to any public agency in the country. Please note that public documents issued in Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Poland don’t need to be apostilled or legalised.

Only public documents are apostilled and legalised: court and administrative documents; documents related to notarial acts; and certificates issued by administrative agencies. Other documents (such as the decisions of company management boards) do not require it.

When legalising documents, you first have to transfer the state fee (€15 per document) to the account of the Ministry of Finance (for further information see http://www.vm.ee/?q=et/node/4810; the ministry’s bank accounts are 10220034796011 in SEB and 221023778606 in Swedbank; the reference number is 2900073643).

It is generally cheaper for clients to seek an apostille from the administrative agency in question. However, to save time, you can of course also ask Luisa to arrange this for you. The fee for doing so (including the state fee) is €31.50 per document (+ VAT).

If you have any questions or problems with your particular case, contact us here at Luisa or get in touch with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or a notary. The information line numbers for the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are +372 631 7440 and +372 631 7478.

Useful link
• List of countries signed up to the Hague convention: http://www.hcch.net/index_en.php?act=states.listing

Translations verified with the official stamp of the translation agency

If a public document issued abroad has not been apostilled or legalised, if the document is sent by fax or in other cases where verification of the translation by a notary is not possible or you simply do not want or need it to be verified by a notary, the translation agency can provide its own verification – using its official stamp and marking the document as “Translated by XXX translation agency”. Some administrative agencies in Estonia accept documents verified in this way. However, you should double-check in every case.

Here at Luisa, we translate the document we’ve received, then make a copy of the original and bind it to the translation. Finally, we provide verification on the back of the original and add our official stamp and the signature of the person issuing the translation.