Apostille on civil-registry documents: who affixes it and why applications are refused
Documents issued by civil-registry offices are apostilled not by the Ministry of Justice or the Foreign Ministry but by a regional registry authority — the registry office administration of the region where the record was drawn up. That is the first fork where weeks are lost: an application filed with the "wrong" region is returned, and forwarding a request between regions adds one to two weeks to the timeline.
Five reasons applications are turned away
Lamination. A laminated certificate will not be apostilled: the security features of the form and the authenticity of the seal cannot be checked under the film. You will have to obtain a fresh duplicate and apostille that instead.
A worn form or a Soviet-era template with corrections, erasures, or hand-entered data. A discrepancy in the spelling of a name or patronymic against a current passport is also grounds for refusal. Trying to apostille an ordinary photocopy where the authority works only with originals and duplicate forms. And, finally, applying in the region of residence rather than the region where the record was drawn up.
A typical situation: someone wants to apostille a marriage certificate for a marriage registered in one region while living in another. The optimal solution is to order a duplicate certificate through the registry office at the place of residence (this works on an extraterritorial basis), receive a fresh new-format form, and apostille it in your own region.
Timelines and what about the translation
The standard apostille period at registry authorities is up to five working days, and in practice often faster. There are usually no separate expedited rates as there are for education documents, so allow a week with a margin.
The translation is done after the apostille: both the text of the document itself and the text of the apostille stamp are translated — together, as a single document — and then the translation is certified by a notary. If you need a translation into two languages at once, that is two separate notarial acts and two translations, but there is still one apostille on the original.
Advice: order a new-format duplicate certificate even if the old one is in perfect condition. A form with a machine-readable zone and security features is apostilled without questions and raises no objections when submitted abroad.