Translating documents for a temporary residence permit in Russia: common reasons for refusal

A foreign citizen was submitting documents for a temporary residence permit. The submission was refused three times in a row, each time for a new reason, and all three were connected with the translation of foreign documents — the passport, the birth certificate, and the police record from the country of citizenship.

Mistake 1: the translation is not certified by a Russian notary

For the Russian migration authorities a foreign document must be accompanied by a translation into Russian certified specifically by a Russian notary. A translation made abroad and certified by a local sworn translator will not be accepted without being re-done in Russia. A translation with only the stamp of a foreign or Russian agency — also not.

Mistake 2: no apostille or legalisation on the document itself

A birth certificate and a police record from a state party to the Hague Convention must be apostilled in the country of issue. From a country not in the Convention — full consular legalisation must be carried out. The translation is then done in Russia and includes the text of the apostille or the legalisation marks. A common mistake is to bring a "bare" document with no apostille and translate only its text.

Mistake 3: a discrepancy in the name against the passport and the migration card

The spelling of the name in the translation must match how it is given in Latin in the foreign citizen's passport and how it was carried over into the visa and the migration card. If it is one thing in Latin in the passport and the translator transliterated it into Cyrillic at their own discretion, the officer records a mismatched identifier.

The correct sequence: apostille or legalisation in the country of issue → entry into Russia → notarised translation in Russia with the name carried over exactly from the passport → submission. Before submission, check across all translations at once: the spelling of the name, the dates, the numbers and series of the documents, the names of the bodies.