Bilateral agreements to which Poland is a party, abolishing the requirement to legalize documents
The use of foreign documents in Poland often requires their prior legalization or obtaining an apostille. However, numerous international agreements concluded in order to facilitate cooperation and streamline economic and legal transactions between individual countries provide for the abolition of this requirement. Such conventions include bilateral agreements concluded by Poland with other countries, such as: Algeria, Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Cyprus, Egypt, Estonia, Greece, Iraq, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Cuba, Libya, Lithuania, Latvia, Morocco, Mongolia, Russia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, Hungary and Italy.
What documents are exempt from legalization under these agreements?
Exemption from the legalization requirement usually covers documents drawn up or certified by a competent authority of one of the countries, bearing an official seal and signature of an authorized person. Such a regulation is included, among others, in the Agreement on Legal Assistance in Civil and Criminal Matters between the Republic of Poland and Egypt of 1992 (Article 11), the Agreement between Poland and the People's Republic of China and the People's Republic of China on Legal Assistance in Civil and Criminal Matters of 1987 (Article 27), Agreement on legal assistance and legal relations in civil and criminal matters concluded by Poland with Russia in 1996 (Article 15), Agreement on legal assistance and legal relations in civil, family, employment and criminal matters between Poland and Belarus of 1994 (Article 11) or the Agreement between the Republic of Poland and Ukraine on Mutual Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil and Criminal Matters of 1993 (Article 15). On the basis of these agreements, it will not be necessary to legalize documents such as civil status records or court documents.
In addition, some bilateral agreements to which Poland is a party provide for an exemption from the requirement to legalize signatures on private documents (such as an employment certificate or power of attorney), provided that these signatures are certified in accordance with the law of the country where the document was drawn up. An example of such a convention is the 1985 Agreement on Mutual Assistance in Civil, Commercial, Family and Criminal Matters between Poland and Libya (Article 19).
