As of 16 February 2019 the recognition of certain documents issued by the authorities of the 27 EU member states, as well as Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland and used in another member state will be simplified. The new rules of the EU Regulation apply to documents certifying the following facts:
- birth, being alive, death;
- name;
- marriage, marital status, dissolution of marriage, legal separation or marriage annulment;
- registered partnership, termination or annulment of a registered partnership
- parenthood, adoption;
- domicile and/or residence;
- nationality;
- clean criminal record.
According to the provisions, for documents certifying the above facts, the authorities shall issue so-called accompanying multilingual forms containing the essential data in translation at the request of EU citizens. The forms must be issued in the official language of the member state in which the citizen intends to use it. In such cases, it is not necessary to attach a translation to the document to be used for the receiving authority. A further easement is that such documents and the certified copies thereof no longer require authenticity certification and apostille stamps when used in the states mentioned above that were so far subject to separate fees charged by the consular services.
Detailed information on the above provisions are posted on the E-Justice portal of the European Union (https://e-justice.europa.eu). We recommend that prior to ordering translations, consult with the issuing Hungarian or foreign authority about the issue of multilingual forms and the use thereof before the receiving authority; and as to apostille, consult with the Consular Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (contacts: http://konzuliszolgalat.kormany.hu/konzuli-tajekoztatasi-es-ugyeleti-kozpont; tel: +36-80-36-80-36).
The submission of public documents in the usual way, i.e. accompanied by certified translations remains possible. Thus, if you so require, we can provide certified translations of documents, because OFFI-issued certified translations are accepted in all the states listed above based on the Regulation.