Translation and legalization
Bulgarian documents to be used in a foreign country must be translated into the official language of the country, the translation must be certified and the document must be legalized (Apostille).
Translations from Bulgarian into a foreign language are certified by the Consular Relations Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In order to be certified, the translation must be executed and certified by a sworn (certified) translator and placed on a certified translation agency letterhead. The calculation of the translation is based on a translation page (one page - 1800 characters including spaces). As the translation is calculated per translation page, the fee for certifying it is per number of translations, i.e. if a translation needs to be certified in several copies, a fee is added for each copy, irrespective of the pages of the translation itself.
Depending on the document (issued by a municipality, court or other public authority), the procedures for its legalization may be different, as well as the deadlines for its execution, which are linked to the announced deadlines of the authorities. Often, in order to be legalized, a document must first be attested by another authority, which certifies the signatures and seals affixed on the document. In the Republic of Bulgaria, the authorities that carry out legalization (Apostille) are the Consular Relations Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the National Agency for Information and Documentation and the regional administrations. After the Apostille has been affixed, no further certification is necessary for countries which are members of the Hague Convention of 1961. The full list of member states can be found in question: Which countries are members of the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents.
In addition to the option described above, there is also a procedure under which documents to be served before a country that has bilateral agreement with Bulgaria do not require legalization and additional certifications. A list of countries can be found in question: List of countries with which Bulgaria has signed a bilateral agreement.
The third option is when the document is to be served before a country which is not a member of the Hague Convention of 1961 and has no bilateral agreement with Bulgaria, in which in addition to legalization (apostille), certification is required at the embassy of the respective country.
Usually the legalization of the document is caried out after the translation or while the documnet is being translated.
La Fit Trans is a company with many years of experience in managing this kind of processes, having carried out hundreds of thousands of translations of documents to/from over 50 languages, as well as their legalization.
The translation and legalization services offered by the company cover the entire process, from advising the client on how the original document should be drafted (e.g. checking for missing stamps) to having the translation carried out by a certified translator and passing it through various public authorities.