The current age of globalization and cross‐border business generates a need to accelerate procedures for the recognition of the legal force of documents issued by the official authorities of one state for use in another state. As a rule, official documents are valid in a foreign country through (i) consular legalization, (ii) an apostille, or (iii) the absence of any formality.On November 2, 2009, the Parliament of the Kyrgyz Republic adopted, and on November 16, 2009, the President of the Kyrgyz Republic Bakiev signed Law No. 296 of the Kyrgyz Republic "On the Accession of the Kyrgyz Republic to the Hague Convention dated October 5, 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents " (the “Hague Convention”). This law allows the Kyrgyz Republic to join more than 97 states that practice issuing Apostilles instead of consular legalization. Among the CIS countries, the Russian Federation, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, and the Ukraine are member countries of the Hague Convention.

Ruslan Abdykerimov,

Lawyer, MGN Group CJSC

To download the full opinion click the link below.