Certificates, apostilles and government paperwork, handled.

Document jobs start with a request from someone else: a bank, an authority, a company abroad.

• A company asked for apostilled certificates. A bank, a counterparty or a registry abroad wants the Registrar's certificates or a certificate of good standing, apostilled and perhaps translated.
• A person who needs a tax residency certificate. The tax office at home, or a bank, asks for the Tax Department's certificate for you or for the company.
• Someone moving here with foreign documents. Your birth, marriage or criminal record certificates have to be certified and translated before the Migration Department accepts them.
• A company sending documents outside the Hague Convention. The receiving country does not accept apostilles, so the documents go through consular legalisation instead.
• A company changing its details. A new director, a transfer of shares, a new address or a new name, prepared and filed by our partner advocate, with the updated certificates collected afterwards.

An apostille is a certificate attached to a public document so that it is accepted in the other countries that have joined the Hague Convention, without any further stamping. In Cyprus it is issued only by the Ministry of Justice and Public Order, which has counters in Nicosia and Limassol; Cyprus embassies abroad can only forward an application to it.

• Public documents, such as a Registrar certificate or a civil-status certificate, go straight to the Ministry. The Ministry checks the signature and seal against its records, attaches the apostille and records it electronically.
• Private documents, such as a power of attorney or a declaration, must first have the signature certified by a certifying officer or an advocate. Only then can they carry an apostille.
• The fee is the Ministry's, charged for each apostille. We pay it for you at cost and bring everything the counter asks for.
• Countries outside the Hague Convention do not accept apostilles. Documents for them go through diplomatic and consular legalisation instead. We check the destination country's current requirement before anything is stamped, because the order of steps is different and cannot be undone.

What we do: we confirm the route for your document and the receiving country, obtain or collect the document, book the certification with the advocate or a certifying officer where the document is private, take it to the Ministry, and hand it to the translator in the right order. You get the finished set, and the date it will be ready before we start.

Since July 2019, official translations in Cyprus are made only by sworn translators listed in the Register of Sworn Translators, kept by the Council of Sworn Translators. A certified translation carries the Republic's official seal and is accepted by the authorities and most banks.

Two practical points. Translations are made from Greek, so a Cypriot certificate that will be translated is first obtained in its Greek version. And the order matters: certification and apostille usually come before the translation, so that the translation covers the stamps as well. We confirm the order for each document with the receiving authority's requirement in front of us.

The translator's fee is added at cost; we coordinate the hand-over, the timing and the collection.

Changes to a company's directors, secretary, shareholders, registered office, name, share capital or constitution, and applications to strike a company off, are prepared and filed by our partner advocate; we manage the process, keep the Registrar's records matching what was agreed, and collect the updated certificates. The Annual Return and the beneficial-owner confirmation are prepared and filed by us as part of the yearly filings.

The exact list depends on the request and is sent to you at step 2, "We ask you what we need". For most document jobs we need these.

• The request itself, from the bank, authority or company abroad, in its own words. The wording decides the route: which document, from which authority, with certification, an apostille or consular legalisation, and whether a translation is needed, in what order.
• For a Registrar certificate: the company's name and registration number.
• For a Tax Department certificate: the Tax Identification Code of the company or the person, and what the certificate is for.
• For a private document, such as a power of attorney or a declaration: the document signed in front of a certifying officer or an advocate, because the Ministry of Justice apostilles it only after that certification.
• For a translation: the Greek original. Sworn translations are made from Greek, so a Cypriot certificate is first obtained in its Greek version.
• For a Land Registry search, sometimes: a power of attorney, drafted by our partner advocate, where the Land Registry requires one.
• For a document issued abroad: the apostille from the issuing country, because Cyprus cannot apostille a foreign document.

• Apostille first, certification second. A private document is apostilled only after a certifying officer or an advocate has certified the signature; before that it cannot carry an apostille.
• Translating before the stamps. Certification and apostille usually come before the translation, so that the translation covers the stamps as well. A translation made too early is made twice.
• Asking Cyprus to apostille a foreign document. An apostille is issued by the country whose public body issued the document: a UK certificate in the UK, a German one in Germany.
• An apostille for a country outside the Hague Convention. It is not accepted there. Those documents go through consular legalisation, with a different order of steps that cannot be undone, so the destination is checked before anything is stamped.
• The English version of a Cypriot certificate. If a sworn translation will follow, the certificate is obtained in Greek first, because translations are made from Greek.
• Guessing what the receiving party wants. Send us the request in its own words. A certificate of the wrong type, or without its apostille, means a second visit to the counter.