Losing a marriage certificate can be an unpleasant situation, but there’s no need to panic — the document can be restored.
In this article, we’ll explain how to restore a marriage certificate issued in Ukraine and the requirements under the law.
A marriage certificate may be lost due to various reasons: lost, stolen, damaged, or destroyed. Often, apostille certification is required when using the document abroad. Apostilles are not issued for Soviet-style marriage certificates — a new-style duplicate must be obtained.
A marriage certificate can only be restored in the country where it was originally registered.
If the marriage was registered in Ukraine or the former Ukrainian SSR, you can contact any civil registry office (RACTS) in Ukraine and obtain a duplicate. As Ukraine has a unified civil status register, the RACTS system is centralized, so it is not tied to your place of residence. If you live abroad, you can apply for this service at a Ukrainian consulate.
Please note the following nuance:
If you apply to the RACTS office where the marriage was registered, the duplicate can be issued quickly.
If the application is submitted to a RACTS office in another region, the request must be forwarded to the original registration office, which takes longer.
Important: the service is unavailable in temporarily occupied territories and active combat zones.
The key principle is that paper archives are stored in the place of marriage registration.
If you want to obtain a duplicate certificate for a marriage registered in the former USSR, you need to check in which republic the marriage was recorded. The request must then comply with the legislation of that country.
If the marriage was registered at a Soviet embassy in Albania, Bulgaria, the GDR, Poland, Romania, Hungary, or Czechoslovakia, those archives were transferred to Moscow after the USSR’s collapse. Thus, obtaining a duplicate will require an individual request.
It’s also important to note that on December 27, 2022, Ukraine suspended the application of the Convention on Legal Assistance in civil, family, and criminal matters (signed in Minsk, 1993) with the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus.
Since then, any documents from these countries only have legal force in Ukraine after apostille certification under the 1961 Hague Convention, which cancels the requirement for legalization of foreign public documents.
Likewise, official Ukrainian documents must be apostilled for use in Russia and Belarus.
As a general rule, to restore a marriage certificate in Ukraine, you need the following documents:
- Application for certificate restoration (can be filled out at the RACTS office)
- Identity document (Ukrainian passport or equivalent ID)
- If available, a copy of the lost marriage certificate (to speed up the process)
- Documents confirming name change (if applicable)
- Proof of payment of the state fee
Typically, the application is processed within 5 to 15 days, but this may vary.
You can receive a duplicate certificate online via the “DIIA” app, in person, through a legal representative with power of attorney, or with the help of a lawyer.
Restoring a marriage certificate is a fairly simple process if you follow the legal procedure and requirements. By following the recommendations above, you can quickly restore your document and avoid complications where marital status must be confirmed.
If you need a duplicate marriage certificate in Ukraine or an apostille on a marriage certificate in Ukraine, contact the lawyers in Ukraine at the “First Legal” law firm by filling out the request form on our website or calling: +38 (044) 35-35-164, +38 (067) 306-89-89, +38 (063) 45-85-448, +38 (099) 367-89-89.