Can an apostille be placed on a certificate from an educational institution in the Czech Republic?

Unfortunately, the Czech Republic does not have a procedure for placing an apostille on standard documents from Czech educational institutions, including university certificates and various school documents. The apostille procedure is only provided for official diplomas from educational institutions, but there is simply no such procedure for any ordinary certificates.

In such cases, we explore alternative pathways for document legalization. The following options may be available:

• Have the document notarially translated into the required language; an apostille can then be placed on this translation.
• Create a notarized copy of the certificate; an apostille can be placed on this notarized copy.
• A certificate from a university or another educational institution is typically issued and signed by a specific official. In some cases, it might be possible to arrange for this official to have their signature on the certificate notarized. An apostille can then be placed on this notarial certification of the signature. However, successfully arranging this with a university or school official is quite rare.

Please note that all the options mentioned above are workaround solutions. In this case, the apostille is not placed directly on the original certificate itself, but rather on an additional certification related to the educational document – specifically on the notary's or translator's certification. Based on our experience, such documents are most often accepted by the receiving institution. Furthermore, the reality is that there are no other alternatives. If possible, we strongly recommend verifying with the requesting authority whether they will accept a document legalized this way.