17.01.2022

ELECTRONIC APOSTILLE (E-APOSTILLE)

Electronic Apostille (e-Apostille) - from June 15, 2020. The National Center for Information and Documentation (NACID) provides an opportunity to issue e-Apostille educational and certification documents issued by the education system (by universities, by institutions in the system of pre-school, school and vocational education and training and by the Ministry of Education and its units) in apostille.bg

The electronic system includes two components - issuing an e-Apostille in electronic format with a digital certificate and maintaining a Register of issued Apostilles (e-Register). The innovation was made thanks to the linking of all documents in the registers of secondary education (since 2007) and higher education (since 2012), which have been scanned and stored electronically. The procedure is fully digitalized from the submission of the application, through the payment of the service to the receipt of the certified documents, as the placement of the electronic apostille is one-time, unlike the paper version.

The new electronic service reduces the time and cost of issuance, guarantees the origin and authenticity of documents, eliminates the possibility of forgery, facilitates authentication of both paper and e-Apostille in electronic environment.

By mid-November 2021, more than 2,671 electronic apostilles had been issued, both to certify educational documents for Bulgarian citizens to apply to foreign universities and to legalize the diplomas of foreign citizens who graduated in Bulgaria.

The introduction of e-Apostille is currently applied in only a few countries in the world, with Bulgaria being the first in the EU.