The Hague´s Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents entered into force for the Czech Republic on March 16, 1999. The Dutch public documents will be valid in the Czech Republic in case that the Apostille is affixed to them.

For the purposes of the present Convention, the following are deemed to be public documents:

- documents issued by an authority or an official connected with the courts or tribunals (as example Divorce Judgement ).
- administrative documents (for example Criminal History Record, Birth certificate, Marriage certificate, Death certificate,Certificate of the possibility to Marriage, Excerpt from the Chamber of Commerce)
- notarial acts,

The Apostille are issued in the Netherlands by Provincial Courts (Arrodissementrechtbanks). Further legalizations are not necessary for the documents with Apostille. Those documents including Apostille ought to be translated to the Czech language for the use in the Czech Republic. The authentication of the translation from the Czech Embassy is not necessary for the documents translated by the Czech judicial translator.

The verification through the Apostille shall not apply:

- to administrative documents dealing directly with commercial or customs operations.
- documents issued by diplomatic or consular representatives.

For verification with the Apostille turn to your Provincial Court (Arrodissementsrechtbank).

Note:

The Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2016 on promoting the free movement of citizens by simplifying the requirements for presenting certain public documents in the European Union came into force on 16 February 2019. According to this Regulation, certain public documents do not need an apostille, and translation made by a sworn translator can be substituted by the so called multilingual standard form. Regulation covers particularly public documents, such as birth certificate, marriage certificate, death certificate, certificate of no impediment to marriage), and also for example extract from the criminal records, certificate of nationality, documents on divorce, certificate on registered address or certificate that a person is alive. The Regulation covers public documents issued by one of the EU Member States, which are presented in original or in a certified copy in other Member State. Further information can be found on this website: https://beta.e-justice.europa.eu/551/EN/public_documents