Kosovo has the longest objection list of any state in the Apostille Convention, and for a Turkish document that list holds a reassurance rather than a warning: Türkiye is not on it. A document holder who reads about the objections and turns to consular legalisation takes an unnecessary road. This page explains the HCCH note, the position of Türkiye, the two Kosovar authorities and the point at which the list does come into play, the three-country file.
The HCCH note on 31 states
Kosovo acceded on 6 November 2015; the date in its HCCH row is 14 July 2016. The Kosovo note in the full report states that, because of objections and declarations, the Convention does not apply between Kosovo and 31 states, and names them one by one; Germany, Greece, Spain, Serbia, Russia, the Hong Kong and Macao regions of China, Cyprus and Azerbaijan are among them. The list is not fixed: Poland’s withdrawal took effect in early 2024 and Israel’s on 20 November 2024, so the number of states actually remaining is 29. HCCH sources give two different dates for the Polish withdrawal; the HCCH full report should be treated as authoritative.
Türkiye’s position on Kosovo’s accession
Türkiye did not object to Kosovo’s accession and the HCCH records contain no declaration by Türkiye. Two official Turkish documents reflect this: Kosovo stands at number 67 in the annexed list of Circular 68/1 of the Turkish Ministry of Justice, and it appears in the country list of e-Apostil, the official Turkish electronic apostille system. A Turkish document therefore travels to Kosovo along the apostille chain: the valilik (provincial governor’s office) or the kaymakamlık (district governor’s office) for administrative documents and notarial acts, the presidency of the judicial commission for the original of a court document. For one of the six document types covered by e-Apostil the electronic route is open too; the Kosovar office should be asked in what form it wants an electronic document.
Consular Department and Civil Registration Agency
According to the HCCH authority page two offices place apostilles in Kosovo: the Department for Consular Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Civil Registration Agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. How civil status documents and other documents are divided between the two is not detailed on the HCCH page. Kosovo has no electronic apostille listed, but the e-APP chart records an online verification link: a Turkish institution that receives a document with a Kosovar apostille can check the certificate there. The fee is stated on the HCCH page and is not repeated here.
When a third country’s document is involved
The objection list does not touch a Turkish document, but it does touch files that pass through Türkiye. For a person who needs to take a document issued in Germany to Kosovo, the apostille does not work, because Germany is among the objecting states; which route that document takes instead is not stated in the sources read for this site. The same holds for Serbia and Cyprus. Switzerland declared separately that it recognises only apostilles from the authorities designated by Kosovo, and Kosovo objected to Serbia’s declaration of 29 May 2017. These records decide which chain is built in a three-country file; in a file that runs only between Türkiye and Kosovo they have no role.
A Kosovar document arriving in Türkiye
A document issued in Kosovo, a birth record or a diploma for instance, reaches Türkiye with the apostille of the relevant Kosovar authority, and the Turkish institution does not look for a legalisation by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Kosovo has not acceded to ETS 063, CIEC 16 or CIEC 17; there is no multilingual form exemption for civil status documents, so those documents take an apostille as well. Two points stay unverified: the division of documents between the two authorities, and the source discrepancy on the date of the Polish withdrawal.
Translation for Kosovo in the language the office names
Whatever language a Kosovar document is written in, a Turkish institution asks for a Turkish translation certified by a notary, and the same institution settles whether the Kosovar certificate is rendered alongside the text. For a Turkish document going to Kosovo, the receiving Kosovar institution states the language and the place of the translation; a translation made in Türkiye is certified by a notary and that certification takes its own apostille at a governor’s office.