As of 16 March 1999 the Czech Republic became a contracting State to the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization of Foreign Public Documents (Apostil convention) concluded in The Hague on 5 October 1961.

The Czech Republic has authorized two institutions to issue certificates (apostil):

• The Ministry of Justice is competent to certify documents -or translations thereof- which were executed by judicial authorities, including documents -or translations thereof- which were certified by notaries.
• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is competent to certify all other documents issued by public authorities.

After certification by the responsible Czech Ministry the documents can be used officially in countries that are a contracting State to the Convention one of which is the Netherlands.

When a document issued by a Czech public authority is not drawn up in Dutch, English, French or German, the document -to be used for official purposes in the Netherlands- still has to be translated by a sworn translator into one of the mentioned languages.

Documents issued by a public authority in the Netherlands and to be used abroad, can be certified by one of the 19 District Courts (Arrondissements Rechtbank) under whose jurisdiction the public authority resides. For official use in the Czech Republic the document has to be translated by a sworn translator into the Czech language.

Other documents

• A document issued by a non-public authority (educational certificates or diploma's and trade documents, etc.) need to be legalized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs via the competent authority (Ministry of Education c.q. Economic Affairs, etc.) and further by the Embassy of the country in which the document is to be used.
• A document -to be used for official purposes in the Netherlands- issued by a Czech authority and not drawn up in Dutch, English, French or German has to be translated by a sworn translator into one of the mentioned languages.
• A Dutch document -for official use in the Czech Republic- has to be translated by a sworn translator into the Czech language.