Recognition of the equivalence or validity of a foreign document

Contact person:                                                 Ludmila Páralová
Telephone No.:                                                  +420 221 005 205
E-mail:                                                                 paralovl@prf.cuni.cz

Contact person:                                                 Lada Šafrová
Telephone No.:                                                  +420 221 005 591
E-mail:                                                                 safrova@prf.cuni.cz

The process of recognition will commence at the Faculty of Law of Charles University only after an applicant has been recommended for admission by the examination board upon the results of the entrance examination.

The decision to admit or not to admit an applicant to study will be issued after the recognition process has been finished.

An applicant must upload his or her application for assessment of qualifications to the electronic admissions system; at the same time the applicant is obliged to pay the assessment fee CZK 930. The recognition procedure may commence only after the fee has been paid.

An applicant must, in person or by post, submit a duly authenticated copy of his or her diploma along with its supplement; the documents must be translated into Czech or English (see forms of authentication below)

The deadline for submission of the documents by applicant is 30th September 2024. The deadline for completing the process of verification of the fulfilment of requirements for admission to study including the assessment of foreign qualifications is 22nd October 2024.

As soon as the Faculty of Law receives the applicant´s documents the following requirements are checked:

1) whether the institution which issued the documents has been duly accredited;2) whether the submitted documents qualify the applicant for admission to study at a higher education institution in the country having issued the documents.

If such information cannot be identified the applicant will be requested to submit the certificate of “General Recognition”, which may be issued by the Rectorate of Charles University, some other universities, the Metropolitan Authority of the Capital City of Prague (“Magistrát hlavního města Prahy”), or by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. In such case the content of the respective course of completed study is to be assessed and the fee is CZK 3 000 payable to the institution carrying out the recognition procedure.

Forms of authentication of foreign documents:

A) States which have entered into a legal aid agreement with the Czech Republic

 – original documents are valid in the contracting states without any further authentication. If the applicant submits copies of such documents they must be copies authenticated by a Czech or foreign notary, at a Czech embassy abroad or by means of the Czech Point service.

B) States which are signatories of a multilateral convention to simplify the authentication of foreign official documents

– Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (The Hague, 5 October 1961, published under no. 45/1999 Sb.m.s. (the Collection of International Agreements)), “The Hague Convention”.

For these states a uniform authentication of documents is stipulated, the so-called Apostille, issued by a competent authority of the state in which the diploma was issued (the so-called Apostille authorities).

The list of Apostille authorities is available from the website of the Hague Conference, direct link: HERE

In the case of documents from the member states of the European Union, Norway, the United States of America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand it is possible to replace the Apostille (in the case of Canada with superlegalisation) with an authenticated copy of the documents (similarly to option (A) above), providing that at the same time at least one of the following conditions is met:

• The foreign secondary school or higher education institution, based on a request sent by the applicant, confirms by e-mail to the Faculty of Law that the applicant is a graduate of this foreign secondary school or higher education institution;

• The foreign higher education institution sends to Faculty of Law a transcript or diploma supplement of the applicant in a sealed envelope, or the applicant submits a transcript in a sealed envelope as part of the documents; or

• The official website of the foreign secondary school or higher education institution enables verification as to whether the applicant is one of its graduates (e.g., the possibility to download, after entering a password, the transcript of the applicant from the official website of the foreign higher education institution).

C) Other states – documents on the completion of study must be superlegalised.

–  in the case of superlegalisation, the authenticity of signatures and stamps on the original documents is verified as follows:

• By the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the state where the secondary school or higher education institution which issued the document has a registered address, or by another competent foreign body;

• By the respective embassy of the Czech Republic.

The requirements for the submission of duly authenticated documents are considered fulfilled if the applicant submits authenticated copies of documents that were previously authenticated by the method listed above applicable to the documents submitted (e.g., in the case of a diploma from Kenya, the applicant submits authenticated copies of the superlegalised documents).

List of states according to the respective forms of authentication described above:

A)   Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro, France, Georgia, Yemen, Croatia, People’s Republic of Korea, Cuba, Cyprus, Kyrgyzstan, Hungary, Macedonia/FYROM, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, the Russian Federation, Greece, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Syria, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam.

B)   Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burundi, Cook Islands, Chile, China – only Hong Kong and Macao (legalisation is required in the case of other territories of China), Denmark, Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe (from 15 July 2008), Dominica, Dominican Republic (authentication by Apostille clause from 30 August 2009), Ecuador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, French territories (i.e., French Polynesia, the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas, Guadeloupe, Guyana, 7 Komodo Islands, Martinique, New Caledonia, Réunion, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Wallis and Futuna), Grenada (from 7 April 2002 – up to this date it was covered under Great Britain), Guatemala, Honduras, India, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Israel, Japan, Republic of South Africa, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Republic of Korea (South Korea), Kosovo, Costa Rica, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malta, Morocco, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Namibia, Germany, Niue, the Netherlands and its territories (i.e., the Netherlands Antilles, Aruba), Norway, New Zealand, Oman, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Salvador, Samoa, San Marino, the Seychelles, Suriname, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Swaziland, Sweden, Tajikistan, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Uruguay, the United States of America and its territories (i.e., American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands of the United States), Great Britain and its territories (i.e., Jersey, the Bailiwick of Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Anguilla, Bermudas, British Antarctic Territory, British Virgins Islands, British Solomon Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Saint Helena, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands), Vanuatu, and Venezuela.

C)   States listed neither under A), nor B) above.