KEP and Services for Greeks Abroad

CITIZENS AND GREEKS ABROAD SERVICE AND INFORMATION CENTER

The Citizens and Greeks Abroad Service and Information Centre (KEPPAE) – Authentication Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been operating at its new address, at 3 Akadimias str. (arcade), since 10.01.2022.

The contact details of the Department are:
1) Phone numbers: 210 - 3682040 to 43
2) e-mail: cio@mfa.gr

AUTHENTICATION DEPARTMENT

The Department operates from Monday to Friday, 09:00 - 13:00.
It is responsible for authenticating:

1) Signatures of the competent organs of the Greek State on documents of Greek Public Services, in Greece and abroad, in cases of non-application of the Hague Convention. A special file of sample signatures is kept for this purpose (see note 1).

2) Signatures of accredited personnel of all foreign diplomatic and consular missions in Greece on documents issued or certified by said authorities. An updated special file of sample signatures is kept for this purpose (see note 2).

3) Signatures of Greek and foreign nationals on all documents in the Greek language, apart from powers of attorney, provided said documents are signed in the presence of the competent officer.

Note 1: GREEK PUBLIC DOCUMENTS

Public documents are validated by the Authentication Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for use in countries outside the Hague Convention or in countries for which, although they have acceded to the Convention, our country has expressed objections (i.e. Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Peru, Tunisia, Philippines, Kosovo, Pakistan) as long as they are originals or exact copies from the issuing authority only. Documents are validated FREE OF CHARGE.

For information purposes only, we mention that documents from Ministries are validated directly by the Authentication Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while documents originating from other public authorities must first be validated by the Ministry to which they belong. Procedure for validation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the most common cases of public documents to be used in countries outside the 1961 Hague Convention

For other categories of Greek public documents, which are to be used in Countries outside the Hague Convention, were commend that you ask Information on the correct procedure for their validation by contacting the Authentication Department, before arriving for validation.

Note2: FOREIGN PUBLIC DOCUMENTS

In order for a foreign public document to be accepted by Greek public services, it must first be duly authenticated on a case- by – case basis. Authentication precedes its official translation.

In particular:

A) if the foreign public document has been issued by an Authority of a contracting state to the 1961 Hague Convention, which has been ratified by Greece by virtue of L. 1497/1984 (GG 108A), in accordance with the existing contractual obligation, it must bear the Apostille stamp, subject to the exceptions provided by L. 4231/2014 and the Regulation No. 1191/2016 of the European Parliament and the Council. For the list of countries that are parties to the 1961 Hague Convention see https://www.hcch.net/en/instruments/conventions/status-table/?cid=41
To find the competent organs of each state, including our country, for affixing the Apostille stamp, see
https://www.hcch.net/en/instruments/conventions/authorities1/?cid=41

B) if the foreign public document comes from authorities of countries which, although they have acceded to the Hague Convention, our country has expressed objections to their accession and for as long as these have not been lifted, i.e. Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Peru and Tunisia, this is only validated by the competent Greek consular authority. The competent Consulates are: 1) Kyrgyzstan – Consular Office of the Embassy in Astana (Kazakhstan), 2) Mongolia – Consular office of Beijing Embassy, 3) Uzbekistan - Moscow Consulate General, 4) Peru – Consular Office of the Embassy in Lima, 5) Tunisia – Consular Office of Tunis Embassy, 6) Philippines – Embassy in Manila, 7) Kosovo - Consular Office in Pristina, 8)Pakistan - Embassy in Islamabad

List of Greek Authorities abroad

C) If the foreign public document comes from the authorities of a country that is not a party to the Hague Convention or it is a public document which is expressly exempted by the Hague Convention from the apostille requirement (e.g. documents issued by Diplomatic or Consular agents, administrative documents directly related to a commercial or customs operation), its consular certification is required in order for it to be accepted by Greek public services.
More specifically:

C1) consular certification can be obtained on a foreign public document issued by authorities of a country not party to the Hague Convention by the relevant Greek consular authority in the country of origin, as long as it has been previously certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the document’s country of origin. Alternatively, the foreign public document can be certified by the Authentication Department of KEPPAE of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs if, after the certification thereof by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the country concerned, it is ratified by the Consular Authority of that country in Greece.
Exception: Documents coming from Ethiopia, Algeria, Afghanistan, Ghana, Eritrea, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Kenya, DR Congo, Libya, Mali, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Tunisia, are certified only through the competent salaried Greek Consular Authority.

C2) a document issued by a Diplomatic or Consular Authority accredited in Greece, within the frameworks of the exercise of the consular duties thereof, must be certified by the Authentication Department of KEPPAE of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or, due to local jurisdiction, by the respective Authentication Office at the International Relations Service of Thessaloniki (Dioikitirio), except in cases where the document is exempted from the certification requirement due to bilateral or multilateral contractual obligations of Greece (e.g. London Convention of 1968, ratified by Law 844/1978).
Member States of the Council of Europe, for which the certification process has been completed and for which the Convention of the Council of Europe on the Abolition of Legalisation of Documents executed by Diplomatic Agents or Consular Officers applies (London, 7.6.1968). The documents thereof circulate between these Member States without any further legalisation. The aforesaid Convention was ratified by our country by L. 844/1978.

We note that when, based on the aforementioned, the certification of a foreign public document is requested, each authentication of signature of a competent Diplomatic – Consular officer Department of KEPPAE of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requires:
1)ID card details of the Greek national or proof of legal residence of by the Authentication the foreign national/s, whom the foreign document to be certified concerns, in accordance with the provisions of article 26§1 of Law 4251/2014.
2) Appearance in person of the interested party or submission of authorization with authentication of signature.
3) Submission of paid 30 Euros public fee with Code 0081 for the payment of consular fees by way of application of the new consular fees in effect since 01.03.2014 (P.D. 16/2014, GG24A/31.1.2014).

To issue the electronic fee (e-paravolo) you will need the following particulars:
Public Authority: Foreign Affairs
Fee Category: State fees of all types
Fee type: 0081 Consular fees Athens authentication of foreign authority’s signature

* The fee is issued at a Citizens’ Service Center and subsequently paid to a Bank or via e-banking or the website of the General Secretariat for Information Systems of the Public Administration www.gsis.gr e-Paravolo Regarding the inclusion of our Service in the GSIS e-Paravolo application, we consider it necessary to point out the following: The citizen must connect via the Internet to the GSIS website and choose the "e-Paravolo Issuance" service, i.e. https://www.gsis.gr/polites-epiheiriseis/pliromes-kai-eispraxeis/e-paravolo

ATTENTION: If the open application is used, without entering the user’s TIN and IBAN, there is no possibility for refund in case validation is not carried out. Although issuance of e-paravolo is possible to both certified users of Taxisnet and non-certified users, if the citizen who requires the validation has been certified as user of the system, we recommend that he uses the first option on the website for several reasons, among which the possibility of having the amount refunded in case the validation is not carried out.