★★★★★ 5.0 ON GOOGLE · CLIENT REVIEWS | AVAILABLE 24/7
A person was born or died in an occupied territory. The family holds a paper issued by the occupation administration. For the Ukrainian state this paper has no legal force: it cannot be used to formalise an inheritance, to obtain a survivor’s pension, or to obtain documents for a child. There is a way out, and there is only one: to establish the fact of birth or death through the court. The procedure is special, simplified, and it works faster than most court cases.
Key points
Ukraine does not recognise the occupation authorities as bodies exercising state powers. Therefore certificates, references and other documents issued by them are not documents on the state registration of civil status acts within the meaning of Ukrainian legislation.
This does not mean they should be thrown away. On the contrary: in a court case they work as written evidence that the event took place. The court assesses them together with other evidence and establishes the fact. The difference is fundamental: not “we recognise someone else’s document”, but “on the basis of the totality of the evidence we establish that the person was indeed born or died on a particular day and in a particular place”.
That is precisely why there is no reason to panic if the family holds nothing but occupation papers. They are part of the evidence base, not an obstacle.
Not every event in an occupied territory automatically means going to court. It is worth checking first whether the question can be resolved more simply.
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| The event was registered by a Ukrainian authority before the occupation, and the record exists in the register | An ordinary application to any DRATS department for a repeat certificate or an extract |
| Registration did take place, but the record did not reach the electronic register and the books are unavailable | Restoration of the civil status record through DRATS on the basis of the available documents |
| No Ukrainian registration was carried out, there are only documents of the occupation administration or none at all | Establishing the fact in court under Article 317 of the Civil Procedure Code |
The check takes little time and saves months. Start with a request to DRATS: if the record is found, the court will not be needed. What an extract is and how to obtain it we explained in the article extract from DRATS: how to obtain it.
This provision was created specifically for situations where the ordinary route is impossible. It offers several substantial simplifications.
Such a set of simplifications is rare in civil procedure. The legislator deliberately made this procedure fast, because basic things depend on it: a child’s documents, a family’s pension, an inheritance.
The circle of applicants is wider than it seems: the child’s parents; family members; guardians and custodians; a person who maintains and raises the child; other legal representatives in the cases defined by law.
In practice this means that the application may be filed not only by the closest relative. If, for example, a child is in fact being raised by a grandmother or an aunt after the death of the parents, she may also initiate the case.
The applicant may act through a representative under a power of attorney or through a lawyer. For those who have gone abroad this is the key point: the case can be conducted remotely.
The central question in any case of this kind is what confirms that the event happened exactly then and exactly there.
To establish the fact of birth, the following are usually used: medical documents on the delivery, that is discharge summaries, exchange cards, references from the medical institution; documents issued by the occupation administration, as written evidence; evidence that the mother was present in that territory in the relevant period; documents on the child’s subsequent medical follow-up and vaccinations; testimony of witnesses who were present or who know the circumstances.
To establish the fact of death: medical documents or medical conclusions on the cause of death; documents on the burial, photographs of the burial place; occupation death certificates as written evidence; correspondence, messages from relatives, publications; witness testimony.
The general rule is this: the more independent sources confirm the same date and place, the more confident the decision. A single paper is usually not enough, a totality of evidence is.
Step 1. Gather the documents and assess what is already at hand and what can still be obtained. At this stage it is useful to make copies and translations straight away, if the documents are in another language.
Step 2. Prepare the application. It states which fact exactly needs to be established, what the applicant needs it for, which evidence confirms the circumstances, and why it is impossible to obtain the document in the ordinary way.
Step 3. File the application with the court. This can be done in person, by post, or through the Electronic Court subsystem, if you have an electronic signature.
Step 4. Take part in the hearing. Cases of this category are considered quickly, and in many instances the participation of a representative is sufficient.
Step 5. Obtain the decision. It is subject to immediate enforcement, and the court sends a copy to the DRATS authority.
Step 6. Obtain the certificate. After state registration on the basis of the court decision, a Ukrainian birth or death certificate is issued. From then on you can work with it: formalise an inheritance, a pension, and, if needed, obtain an apostille.
A court decision is a ground, not the final document. State registration and the issue of the certificate come next. Only after that does the fact appear in the State Register of Civil Status Acts, and extracts can be ordered.
The typical order of actions after receiving the certificate: for an inheritance, apply to a notary and order extracts from the register; for a survivor’s pension, submit the documents to the Pension Fund; for a child, arrange the documents and, if needed, register the place of residence; for use abroad, obtain an apostille and a translation.
If the documents are needed abroad, the sequence matters: first the Ukrainian certificate, then the apostille, then the translation in the format of the destination country. More on this in the article apostille on DRATS documents.
People often put it off, because it seems to be a formality. In reality, specific rights depend on establishing the fact.
One more argument: the more time passes, the harder it becomes to gather evidence. Medical institutions in the occupied territory are inaccessible, witnesses move away, and contact with them is lost.
A child born under occupation. The family left for territory under Ukrainian control with a reference from an occupation medical institution and a certificate issued by the occupation administration. There is no Ukrainian record, so documents cannot be arranged for the child. The route is as follows: an application to the court to establish the fact of birth, with the evidence being the medical documents, the occupation papers as written evidence, and the testimony of the mother and of witnesses. After the decision, state registration of the birth is carried out and a Ukrainian certificate is issued. Then, if needed, an apostille for the country of residence.
The death of a relative who stayed under occupation. An elderly person died in territory outside Ukrainian control, and the burial was arranged by neighbours. The family has photographs of the grave, correspondence and a paper of the occupation administration. An inheritance needs to be formalised. The route: an application to establish the fact of death, with the evidence being the available documents, photographs and testimony; after the decision, registration of the death and a Ukrainian certificate, with which they then go to the notary.
In both cases the essence is the same: the court does not “legalise” someone else’s papers, it establishes the fact on the basis of the totality of the evidence. And in both cases it is critical not to delay, because inheritance time limits and the availability of witnesses work against you.
Most often the applicant is physically far from the place of the event, sometimes in another country. This is not an obstacle, but it does require preparation.
What you can do on your side:
Separately on translations: if the documents are drawn up in another language, a translation is needed for the court. It is better to do it at once for the whole package, rather than one document at a time as the need arises.
And the main point about time limits: inheritance cases have strict frameworks, and a court procedure, even a fast one, needs time for preparation. If an inheritance is involved, it is worth filing the application for its acceptance in good time in parallel with the court case, so as not to lose the right over a formality.
Yes, and for families who have left this is the most common scenario. The scheme is as follows: you execute a power of attorney where you are, send it to Ukraine, and the representative gathers the evidence, files the application, takes part in the hearing, obtains the decision and carries the matter through to the certificate. If needed, an apostille is then obtained and the documents are sent to you.
The key thing to pay attention to in advance is the wording of the power of attorney. It must include powers both for representation in court and for obtaining documents at DRATS. If something is missing, a new power of attorney will have to be executed, and that means weeks.
Formally, the application can be written on your own. But in this particular category of cases the result depends almost entirely on the quality of the evidence base and on how precisely it is formulated which fact is being established and for what purpose. The lawyers of LexOn assess what is already at hand and what else can be obtained, prepare the application and the evidence, conduct the case in court, carry the matter through to the Ukrainian certificate and, if necessary, through to the apostille with a translation. The entire chain can be handed over on a turnkey basis: restoration of DRATS documents and apostille.
With any local court of Ukraine that is administering justice, regardless of where the applicant lives. There is no link to the place of the event, and this is the main simplification of this procedure.
The law requires such cases to be considered without delay from the day the application arrives. In practice this is considerably faster than ordinary civil cases, although the exact period depends on the court and on the completeness of the evidence.
Yes. The application is filed by a representative under a power of attorney, or by the person themselves through the Electronic Court subsystem if they have an electronic signature. Personal presence in court is usually not required.
The evidence base is built from what is available: witness testimony, documents from territory under Ukrainian control, correspondence, documents confirming that the person was in that region. The absence of occupation papers does not close the route to the court.
As a document on state registration, no. But the court may take it into account as written evidence in the totality of the other evidence. That is why such papers are worth keeping.
The amounts of the court fee are set by legislation and are reviewed from time to time, and exemptions are provided for certain categories of applicants. As for the current amounts and the grounds for exemption, please confirm at the time of your inquiry.
The court sends a copy of the decision to the DRATS authority without delay, after which state registration is carried out and the certificate is issued. An appeal against the decision does not suspend its enforcement.
That is a different situation and a different procedure: documents of a foreign state are legalised or apostilled, translated, and submitted for registration in Ukraine. Article 317 of the Civil Procedure Code concerns specifically territories where martial law or a state of emergency has been introduced, and temporarily occupied territories.
Disclaimer: this article is informational in nature and does not constitute legal advice. Court practice and the amounts of payments may change, and every situation has its own particularities. To resolve your specific question, please consult a lawyer.
People change their surname or first name for very different reasons: one person returns to a family surname after a divorce, another brings the spelling
The death of someone close always arrives together with paperwork. A death certificate is needed by the notary for the estate, by the bank for
A marriage certificate gets mentioned once every few years, so it sits quietly in a cupboard until it is suddenly needed: for an inheritance, for
One letter in a surname, an extra comma, “Anna” instead of “Hanna”, a year of birth with one digit wrong. It looks like a trifle
You were divorced in Ukraine and now plan to marry in Italy. Or child support was awarded to you, but the debtor lives in Germany.
The situation is familiar to thousands of Ukrainian drivers: a speeding notice appears in your Driver’s Cabinet (the police online account for drivers), in the
