Company documents issued abroad: certification
Corporate documents are the most delay-prone items in any Turkish file: issued in formats nobody here recognises, expiring quickly, and often worded too generally to authorise what they were meant to authorise.
In brief
- Estimated time
- Depends on the issuing registry and the apostille authority
- Destination country
- Türkiye
Company formation, branch registration, tenders, banking and litigation all draw on documents issued by a foreign company registry. They cause more delay than any other class of document, for reasons that are entirely predictable.
The chain is the ordinary one
Apostille in the country that issued the document, then sworn Turkish translation, then notarial certification where the receiving institution requires it. Türkiye cannot apostille a foreign registry extract.
⭐ Three things that go wrong
Expiry. Registry extracts describe a present state and are expected to be recent. One obtained months in advance takes its apostille and its translation down with it.
Wording. A resolution has to authorise the specific act. Turkish institutions read authority narrowly, and a generally worded resolution usually has to be passed again abroad.
Format. Some registries issue documents that carry no signature at all, or that are verified only online. Ask the receiving institution in advance whether such a document is accepted, because certification cannot add what the document does not have.
Electronic documents
Several countries now issue corporate documents electronically, and whether an apostille is available for them depends on that country’s arrangements. This is worth asking about early, since the answer can change the whole sequence.
⚠ Translate the set together
Articles, extracts and resolutions share terminology: company organs, officer titles, share classes, capital descriptions. Translated piecemeal, the same term appears differently across the file, and an institution comparing two documents will query it.
Everything on the page
Registry stamps, verification codes, apostille text and any annotations are all translated. The certification marks are read as carefully as the content.
Where this fits
Formation is on setting up a company with foreign shareholders, and the general apostille rule on apostille for documents sent to Türkiye.
Group structures
Where the shareholder is part of a group, institutions sometimes ask to see the chain of ownership up to a parent, which means registry documents from two or three countries at once. Each follows its own apostille route and each has its own expiry behaviour.
Ask early how far up the chain the institution wants to see. Collecting one level at a time, as each is requested, is how a two-week exercise becomes a three-month one.
Order of steps
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Ask the receiving institution first
Format, freshness and certification requirements differ. Confirm before the documents are issued abroad.
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Get the resolution wording right
It must authorise the specific act. A general resolution usually has to be passed again.
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Time the extract to the filing
Extracts are expected to be recent. Obtain them close to the date they will be used.
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Check electronic document handling
Whether an apostille is available for an electronically issued document depends on that country’s arrangements.
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Apostille at source
Only the issuing country can certify its own registry documents.
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Translate the whole set together
Corporate terminology must be consistent across articles, extracts and resolutions.
Frequently asked questions
No. Only the country whose registry issued it.
Recent. It describes a present state and ages quickly.
Usually because it was worded too generally. Ask the institution for the wording it needs.
Ask early whether an apostille is available and whether the institution accepts that form.
So shared corporate terminology is rendered the same way across the file.
Ask the institution at the outset. Collecting one level at a time is what turns weeks into months.