How to confirm the fact of family relations if the documents are not preserved, or there are disagreements in the documents

The law offers many grounds for legalization in Ukraine. Most of the grounds are connected with relatives who were born, lived in Ukraine or have Ukrainian citizenship. This issue has been considered more than once by our team as part of assistance in obtaining a permanent residence permit in Ukraine. In our article, we will tell you what documents are needed and how to find them.

If you do not want to search and collect documents yourself, but want to find professionals who will do it for you, contact our company. Not a single unsuccessful case in 12 years! We know exactly what and in what form the DMS is needed. We organize medical examination, translations and apostillation. We work with all countries and reasons for obtaining a permit. We take on difficult tasks, for example, obtaining a permanent residence permit abroad. Let us tell you in which case permanent residence permit is the best solution for tax optimization or legalization in Ukraine.

What documents do I need to confirm my family ties?

It is very important to collect all documents confirming the kinship ties. First of all, these are the following records:

• birth certificate;
• certificate of change of name, surname;
• marriage certificate, etc.

If documents were issued abroad and are subject to legalization or apostilization, then it must be done in the country where the document was issued or through the appropriate consular office.

As a rule, the easiest way to restore the lost documents is to apply to the civil registry offices, i.e. the place where the documents were issued.

In Ukraine this can be done in any subdivision of the Civil Registry Office at the place of residence or location, because now all archives have been transferred to the unified electronic register of civil status records.

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What to do if the records are missing, not preserved, or too old?

It should be noted that the electronic registers include archive documents from 1954-1955.

In our company’s practice we often had cases when there were grounds for legalization of a foreigner in Ukraine, but the client could not confirm this fact documentary due to discrepancies in the documents or due to the fact that they were lost.

For example, the client’s mother was born in Ukraine, the name Anna was written in the birth documents. She moved to Kazakhstan in the 50s and her name was Galina on all documents including her death certificate.

Our lawyers examined all materials, ordered linguistic expertise, prepared a statement of claim and helped our client to get a court decision confirming family ties. This decision became a document, on the basis of which the citizenship of Ukraine was received.

In case of another client our lawyers managed to prepare documents and receive the decision of the court, which established not only the fact of family ties, but the fact of birth on the territory of Ukraine, as the documents on grandfather’s birth were not preserved by the client.

Please note! In cases of acquiring citizenship it is necessary to confirm these facts.

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How to confirm kinship ties?

As a rule, you should first check the documents at the Civil Registry Offices. You can also try to find a birth record in the archival books of city, village, settlement councils, and church archives.

The court will consider explanations of witnesses who can confirm such facts, as well as an explanation of what caused the disagreement in the data.

With the extensive court experience, our lawyers will help eliminate the differences in the name, surname, patronymic, date of birth, as well as confirm the place of birth and establish a family relationship.

There are also frequent cases when documents are issued in Russian, entries in civil status records are also made in Russian, and when exchanging for the Ukrainian documents, one family surname may be translated differently. This could happen due to the fact that passports were issued in different units, because the family lived in several districts or regions of Ukraine.

Sometimes documents may have been issued by the same unit but in different years, and this was not immediately noticed or not paid attention to.

There were even cases when husband and wife had different spelling of the last name.

In one recent case, the grandmother had the surname Belova in her documents, while her grandchildren had the Bilov surname.

In fact, there are a lot of such situations, but for our specialists it is not a problem, and not an obstacle for submission of documents and obtaining Ukrainian citizenship. The main thing is to determine all your needs and choose the option that will be most convenient and optimal in each situation.

It is also important to study all the documents, so that in the future due to such changes there will be no problems with the right of ownership or inheritance.

Thanks to our experience gained over many years of practice we will help you to solve the issue of establishing family ties and find a solution to the most difficult issues.

Didn’t find an answer to your question?

The cost and procedure for obtaining a Temporary Residence Permit here.

The cost and procedure for obtaining a Permanent Residence Permit here.

The cost and procedure for obtaining Ukrainian citizenship here.