All international candidates who seek to enter Russian university are required to submit information on their educational background, i.e. present original certificate/diploma obtained.

Diploma Recognition (Nostrification)
According to Russian legislation, education qualifications obtained in foreign countries must be recognized by the Russian Ministry of Education in order to confirm the level of completed education for admission to Russian universities.
In some cases (depends on country) applicants must pass the procedure of recognition (nostrification) of their education degrees by submitting the documents to the National Information Centre.

For detailed information please send the request to foreign@uni-dubna.ru

Legalization of documents
According to the legislation of the Russian Federation, documents issued in another state can be used (accepted by Russian authorities and organizations) only if they have been legalized.
Legalization is a set of formal procedures that makes a document legally valid on the territory of another state so that it may be submitted to the authorities of the said state.

Nostrification
Nostrification of the foreign documents of education is a standard form of legalization in the Russian Federation, a member state of the Lisbon Convention of 1997.
Documents of education, issued in any foreign state, are subject to registration with the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation upon entering the territory of the Russian Federation, if these documents are intended to be used for education.
The original documents of education are to be submitted for registration. These documents are recognized and their equivalence is determined in accordance with the Lisbon Convention of 11 April 1997.

The following documents are attached to the application for recognition and determination of equivalence:
1. A copy of the applicant’s passport.
2. The original document of education, and the annex to this document, legalized in the established order. The annex is comprised of the list of completed courses and the number of hours, the list of practices, the list of term theses, graduate qualification works, and other constituents of the educational process (the originals are needed only during application).
3. Two certified copies of the document of education and its annex.
4. Two copies of a certified translation of the document of education and its annex into Russian.
5. Graduates of private educational institutions should submit a certificate that verifies the status of the educational institution and the documents of education. This certificate should be issued by the central education authority of the country of origin of the document of education.
6. If you have received a second university degree, or completed a shortened educational program, or a Master’s Degree program, or studied abroad for a period of time, or completed your education abroad (if you studies in Russia for some time), you should also submit the documents of previous education.

Without legalization
Documents issued in member states of multilateral or bilateral agreements that lift the requirement to legalize documents are accepted without legalization.
The Russian Federation has agreements that lift the requirement to legalize documents with the following countries:
Bilateral agreements:
1. Albania (the Republic of Albania);
2. Algeria (the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria);
3. Argentina (the Argentine Republic);
4. Bulgaria (the Republic of Bulgaria);
5. Bosnia and Herzegovina;
6. Hungary (the Republic of Hungary);
7. Vietnam (the Socialist Republic of Vietnam);
8. Greece (the Hellenic Republic);
9. Egypt (the Arab Republic of Egypt);
10. Spain (the Kingdom of Spain);
11. India (the Republic of India);
12. Iraq (the Republic of Iraq);
13. Iran (the Islamic Republic of Iran);
14. Italy (the Italian Republic);
15. Yemen (the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen);
16. Cyprus (the Republic of Cyprus);
17. China (the People’s Republic of China);
18. North Korea (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea);
19. Cuba (the Republic of Cuba);
20. Macedonia (the Republic of Macedonia);
21. Mongolia;
22. Poland (the Republic of Poland);
23. Romania;
24. Serbia;
25. Slovakia (the Slovak Republic);
26. Slovenia (the Republic of Slovenia);
27. Tunisia (the Republic of Tunisia);
28. Finland;
29. Croatia (the Republic of Croatia);
30. Montenegro;
31. Czech Republic.

Member states of the Convention on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal Matters (01.22.1993):
1. Azerbaijan (the Republic of Azerbaijan);
2. Armenia (the Republic of Armenia);
3. Belarus (the Republic of Belarus);
4. Georgia;
5. Kazakhstan (the Republic of Kazakhstan);
6. Kyrgyzstan (the Kyrgyz Republic);
7. Moldova (the Republic of Moldova);
8. Russia (the Russian Federation);
9. Turkmenistan;
10. Tajikistan (the Republic of Tajikistan);
11. Uzbekistan (the Republic of Uzbekistan);
12. Ukraine.
Learn more about the recognition of the documents of education at the website of Federal State-Funded Institution “Main State Center for Education Evaluation”: http://nic.gov.ru