What is consular legalization
Consular legalization is a kind of document legalization for the use in public bodies of the countries, which are not signatories of the Hague Convention (Canada, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Philippines, most provinces of China, Taiwan, Brazil, Uruguay, Costa-Rica etc.). The legalization is in the gradual certification of signatures of the officials, certifying the document, and also seals and stamps on the document. Consular legalization, unlike apostille, is a multistage procedure, during which a document must be in different authorities: the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, Ministry Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, and in the consulate office of the country of destination in the Russian Federation. The document will be valid only in the country, whose consulate office certified it. Therewith, the consul is not liable for the content of the document.

Consular legalization of noncommercial documents
Normally, consular legalization of noncommercial documents (certificates and diplomas) includes the following stages:

Document photocopying;
Notarization of the photocopy;
Translation of the notarized copy of the text into the required foreign language;
Notarization of the signature and availability of the translator’s diploma of the individual translating the text;
Certification of the notary’s signature and seal at the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation;
Certification of the signature and the seal of the individual at the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation;
Application to the consulate office or the embassy of the respective destination country for the document legalization.
Consular legalization of commercial documents
The procedure of legalizing commercial documents (contracts, invoices, bills of lading and other documents, usually referring to international foreign activities) includes the following stage:

Certification of the document by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation;
Legalization of the document in the consulate office or the embassy of the respective destination country.