Albania Company Registration Documents: Apostille and Legalisation Guide

Introduction

Foreign founders often discover that the slowest part of opening a company in Albania is not Albania. It is the preparation of documents in their own country: getting the right certification, in the right order, with names spelled the same way everywhere. Done well, it happens once. Done badly, it can mean several rounds of corrections across two countries.

Albanian notaries, the National Business Center (QKB), banks and the migration authorities accept a foreign public document only when its origin is certified. Depending on the country that issued it, this is done either with an apostille or through consular legalisation. After that, most documents also need a certified Albanian translation.

This guide explains:

• the difference between an apostille and consular legalisation
• which route applies to six frequent countries of origin
• which documents a company registration usually involves
• how translations fit into the process
• the correct order of steps
• the mistakes that most often send documents back

We do not list fees or processing times: they depend on the authorities in your country. We tell you exactly what to prepare once we know your case.

Apostille or Consular Legalisation?

Both procedures answer the same question — is this document genuinely issued by the authority that appears on it? — but they work differently.

The apostille is a standard certificate attached to the document. It does not confirm that the content is correct — only that the signature, seal and authority are genuine. That is why errors in the document itself still need to be corrected before certification.

Which Route Applies to Your Country

For six frequent countries of origin, the situation is as follows (status according to the HCCH status table of the Apostille Convention):

Two of these countries changed recently. Pakistan joined in March 2023 and China in November 2023. Much of the information online about documents from these countries still describes the consular route that applied before. Egypt, on the other hand, is not a party, so Egyptian documents still go through the two-step legalisation.

Which Documents a Company Registration Involves

The documents depend on who founds the company. Typical cases:

You found the company as an individual

• your passport — a notarised copy is used in Albania
• a power of attorney, if someone else signs the founding act for you; it is signed before a notary in your country and then apostilled or legalised

Your foreign company founds the company or opens a branch

• the parent company’s registration certificate or registry extract
• its articles of association or statute
• a resolution of the competent body approving the Albanian company or branch and appointing its representatives
• information on its ownership, which banks in particular will ask for

If you will also apply for residence

Personal documents for the residence permit — for example a criminal record certificate or family certificates — follow the same certification rules. Prepare them in the same round.

→ Read: company formation and residence permit

Powers of Attorney and Notarised Copies

Two kinds of documents cause the most questions: the power of attorney and copies of identity documents.

The power of attorney

If you do not sign the founding act in Albania yourself, your representative needs a power of attorney. It should state clearly what the representative may do — sign the founding act, file at the QKB, open the bank account, sign leases — and identify you and the representative exactly as in your passports. You sign it before a notary in your country; the notary’s signature is then certified with an apostille or, for non-Convention countries, through consular legalisation.

A power of attorney that is too narrow forces you to sign a second one later. One that is too vague may be refused. We send you the wording before you go to the notary.

Copies of passports and company documents

Albanian institutions usually work with notarised copies of passports, made either in Albania from the original or abroad and then certified. For company documents, ask whether the registry in your country can issue a certified extract directly — a document issued by the authority is easier to certify than a photocopy.

What Albanian Institutions Do With Your Documents

Knowing who looks at your documents, and why, helps you prepare them:

• The notary checks identities and powers before the founding act is signed. Any inconsistency in names or powers stops the signature.
• The QKB registers the company on the basis of the founding act and the attached documents; the data it records — names, addresses, shareholders — comes from them.
• The bank uses the same documents for its know-your-customer checks and may ask for more, especially about ownership and the source of funds.
• The migration authorities, if you apply for residence, rely on certified personal documents such as criminal record and family certificates.

Because the same documents travel through all four, one consistent set prepared at the start is worth far more than separate sets prepared for each step.

→ Read: business bank account for non-residents

Translation Into Albanian

Albanian procedures run in Albanian. After certification, foreign documents are translated into Albanian by a certified translator, and the translation is used together with the original.

• Translate after the apostille or legalisation, so that the certification itself is translated too.
• Make sure names, dates and company names are rendered exactly as in the passport and registry documents.
• Keep the originals: institutions may want to see them next to the translation.

The Right Order of Steps

This sequence avoids most repeat work:

1. Decide the structure. Who founds the company — you or your company — and whether you will apply for residence. This determines the document list.
2. Get the exact list. One list for company, bank and residence documents.
3. Check the spelling. Names, dates and company names identical across all documents.
4. Sign the power of attorney before a notary in your country, if you need one.
5. Certify. Apostille, or consular legalisation for countries that are not parties.
6. Send scans for a check before the originals travel to Albania.
7. Translate in Albania and use the documents at the notary and the QKB.

→ Our Sh.p.k. and NIPT registration service

Documents From Other Countries

The six countries in the table are examples. If your documents come from elsewhere, the same logic applies: first find out whether your country is a party to the Apostille Convention and from which date, then follow the matching route.

• Party to the Convention: obtain the apostille from the authority your country has designated for that type of document — it may differ for court, civil-status and company documents.
• Not a party: plan the consular legalisation — your Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then the Albanian diplomatic representation responsible for your country.
• Documents from a third country: a document follows the rules of the country that issued it, not of your nationality. A degree from one country and a passport from another may take different routes.

Tell us where each document was issued and we confirm the route for every one of them.

Practical Examples

Two illustrative scenarios (not client cases):

Mistakes That Send Documents Back

Professional Advice

→ Read about company setup for foreign companies

FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Foreign documents for an Albanian company follow a simple rule: certify them the way your country requires — apostille or consular legalisation — then translate them into Albanian. The difficulties come from the details: recent changes in some countries, spellings that do not match and documents certified in the wrong order.

Start with the structure, get one complete list and check scans before anything travels. That turns document preparation into a single, predictable round.