The File
KEPPAE Tmima Epikyroseon
Ministry of Foreign Affairs legalisation office · Ακαδημίας 3 (στοά), Αθήνα
Four hours a day, in an arcade off Akadimias, for the documents an apostille cannot help with. It moved here in 2022 and most published addresses are still the old ones.
- Full name
- Κέντρο Εξυπηρέτησης και Πληροφόρησης Πολιτών και Αποδήμων Ελλήνων (ΚΕΠΠΑΕ) — Τμήμα Επικυρώσεων
- Address
- Ακαδημίας 3 (στοά), Αθήνα It has operated here since 10 January 2022. Older published addresses on Arionos in Psyrri refer to the abolished translation service, and Ακαδημίας 1 appears on no official page.
- Hours
- Monday to Friday 09:00 to 13:00 A four-hour window, shorter than most people assume.
- Telephone
- 210 368 2040 to 2043
- cio@mfa.gr
- Cost
- Free for Greek public documents
- What it does
- Legalisation, not apostille Legalises Greek public documents for states outside the Hague Convention; verifies the signatures of foreign diplomatic and consular officials in Greece; witnesses signatures on Greek-language solemn declarations.
- What it expressly will not do
- Powers of attorney A power of attorney for a Greek property purchase must be notarised or executed before a Greek consulate. This counter is not an alternative.
- The translation service is gone
- Abolished, 1 September 2021 Law 4781/2021, articles 145 to 150. Official translation now goes through the register of certified translators — MFA-certified professionals working privately, verifiable by serial number at metafraseis.services.gov.gr, with minimum per-page fees set by ministerial decision.
Legalisation and apostille solve the same problem by different routes. The apostille is the single-stamp shortcut agreed between Hague Convention states; legalisation is the longer chain that survives for everyone else.
When you need this and not the other
For a Greek document going to a state outside the convention, and for verifying the signature of a foreign diplomat or consul stationed in Greece. For everything else, the apostille counter is the answer and this one is not.
The two official lists of non-convention states do not agree: the Ministry names seven, the Decentralised Administration names four. Follow the Ministry’s, since it is the Ministry’s counter, but know that the disagreement exists.
Translation, since it comes up in the same breath
The Ministry’s own translation service was abolished by Law 4781/2021 and replaced from 1 September 2021 by a register of certified private translators. There is also a second route that catches people by surprise: a Greek lawyer may translate to or from any foreign language with full force before any authority, under the Lawyers’ Code.
Note the citation trap on that one. Several official pages cite article 36 §2(γ) of Law 4194/2013 for the translation power, but in the text in force since March 2022 translation is §2(δ) and (γ) is certified copies.
