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Official legalization

Legalizing Cuban Documents: MINJUS and the consular route

We validate your Cuban documents at the Ministry of Justice and at diplomatic missions so they carry full legal weight in any country in the world.

01

The step your documents must go through to be valid abroad

Holding a birth certificate, transcript or criminal record certificate issued in Cuba is not enough to submit it to the authorities of another country. To be legally recognized abroad it must go through a strict authentication process.

At Cuba Legal Services we handle the entire official validation chain, with no need for you to travel to the island or stand in endless queues:

02

Which documents do we legalize?

We can arrange MINJUS legalization and the consular route for any official Cuban document:

Important note on the process: since February 2025, MINREX has transferred responsibility for legalizing documents for international use to the Ministry of Justice (MINJUS). At Cuba Legal Services we work directly under this new framework, so your procedures are not delayed by out-of-date practice.

03

How our service works

  1. 01
    Receipt or Retrieval

    You send us your physical documents, or we obtain them directly in Cuba through our search service.

  2. 02
    Processing at MINJUS

    We submit and legalize the documents at the Cuban Ministry of Justice.

  3. 03
    Consular Accreditation

    We take the file to the consulate or embassy of the country where you will live or study for validation or apostille.

  4. 04
    Protected Delivery

    You receive your legalized original documents at home by express international courier (DHL / Correos Express), with real-time tracking.

Frequently asked questions

Is MINJUS legalization enough to submit a document abroad?+

No. MINJUS validates the document within Cuba, but for it to be accepted in another country — the United States, Spain or Italy, for example — it must also be legalized or apostilled by that country's consulate accredited in Havana. We handle both steps for you.

Do I have to send my original documents?+

If you already have them with you abroad, yes: we will need you to send them so we can present them at MINJUS and the relevant consulate. If you do not have them, we request them from scratch at the relevant Cuban registries.

The detail that makes a procedure fall through

Every receiving body has its own formal requirements — which seal, what kind of translation, how it must arrive — and they are not always clearly published. A document that does not match that format exactly means redoing the procedure from Cuba, with the cost and the wait that involves.

Would you like to start this procedure?

Tell us about your case and we will tell you exactly which documents you need, how long it takes and what it costs.

Book an appointment → Fill in the form →