Glossary
Nobody explains these words. They simply appear — at a counter, in a letter from an agency, in a guide. And a reader who has to go and search for an unfamiliar Ukrainian acronym is exactly the reader a scam site catches, because the top result for the name of a government service is very often not the government. Two or three sentences each, grouped by situation rather than alphabetically: nobody knows the word they do not know, so people browse the problem they have.
The paperwork words
What gets asked for at the counter, and what makes one thing different from another.
- ДРАЦС — Department of State Registration of Civil Status Acts
- The office that registers births, marriages, divorces, name changes and deaths in Ukraine and issues the documents proving them. You can apply to any office, not only the one that registered the event.
- Свідоцтво vs витяг — certificate vs register extract
- Two different documents, and confusing them is the commonest reason for a second trip. A REPLACEMENT CERTIFICATE is a fresh copy of the certificate itself. An EXTRACT is a statement from the state register of what the register holds. Ask whoever wants it which one they mean.
- Апостиль — apostille
- The stamp that makes a document from one Hague Convention country usable in another without consular legalisation. An apostille on a Ukrainian document is placed only in Ukraine — a consulate abroad does not do it. Which authority stamps it depends on the document.
- Консульська легалізація — consular legalisation
- The longer route, used when the destination country is not in the Hague Convention: the document is certified by several authorities in sequence, ending with the consulate of the receiving country. An apostille replaces that chain with one stamp.
- РНОКПП (раніше ІПН) — Ukrainian tax number
- Ukraine’s taxpayer registration number. Needed for almost anything involving money or property — a bank account, a property sale, an inheritance, a pension. Obtaining one from abroad is a separate errand with its own timescale, and it is a classic reason a signing date slips.
- ЦНАП — administrative service centre
- A local-government one-stop shop where applications are filed and documents collected for many different agencies. Often an easier alternative to going to the agency itself.
- «Дія» — Diia
- Ukraine’s state portal and app for digital services — certificates, extracts, registers, and some documents in electronic form. Parts of it work from abroad if you hold a Ukrainian qualified electronic signature.
- «Резерв+» — Reserve+
- The Ministry of Defence app in which men aged 18–60 generate the electronic military-registration document with a QR code that consular missions check. It is an app, not a website — install it from your device’s store and check the publisher.
Consular services for men aged 18–60 · official page: mod.gov.ua
- Довіреність — power of attorney
- The document by which you authorise someone to act for you in Ukraine. It permits EXACTLY what it says and nothing more — "sell the flat" and "receive the money for it" are two different acts. It can be certified at a Ukrainian consulate, or by a local notary and then apostilled.
- Передоручення — sub-delegation
- Your representative’s right to pass their powers on to a third person. Convenient when a matter drags on, and simultaneously hands your affairs to someone you did not choose. Decide it deliberately either way; it has to be written into the document.
- Транслітерація — transliteration
- The Latin spelling of a Ukrainian name under the official table. Older documents may have been spelled under different rules, or from Russian — hence Yelena for Olena. A mismatch between documents is officially a break in the chain, and it is closed by a document, not an explanation.
The property words
What decides whether a place can be sold, let or inherited at all.
- Державний реєстр речових прав — State Register of Property Rights
- The electronic register of rights to immovable property. It dates from 2013, so older rights may be missing from it and exist only in the old BTI papers, in which case they have to be registered first. Any notary or administrative service centre can pull an extract; with an electronic signature you can do it yourself through Diia.
- БТІ — the old technical inventory bureau
- The bureau that kept property records before the electronic register existed. If a title was registered long ago, the record may exist only there, on paper.
- Обтяження — encumbrance
- Anything recorded in the register that limits what can be done with a property: a mortgage, a seizure, a prohibition on disposal, third-party rights. One nobody knew about stops a deal at the worst moment, which is why the extract is pulled before a price is agreed.
The inheritance words
Here the clock runs from the date of death, not from when you found out.
- Спадковий реєстр — the Inheritance Register
- The register showing whether an inheritance case has been opened, which notary holds it, and whether there is a will. Any notary can check it — and that, rather than hunting for documents, is the first step.
- Заява про прийняття спадщини — application accepting an inheritance
- The one thing that must happen within six months of the death. The heir signs it PERSONALLY — a representative on a power of attorney cannot file it for them. Valuing the estate, gathering documents or agreeing anything with other heirs all come afterwards.
- Місце відкриття спадщини — place of opening of the inheritance
- The deceased’s last place of residence, which decides which district’s notary handles the case and where the application has to arrive. Not the place of death, and not where the property is.
The money and tax words
Almost every answer here starts with where you are tax resident.
- Податковий резидент — tax resident
- Neither citizenship nor immigration status. The Ukrainian side decides it by a ladder in Tax Code art. 14.1.213, where each rung is used only if the one above does not settle it. The answer drives the rates on inheritance, rent and sales.
- Військовий збір — the military levy
- A separate levy charged in many cases ON TOP of income tax rather than instead of it. So "the tax rate" and "what will actually be taken" are not the same number.
- Офіційний курс НБУ — the official NBU rate
- The rate the National Bank sets daily. It is not the rate anyone will exchange money at — it is the benchmark to judge a transfer offer against, because the real fee usually hides in the spread rather than in the stated commission.
The pension and archive words
Two subjects where a date in the calendar matters more than any document.
- ПФУ — the Pension Fund of Ukraine
- The body that awards and pays pensions. Only your own local office can answer for your case; no general description can.
- Щорічна ідентифікація — the annual identification
- The yearly confirmation that a pensioner is alive and still entitled. It cannot be delegated to a representative on a power of attorney, and missing it stops the payments.
- Метричні книги — metrical books
- The church registers of births, marriages and deaths kept before civil registration existed. For tracing ancestors they are the main source, and they live in the regional archives rather than with the civil registry.
- Архівна довідка — archival certificate
- The archive’s official statement of what its records hold, suitable for filing with state bodies. Different from a plain copy — if the document is going abroad, ask up front whether it can take an apostille.
Something missing?
If you have met a word that is not here, write and it will be. That is the most useful kind of mail we get. Contact