A power of attorney is one of the most common documents Belarusians and foreign nationals encounter when they need to act through a representative in Belarus. A parent asks an adult child to sell a flat in Minsk; a shareholder authorises a local director to sign a contract; an heir living abroad instructs a lawyer in Belarus to accept an inheritance on their behalf. Each of these situations rests on a written document that gives another person legal authority to act.
In Belarus, these documents are as a rule drafted and certified by a notary. The reasons are twofold. Procedurally, many state authorities and counterparties will simply not accept anything else. Substantively, notarial certification serves as a professional safeguard against the risk that the powers granted will later be misused or misconstrued. This guide explains how the process works in 2026: what the law requires, which types of power of attorney exist, how the notarial appointment unfolds, and what to expect in terms of documents, fees, and term of validity.
A power of attorney is defined in Article 186 of the Civil Code of the Republic of Belarus as a written authorisation that one person issues to another for the purpose of representation before third parties. The bulk of what happens in a notary’s office when a power of attorney is drafted or certified — how the document is registered, which information is kept confidential, and how the notary’s role interacts with state bodies — is governed by the Law on Notaries and Notarial Activity of 18 July 2004 No. 305-Z, in force with the amendments that took effect on 17 December 2025 and 1 January 2026.
Two recent developments shape the current picture. First, since 19 November 2024, Article 189-1 of the Civil Code has introduced the concept of an irrevocable power of attorney, designed to secure the performance of a commercial obligation. Second, following the amendments made by Law No. 110-Z of 9 December 2025, the electronic format for notarial acts has been expanded — including certification of a power of attorney for banking purposes in electronic form.
Practically speaking, this means that a notary in Belarus is now not only the person who verifies your identity and signs the document, but also the point of contact for a national digital registry that publicly records the fact that a power of attorney has been issued or cancelled.
Belarusian legal doctrine and everyday practice distinguish three main categories, depending on the scope of the powers granted:
The distinction matters because it drives how the document is drafted. A one-off power of attorney can and should be narrow; a general one requires much more careful wording so that the representative is neither over-empowered nor too tightly constrained to complete the task.
Not every power of attorney requires a notary. For minor day-to-day matters — receiving a salary at work, collecting correspondence, accepting a small parcel — a document in simple written form, or one certified free of charge at the grantor’s place of work or study, is often enough.
Belarusian law, however, makes notarial certification mandatory in a wide range of situations, including:
The list of nominally simple documents that in practice trigger a notarial requirement is long enough that most people who need a Belarusian power of attorney for anything more than routine tasks end up in front of a notary.
When you visit a Belarusian notary to have a power of attorney certified, the appointment is more structured than the mechanical signing many people associate with the notarial systems of some common-law countries.
First, the notary verifies your identity, using your passport or ID card, and checks the identity of the person to whom the power will be granted, usually on the basis of a passport copy. The notary is required to refuse the appointment if any of the grounds listed in Article 71 of the Notary Law apply — for example, if the applicant is clearly under the influence of intoxicants or unable to understand the nature of the act.
Second, the notary discusses the scope of the powers you want to grant. The wording matters. If the document is unclear — if it does not identify the property, the actions, or the third parties involved with sufficient precision — the notary will either refine the text or, in extreme cases, decline to certify it.
Third, the notary drafts the document (or reviews the draft the applicant brings) in Russian or Belarusian. Notarial proceedings in the country are conducted in one of the state languages. Where the applicant does not speak either, the text must be translated by the notary personally or by a translator known to the notarial office.
Fourth, you read and sign the document in the notary’s presence. The notary certifies your signature, applies the notarial seal and stamps, and enters the details of the act into the notarial register and into the unified electronic system maintained by the Belarusian Notarial Chamber. Certain information about the act — the grantor’s name, the date of certification, the notary’s name, the register number, and the date of any subsequent cancellation — is published on the Chamber’s official website and does not form part of notarial confidentiality.
The specific document set depends on the type of power of attorney, but the following are almost always needed:
For foreign documents used in the appointment, an apostille or consular legalisation is generally required, together with a notarised translation into Russian or Belarusian. Cross-border scenarios are covered in more detail below.
Belarusian notaries do not set their own fees. Under Article 20 of the Notary Law, tariff rates are set by the Council of Ministers as a percentage of the statutory base value — a benchmark figure the government updates from time to time. The concrete tariff for certifying a power of attorney varies depending on the type of act: powers of attorney for disposing of a vehicle or for real estate operations are charged at higher rates than a straightforward one-off authorisation. Legal and technical services provided by the notary (drafting, printing, preparing supporting documents) are billed separately.
Certain categories of applicants — Belarusian pensioners, persons with disabilities of Group I or II, disabled children under 18, and veterans and disabled participants of the Great Patriotic War — are entitled to reduced tariffs.
The appointment itself is generally short. For a routine power of attorney with all documents prepared in advance, thirty minutes is a realistic estimate; drafting from scratch or dealing with a corporate power of attorney with multiple annexes can take longer.
The duration of a Belarusian power of attorney is governed by Article 186 of the Civil Code. The general rule is that the document is valid for the term stated, up to a statutory ceiling of three years. If no term is specified, the document is valid for one year from the date of issue. A power of attorney that lacks a date of issue is void — a common but avoidable mistake.
Sub-delegation — the representative’s ability to pass the powers on to a further person — is never implied. The grantor must either expressly allow or expressly prohibit it, and any sub-delegated document must itself be notarially certified.
A power of attorney can be cancelled at any time. Under the amendments to Articles 189 and 190 of the Civil Code that entered into force on 19 November 2024, cancellation of a notarial power of attorney is itself a notarial act and can be performed by any notary in Belarus. Third parties who have not been separately notified are deemed informed of the cancellation on the day after the corresponding entry is published on the Belarusian Notarial Chamber’s website. This is a significant protection for anyone who has issued a wide-ranging general power of attorney and needs to withdraw it without the risk that the former representative continues to bind them to third parties.
The new Article 189-1 of the Civil Code permits irrevocable powers of attorney, but only in narrow commercial contexts — where the document secures the performance of an obligation between businesses. It is a specialised tool, not a substitute for a standard power of attorney.
From abroad. Since 2023, the range of notarial services offered by Belarusian consulates has been sharply reduced. Belarusians and former residents living outside the country generally have two practical options: have a foreign notary certify the power of attorney, arrange an apostille in the country of issue, and translate it into Russian for use in Belarus; or travel to Belarus and use a domestic notary directly.
If the client’s country of residence is not a party to the Apostille Convention of 5 October 1961, consular legalisation replaces the apostille — a longer route that typically involves the local Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Belarusian consulate in that country.
For inheritance. Heirs living outside Belarus are one of the most frequent groups asking us to prepare a power of attorney. If you are in that position, the procedural side is intertwined with substantive inheritance rules, which we cover in a dedicated guide to the order of inheritance in Belarus.
For companies. A Belarusian company issues a power of attorney signed by the director, with the corporate seal. Notarial certification is not always required — for example, for a company’s own employees to represent it in court, a director’s signature and seal usually suffice — but is mandatory in any case where the underlying transaction requires notarial form.
For real estate. Powers of attorney for the sale, purchase or lease of Belarusian real estate deserve special care. The wording must expressly identify the property (address, cadastral number where relevant), the actions authorised, the term and, in most cases, the price parameters. A vague authorisation is one of the most common reasons a real estate transaction stalls at the registration authority.
The range of consular services provided by Belarusian embassies has been narrowed considerably since 2023. In most cases, powers of attorney are no longer certified by consular officers in the way they used to be. The practical routes today are a foreign notary with apostille and translation, or a Belarusian notary during a visit to the country.
Notarial proceedings in Belarus are conducted in Russian or Belarusian. A power of attorney drafted in another language must be accompanied by a notarised translation into one of them before it can be used before Belarusian state bodies.
Up to three years if a term is stated, one year if it is not. A document without a date of issue is void. For most purposes we recommend stating the term expressly.
Yes. Cancellation is itself a notarial act and can be performed by any notary in Belarus. Once the cancellation is entered into the public register maintained by the Belarusian Notarial Chamber, third parties are deemed to be on notice of it on the following day.
No. The representative does not have to be present. You need identification and, ideally, a passport copy of the representative so that their data can be entered accurately into the document.
Yes. Foreign nationals routinely use Belarusian notaries. You will need a valid passport and, in some cases, a notarised Russian or Belarusian translation of documents that support the power of attorney.
Getting a power of attorney right at the notarial stage saves a great deal of trouble later. Poor drafting, an unclear scope, a missing term or the wrong route to certification abroad can each stop a transaction dead, sometimes weeks after the document was signed. If your matter involves acting from abroad, from a country whose consular options are limited, or in a specialised area such as real estate, inheritance or corporate management, professional help pays for itself many times over.
If you are outside Belarus and need to execute or use a power of attorney in the country, our team at AMBY Legal manages the whole process — drafting the text, arranging the notarial appointment or advising on foreign certification, dealing with apostille and translation, and acting as your authorised representative once the document is in place. You can find more detail on our dedicated Power of Attorney service page and contact us in English at any stage.
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