On July 1, a law will come into force granting consular officers of Russian diplomatic missions and consular offices the authority to perform a new notarial action for foreign offices – certifying the equivalence of an electronic document to a paper document. In practical terms, this innovation means that the consul will “digitize” the paper document presented by the citizen through scanning, sign the generated file with their qualified electronic signature, and pass it to the applicant. The electronically formatted document will have the same legal force as the paper one. As a result, the citizen will have the opportunity to quickly transmit the document from abroad via regular email, significantly reducing time and logistical costs. The consular fee for performing this notarial action is set at $10 USD per page of the paper document.