Apostille and Legalization of Foreign Documents in Georgia

Legalization confuses people twice over: they mix up which country actually stamps the apostille, and they mix up apostille with translation, treating the two as one step when they are entirely separate procedures with separate agencies.

Georgia joined the Hague Apostille Convention in 2007, which is what makes most of this comparatively simple, but the direction of the document, foreign into Georgia or Georgian out into the world, changes which office does what.

A Foreign Document for Use in Georgia

This is the direction that matters for most foreigners: a birth certificate, diploma, marriage certificate, or criminal record check issued back home, needed for a residence permit in Georgia, university enrollment, or a civil registry action.

The apostille itself is never issued in Georgia for a foreign document: it has to come from the competent authority in the country where the document was originally issued, before it ever leaves that country.

Georgia's role starts only once the apostilled document arrives: at that point it needs a certified translation into Georgian, since an apostille confirms the document is genuine, not that a Georgian official can read it.

A Georgian Document for Use Abroad

The other direction runs through Georgia's own Public Service Development Agency, the same agency behind residence permits, and follows a tiered pricing structure based purely on speed: 30 lari for service within 8 working days, 60 lari for 4 working days, 120 lari for 2 working days, and 150 lari for same-day processing.

Applications go to a Public Service Development Agency office or a Public Service Hall branch, including the agency's own Tbilisi office at 67a Tsereteli Avenue.

Not everything qualifies: documents from medical institutions, the Ministry of Education, courts, notaries, and other administrative bodies can be apostilled, but documents from private entities, personal identity documents, military records, vehicle registration papers, and normative acts cannot be apostilled at all under this procedure.

Countries Outside the Hague Convention

For a document headed to a country that never joined the Hague Convention, an apostille is not enough and full legalization is required instead.

In Georgia this runs as a two-stage process handled under a single-window principle: the Public Service Development Agency completes the first stage, and the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia completes the second, without the applicant needing to visit two separate buildings.

After both Georgian stages, the destination country's own embassy or consulate in Georgia typically has to certify the document once more before it is accepted there.

Electronic Apostilles and Checking If One Is Genuine

Since 2020, Georgia issues apostilles electronically for many common document types, birth and marriage certificates, health records, and court orders among them, and anyone can verify a Georgian-issued apostille online rather than relying on a physical stamp alone.

The verification tool at apostille.cra.ge covers roughly 100 document types issued by Georgian public authorities and educational and health institutions, useful both for a Georgian institution checking incoming paperwork and for a foreign counterpart checking a document coming out of Georgia.

Translation Is Always a Separate Step

An apostille or legalization stamp says nothing about language: a document apostilled in English is still in English afterward, and a Georgian institution needs it in Georgian.

The Agency itself offers translation at 30 lari per page as part of the same process, or the translation can be done independently and then certified by a notary in Georgia, whose official rate for certifying translation accuracy is a flat 1 lari per page, far cheaper but requiring a separate trip and a translator whose work the notary is willing to certify.

Where This Actually Comes Up

• A foreign diploma, for recognition by a Georgian university or employer
• A birth or marriage certificate for Georgia, for civil registry actions or family-based residence status
• A criminal record check from the home country, required for a residence permit or citizenship application
• A Georgian-issued certificate, needed back home for inheritance, banking, or another civil matter

The paperwork itself is rarely complicated once the right office and the right order of steps are clear; what usually causes delays is submitting a document for translation before it has been apostilled, or assuming a Georgian notary can apostille a foreign document rather than only translate and certify it after the fact.

A criminal record check is a common trap of its own: many countries issue one with a shelf life as short as three or six months, and if apostille plus translation takes longer than that, the whole chain has to be redone with a fresh certificate rather than the original.