Apostille and Legalization Between Georgia, Catalonia and Andorra - Which Office, Which Sequence, How Long

Apostille replaces legalization for Spain and Andorra

Spain has been a Hague Apostille member since 1978, Andorra since 1996 and Georgia since 2007, so a public document from any of them is recognized in the other once apostilled by the issuing country's competent authority. The Spanish consulate general in Tbilisi and the Georgian embassy in Madrid do not legalize documents between the two countries; what the consulate handles is visas, consular registration and the certification of Spanish sworn translations for some purposes. Andorra has no diplomatic mission in Georgia; Andorran documents for Georgia are apostilled in Andorra and Georgian documents for Andorra in Georgia.

Which office wants an apostille differs. Extranjería requires apostilles on the Georgian conviction certificate and civil status documents; the Registre Civil requires them on everything; the Generalitat's arrelament and reagrupament reports generally do not require apostilles on supporting documents but the Extranjería file that follows does; Catalan universities require them on diplomas at enrollment; Andorra's Immigració requires them on the conviction certificate and civil status documents. Georgian offices require a Georgian notarized translation and an apostille on the Catalan or Andorran original.

Where Catalan documents get their apostille: three Spanish authorities

Spain splits apostille authority by document type, and in Catalonia that means three offices. The Col·legi de Notaris de Catalunya in Barcelona apostilles notarial documents - escriptures, poders, actes, certified copies - and, since notaries can certify almost any document, it is the practical route for many private and academic documents too. The Secretaria de Govern of the Tribunal Superior de Justícia de Catalunya apostilles judicial documents and Registre Civil certificates issued in Catalonia. The Ministry of Justice's Oficina Central de Atención al Ciudadano in Madrid and its Gerencias Territoriales, including the one in Barcelona, apostille other public documents - certificados de antecedentes penales, university degrees (after the Ministry of Education's recognition of signatures), Registro Mercantil extracts, Generalitat and municipal certificates. Spain also issues electronic apostilles through the Ministry's e-apostille system for some documents. Georgian residents of Catalonia can obtain apostilles through a relative, a gestoria or a lawyer with a poder, or by post to the Gerencia Territorial. We confirm the route for each document.

Andorran apostilles and Georgian apostilles

Andorra's competent authority is the Ministeri d'Afers Exteriors of the Govern d'Andorra in Andorra la Vella, which apostilles Registre Civil certificates, certificats d'antecedents penals, notarial escriptures and poders, company extracts, diplomas and Govern certificates, usually within a few days; Andorran banks' documents are typically notarized first and then apostilled. Georgian documents going to Catalonia or Andorra are apostilled here, and this part we handle entirely: civil status certificates and Public Service Hall extracts through the Public Service Development Agency; notarial acts and court documents through the Ministry of Justice route; diplomas and school certificates through the education verification route, which is the slowest at up to five business days. You bring the original to Agmashenebeli 117 once, or a relative brings it, and we submit, track and collect the apostille, then translate the bundle into Catalan (and Spanish where the file goes to a national office) and notarize it, and arrange traductor jurat re-certification in Barcelona where the receiving office asks. Clients in Catalonia and Andorra receive the finished set by courier within two to three days.

Documents most often apostilled between Georgia, Catalonia and Andorra

• Extranjería and reagrupament: Georgian conviction certificate, marriage and birth certificates, marital status certificate, divorce decisions.
• Registre Civil marriage and nationality: the same civil status documents plus the conviction certificate.
• Catalan universities and homologation: Georgian diplomas, supplements, school leaving certificates with national exam results.
• Andorran Immigració, marriage and banks: Georgian conviction certificate, civil status certificates, diplomas, company documents, tax certificates.
• For Georgian residence permits: Spanish antecedentes penales and Andorran antecedents penals, Registre Civil certificates, títols.
• For company registration in Georgia: Registre Mercantil de Barcelona extracts, Andorran company extracts, escriptures and poders.
• Succession and property: Georgian death and inheritance certificates for Catalan and Andorran estates; Catalan declaracions d'hereus and testaments for Georgian notaries.

The sequence for Catalan and Andorran files

• Step 1: the Georgian original is apostilled by the competent Georgian authority, where the receiving office requires it.
• Step 2: we translate the document and its apostille into Catalan, and into Spanish where needed, and the translation is notarized.
• Step 3 (where asked): the notarized translation is apostilled, or re-certified by a partner traductor jurat in Barcelona.
• Step 4: the bundle is kept stapled as issued, scanned as one file for the Generalitat's and Andorra's online portals, and shipped where paper is needed.

Translating before apostilling leaves the apostille certificate untranslated; skipping the apostille for the Registre Civil costs a second appointment. We confirm the sequence in the first reply based on the receiving office.

Timing, validity and common errors

Apostilles on Georgian civil status documents usually take one to three business days; notarial acts and court documents about the same; education documents up to five. Add 1-2 hours for the translation and a few days for sworn re-certification where required. Spanish apostilles from the Col·legi de Notaris and the TSJC are usually same-day or next-day; from the Gerencia Territorial a few days to a few weeks depending on the office; Andorran apostilles a few days. Extranjería and Andorra's Immigració accept the Georgian conviction certificate for a limited period, and the Registre Civil wants recent certificates, so timing matters. The errors we correct most often are an untranslated apostille certificate, a conviction certificate that expired while the file waited, a Registre Civil certificate translated from the abbreviated column, a marital status certificate obtained too early, a Georgian document in a maiden name that differs from the passport, ç, l·l and ny transliterated inconsistently into Georgian, and a bundle unstapled for scanning. Send photos of both sides of every page and we run this check before submitting.

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