Apostille and Legalization Between Georgia, Greece and Cyprus - Authorities, Sequence and Timing

Apostille replaces legalization between Georgia, Greece and Cyprus

Greece has been a Hague Apostille member since 1985, Cyprus since 1973 and Georgia since 2007, so a public document from any of the three is recognized in the others once apostilled by the issuing country's competent authority. The Greek Embassy in Tbilisi does not legalize Georgian documents and does not need to; nor does the Georgian embassy in Athens legalize Greek ones. What the embassies handle is the registration of their citizens' marriages and births abroad, ομογενείς and citizenship files, and consular certificates, which is separate from the apostille and presupposes apostilled originals.

Whether the translation must also be apostilled depends on the office. Greek offices that insist on Register or lawyer certification do not need a foreign apostille on the translation; offices that accept a legalized foreign translation want the Georgian notarized translation apostilled as well. Cypriot offices follow the same logic with their sworn translators. Georgian offices require a Georgian notarized translation and do not care about Greek certification of it.

Where Greek and Cypriot documents get their apostille for Georgia

Greece splits apostille authority by document type. The Decentralized Administrations (Αποκεντρωμένες Διοικήσεις) apostille administrative documents - ληξιαρχικές πράξεις, δημοτολόγιο certificates, πτυχία and school certificates, ΓΕΜΗ and ΑΑΔΕ documents, ΕΦΚΑ certificates. The courts of first instance (Πρωτοδικεία) apostille judicial and notarial documents - court decisions, συμβολαιογραφικά πληρεξούσια, and documents certified by lawyers. The ποινικό μητρώο and many certificates are now issued through gov.gr with an electronic apostille that can be verified online; we translate the electronic apostille including its verification data. In Cyprus the Ministry of Justice and Public Order issues apostilles for all documents. Greek and Cypriot citizens already in Georgia can obtain apostilles through a relative, a lawyer with a πληρεξούσιο, or online for gov.gr documents.

Apostille on Georgian documents for Greece and Cyprus

Georgian documents going to Greece or Cyprus are apostilled here, and this part we handle entirely. Civil status certificates and Public Service Hall extracts are apostilled 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; and archive extracts from the National Archives and the civil registry archives, which ομογενείς files depend on, through the Public Service Development Agency after the archive issues them. You bring the original to Agmashenebeli 117 once, or a relative brings it, or we obtain it from the archive on your behalf; we submit, track and collect the apostille, then translate the bundle into Greek, notarize it and arrange re-certification in Athens or Nicosia where required. Clients in Greece receive the finished set by courier within two to three days.

Documents most often apostilled between Georgia and Greece

• Άδεια διαμονής and family reunification: Georgian conviction certificate, marriage and birth certificates, proof of relationship documents.
• Ομογενείς and citizenship by descent: Soviet-era Georgian birth, marriage and death certificates, archive extracts, residence records, Greek Orthodox baptism records where they exist, all proving Greek descent.
• Marriage in Greece: Georgian birth certificate, marital status certificate, divorce decisions.
• DOATAP and university admission: Georgian diplomas, αναλυτικές βαθμολογίες, school leaving certificates with national exam results.
• ΕΦΚΑ pensions: Georgian employment records, work books and archive extracts for pension rights accrued in Georgia.
• For Georgian residence permits: Greek ποινικό μητρώο, ληξιαρχικές πράξεις, πτυχία.
• For company registration in Georgia: Greek ΓΕΜΗ certificates and Cypriot corporate documents, καταστατικά and πληρεξούσια.

Ομογενείς files: Soviet-era documents and the archive route

Pontic Greeks from Georgia applying for recognition as ομογενείς, for Greek citizenship or for pension rights need to prove descent and residence through documents issued in the Georgian SSR: birth and marriage certificates from Soviet ZAGS offices in Tsalka, Tetritskaro, Dmanisi or Tbilisi, often in Russian and Georgian with faded stamps, house books, work books, school records and archive extracts. Many originals were lost in the 1990s, and the route is to request duplicates or archive extracts from the Georgian civil registry and the National Archives, which issue them in Georgian with a stamp that can then be apostilled. We handle these requests on behalf of clients in Greece, translate the resulting documents into Greek with a translator's note reconciling the Greek surname with its Russian and Georgian forms, notarize, apostille and arrange Register certification for the consulate or the δήμος. These files can take weeks because of the archive step, and we tell you the realistic timeline at the outset.

The sequence, timing, validity and common errors

The sequence is: apostille the Georgian original; translate the document and its apostille into Greek and notarize; then either apostille the notarized translation (for offices accepting legalized translations) or re-certify it in Greece or Cyprus (for offices requiring the Register, a lawyer or a Cypriot sworn translator); keep the bundle stapled as issued and scan it as one file. Apostilles on Georgian civil status documents usually take one to three business days; education documents up to five; archive extracts add one to three weeks for issuance. Greek ληξιαρχεία want civil status documents recently issued, and the ποινικό μητρώο and the Georgian conviction certificate are accepted for a few months, so timing matters. The errors we correct most often are an untranslated apostille certificate, a document sent to the Πρωτοδικείο instead of the Decentralized Administration or vice versa, a marital status certificate obtained too early, a Georgian document in a maiden name that differs from the passport, a Pontic Greek surname in three different forms across the file, and a bundle unstapled for scanning, which offices on both sides treat as invalid. Send photos of both sides of every page and we run this check before submitting.

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