Apostille and Legalization Between Georgia and Kazakhstan - Which Ministry, Electronic Apostilles, Sequence and Timing

Apostille replaces legalization between Georgia and Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan joined the Hague Apostille Convention in 2001 and Georgia in 2007, so a public document from either country is recognized in the other once apostilled by the issuing country's competent authority. The Embassy of Kazakhstan in Tbilisi and the Embassy of Georgia in Astana do not legalize documents between the two countries; what they handle is passports, consular registration and notarial acts for their citizens. Neither the Minsk Convention nor any bilateral treaty exempts documents from the apostille between the two countries, since Georgia left the CIS legal assistance framework in 2009, so the apostille is required in both directions.

Which Kazakh authority wants an apostille differs. ZAGS offices require apostilles on foreign civil status documents; the migration police on conviction certificates and civil status documents; ENIC-Kazakhstan and universities on diplomas; courts and notaries on everything. Whether the translation itself must be apostilled is rarely asked when the translation is re-notarized in Kazakhstan; when our notarized translation is used directly, some offices ask for its apostille too, and we provide it. Georgian offices require a Georgian notarized translation and an apostille on the Kazakh original, paper or electronic.

Where Kazakh documents get their apostille: by document type

Kazakhstan distributes apostille authority among its ministries according to the issuing body. The Ministry of Justice and its territorial departments apostille ZAGS certificates of birth, marriage, divorce and death, notarial documents (powers of attorney, consents, certified copies, notarized translations) and documents of the justice system. The Ministry of Science and Higher Education apostilles higher education diplomas and transcripts, and the Ministry of Education apostilles school certificates. The Ministry of Internal Affairs (through its Committee on Legal Statistics under the Prosecutor General's Office, which issues the certificate) handles the apostille on certificates of no criminal record. The courts' administration apostilles court decisions. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs apostilles documents from other state bodies. Many of these apostilles - notably for ZAGS certificates, criminal record certificates and notarial documents - can be requested through eGov.kz and issued electronically as a QR-coded certificate, often within a day, which Kazakh citizens in Georgia can do from anywhere; paper apostilles are obtained at the ministry's public service center (ЦОН) by the holder or a relative. We confirm the authority and the route for each document.

Apostille on Georgian documents for Kazakhstan

Georgian documents going to Kazakhstan 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; the conviction certificate through the Ministry of Internal Affairs route. 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 Russian or Kazakh and notarize it, apostille the notarized translation where the receiving office asks, and arrange re-notarization in Almaty or Astana where required. Clients in Kazakhstan receive the finished set by courier within three to four days.

Documents most often apostilled between Georgia and Kazakhstan

• Batumi and Tbilisi property purchases: Kazakh marriage certificates and spouses' consents.
• Georgian residence permits: Kazakh eGov certificates of no criminal record, ZAGS birth and marriage certificates, diplomas.
• Marriage in Georgia and in Kazakhstan: Kazakh and Georgian certificates of marital status, birth certificates, divorce certificates.
• ENIC-Kazakhstan recognition and Kazakh universities: Georgian diplomas, supplements, school leaving certificates.
• Georgian universities and recognition: Kazakh diplomas and attestats.
• Company registration on either side: Kazakh registration certificates, charters and powers of attorney; Georgian Public Registry extracts and charters.
• Wine and food exports: certificates and contracts where Kazakh importers or authorities require apostilles.
• Succession and property: Georgian death and inheritance certificates for Kazakh notaries; Kazakh inheritance certificates for Georgian notaries.

The sequence for Kazakh files

• Step 1: the Georgian original is apostilled by the competent Georgian authority, where the receiving Kazakh office requires it.
• Step 2: we translate the document and its apostille into Russian or Kazakh and the translation is notarized.
• Step 3 (where asked): the notarized translation is apostilled, or re-notarized by a partner notary in Kazakhstan.
• Step 4: the bundle is kept stapled as issued, scanned as one file for eGov and university portals, and shipped where paper is needed.

Translating before apostilling leaves the apostille certificate untranslated; skipping the apostille for ZAGS 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 day or two for re-notarization in Kazakhstan. Kazakh electronic apostilles take about a day; paper apostilles at a ЦОН a few days. Georgian offices accept the Kazakh certificate of no criminal record for a limited period, and Kazakh offices apply similar windows to Georgian conviction certificates, so timing matters. The errors we correct most often are an untranslated apostille certificate, an eGov document printed without its electronic apostille, a diploma apostilled at the Ministry of Justice instead of the education ministry, a spouse's consent missing from a property file, a Kazakh document in a name transliterated differently from the passport's Latin spelling, and a bundle unstapled for scanning. Send photos or PDFs of everything and we run this check before submitting.

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