Apostille and Legalization Between Georgia and Mongolia - One Ministry in Ulaanbaatar, Sequence and Timing

Apostille replaces legalization between Georgia and Mongolia

Mongolia acceded to the Hague Apostille Convention with effect from the end of 2009 and Georgia joined in 2007, so a public document from either country is recognized in the other once apostilled by the issuing country's competent authority; documents legalized through the old consular chain before then remain valid, but new documents are apostilled. Neither country has a resident embassy in the other - Mongolia's embassy accredited to Georgia and Georgia's embassy accredited to Mongolia are located elsewhere in their regions - and neither legalizes documents between the two countries; what they handle is passports, visas where required, consular registration and notarial acts for their citizens, and the distance makes the apostille route the only practical one.

Which Mongolian authority wants an apostille differs. The civil registration authority requires apostilles on foreign civil status documents; the immigration agency on conviction certificates and civil status documents; the Ministry of Education and universities on diplomas; courts and notaries on everything; sports federations generally do not require apostilles on contracts and accreditation documents. Georgian offices require a Georgian notarized translation and an apostille on the Mongolian original.

Where Mongolian documents get their apostille: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Mongolia has a single apostille authority: the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ulaanbaatar, which apostilles documents issued by Mongolian public authorities - birth, marriage, divorce and death certificates and other documents of the General Authority for State Registration, criminal record certificates from the police, school certificates and diplomas from schools and universities, company registration certificates, court decisions and notarial documents - usually within a few working days on presentation of the original by the holder or any person with the document, with a state fee; some documents must first be certified by the issuing ministry (education documents by the Ministry of Education, for instance) before the MFA apostilles them, and the MFA has begun to accept certain e-Mongolia documents for apostille while requiring paper originals for others. Mongolian citizens in Georgia have a relative or an agent apply in Ulaanbaatar, or use the MFA's postal and online channels where available. We confirm the route for each document.

Apostille on Georgian documents for Mongolia

Georgian documents going to Mongolia 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 Mongolian and notarize it, apostille the notarized translation where the receiving office asks, and arrange re-notarization in Ulaanbaatar where required. Clients in Mongolia receive the finished set by courier within four to six days, and athletes and students carry theirs home.

Documents most often apostilled between Georgia and Mongolia

• Athletes and coaches: Mongolian criminal record certificates, diplomas and coaching qualifications for Georgian work and residence permits; Georgian equivalents for Mongolia.
• Mongolian students in Georgia: school certificate and transcript, criminal record certificate, birth certificate, medical certificate.
• Graduates returning to Mongolia: the Georgian diploma, Diploma Supplement and transcript.
• Marriage and family: Mongolian and Georgian certificates of marital status, birth and marriage certificates, divorce decisions.
• Companies and mining: Mongolian state registration certificates, charters and powers of attorney for Georgian registration; Georgian Public Registry extracts, charters and tender documents for Mongolian partners and ministries.
• Succession and property: Georgian death and inheritance certificates for Mongolian notaries; Mongolian inheritance certificates for Georgian notaries.

The sequence for Mongolian files

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

Translating before apostilling leaves the apostille certificate untranslated; an education document taken to the MFA without the Ministry of Education's certification is refused. 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 re-notarization in Ulaanbaatar. Mongolian MFA apostilles usually take a few working days, plus the issuing ministry's certification where required and courier time to Georgia of four to six days. Georgian offices accept the Mongolian criminal record certificate for a limited period, and Mongolian offices apply similar windows to Georgian conviction certificates, so timing matters. The errors we correct most often are an untranslated apostille certificate, an education document sent to the MFA without the Ministry of Education's prior certification, an e-Mongolia document printed without an apostille where the office required one, a criminal record certificate that expired during the courier's journey, a Mongolian name arranged differently on the passport, the ID card and a certificate without a note, a document in traditional script only where the translator could not read it (ours can), and a bundle unstapled for scanning. Send photos of both sides of every page and every stamp and we run this check before submitting.

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