Notary Services in Tbilisi - Certification and Authentication, Explained Act by Act

The six acts of certification and authentication

• Certification of powers of attorney - the notary draws up or certifies a power of attorney as a notarial act, records it in the register and gives it the force to represent you before any registry, bank, court or company.
• Authentication of a signature - the notary confirms that you signed a document in person; the document's content remains yours, but no one can later dispute that you signed it.
• Certification of document copies - the notary confirms that a copy is a true and complete reproduction of an original, so that the original stays with you.
• Certification of a document translation - the notary, being qualified in the language, certifies the accuracy of the translation itself; the strongest translation certification Georgian law offers, available for a limited set of languages.
• Certification of the translator's signature - the standard notarized translation: the notary certifies that a registered translator signed the translation.
• Certification of a signature on a transaction - the parties keep their own contract and the notary authenticates their signatures on it, without certifying the transaction itself.

How a notarial act works in Georgia

Georgian notaries are licensed by the Ministry of Justice, organized in the Notary Chamber of Georgia and bound by the Law on Notaries and the instruction on notarial procedures; every act they perform is entered in the electronic register of notarial acts with a unique number, so that any Georgian authority - and, through the apostille, any foreign one - can verify that the act exists, when it was made and by whom. Fees are not set by the notary but by the Government of Georgia's tariff, the same at every notary in the country, and are charged per act, which is why we advise on which documents to combine in one act and which to keep separate. The notary must establish the identity of every person before them from a valid identity document, must satisfy themselves that the person understands the act and consents to it, and must refuse acts that are unlawful, incomplete or presented by a person who cannot be identified. An act done in Georgia is valid throughout Georgia at once and, after the apostille through the Ministry of Justice route, in every Hague country.

Foreigners at the notary: identity, language and the interpreter

A foreign citizen performs every notarial act on the same terms as a Georgian, with two additions. Identity is established from the foreign passport, and Georgian notarial practice requires a notarized Georgian translation of that passport in the notary's file, which we make from a photo before the appointment so that the act is not delayed. Language is handled by the rule that a person who does not understand Georgian must have the act explained through an interpreter who is identified in the act and signs it; our interpreter attends every appointment with a foreign party, and we draft the document itself bilingually - Georgian with a parallel column in English, Russian, Turkish, Chinese or any of our 49 languages - so that the party reads their own language on the page they sign. A foreigner's power of attorney, consent, declaration or contract certified this way is as valid as a Georgian's, and is apostilled for use abroad in one to three business days.

Which act do you actually need?

People ask for "a notarized document" and the notary needs to know which act. If someone must act for you - sell an apartment, register a company, collect a pension, represent you at an office - you need a power of attorney. If an institution wants a statement from you with a notary's confirmation that you made it - a consent for a child's travel, a declaration of marital status, an affidavit for a foreign court, a bank or embassy form - you need authentication of your signature. If you must submit a document but keep the original, you need a certified copy. If a foreign-language document must be used by a Georgian authority, or a Georgian document abroad, you need a notarized translation, which is normally the certification of the translator's signature and, for a few languages, can be the certification of the translation itself. If two parties have agreed a contract and want their signatures made indisputable without the notary reviewing the deal, you need authentication of the signatures on the transaction. Send us a message describing what you need to achieve, and we name the act, the fee and what to bring.

Inheritance and wills

Georgian succession runs through the notary, not the court, and every step has its own act: the certification of a will, which foreign owners of Georgian property are strongly advised to make separately for their Georgian assets; the application for acceptance of inheritance, which opens the case and must be filed within six months of the death; the certificate of inheritance, the title document that the Public Registry and the banks act on; the renunciation of inheritance for heirs who do not want an estate or its debts; and the appointment of an estate administrator where a business or a rental property needs running before the heirs take title. Heirs abroad handle all of these by power of attorney with apostilled and translated documents.

Transactions, contracts and enforcement

Where the parties want the notary to stand behind the deal rather than just the signatures, the notary certifies the transaction itself: the certification of transactions covers sale and purchase, mortgage, pledge, loan, lease, gift, acknowledgment of debt and lifetime maintenance agreements, registrable directly and, for money claims, enforceable without a lawsuit through the writ of execution; the marriage contract settles who owns what for international couples; the notarial deposit is Georgia's escrow for closing a deal safely; and the maritime protest records a ship master's account of events at sea within the Maritime Code's deadline.

Corporate acts, facts and the archive

Companies use the notary for the certification of founding documents of LLCs, JSCs, branches, NGOs and foundations, especially when founders sign from abroad, and for the certification of minutes and resolutions that the Public Registry and foreign banks require. And the notary certifies facts and keeps records that other institutions rely on: confirmation of identity with a photograph and confirmation that a person is alive for foreign pension funds and insurers, copies and extracts from the notarial archive when an act is lost, and the reasoned resolution on refusal that lets you appeal when an act cannot be performed. All twenty-two acts are done at Agmashenebeli 117 with the same interpreter, translation and same-day service, and the electronic forms with qualified signatures are described on our e-Notary page.

Frequently asked questions

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