Authentication of a Signature - The Notary Confirms You Signed, So No One Can Say You Did Not

What the notary certifies, and what it does not

Authentication of a signature (certification of the authenticity of a signature) is the notarial act by which the notary certifies that a document was signed in the notary's presence by a person whose identity the notary has established from a valid identity document, or that a person appearing before the notary acknowledged a signature already on the document as their own. The certification is added to the document with the notary's signature, seal and register number, and the act is entered in the electronic register of notarial acts. What is certified is the fact and authorship of the signature, the date and the identity of the signatory; what is not certified is the truth, legality or completeness of the document's content, which the notary does not examine beyond checking that it is not manifestly unlawful. This is the difference between authenticating a signature on a declaration and certifying a transaction: the first makes the signature indisputable, the second makes the notary responsible for the act itself. For most statements that institutions want "notarized", the first is what they need, and it is quicker and cheaper.

The documents this act is used for

The range is wide because the act is simple. Consents: a parent's consent for a child to travel abroad or with one parent, a spouse's consent to a property transaction, a landlord's consent to registration at an address, consent to the processing of data or to medical treatment. Declarations: of marital status for a marriage abroad, of income or support for a visa or a residence permit, of no objection, of residence, of a fact that a foreign authority wants sworn. Affidavits and statutory declarations: for foreign courts, immigration authorities and universities in common-law countries, which accept a Georgian notary's authentication with an apostille. Forms: bank account and mandate forms, embassy and consulate forms, university enrollment and scholarship forms, insurance claims, pension applications, company forms for foreign registries, and the "notarized signature" that many foreign institutions require on their own templates. Letters: sponsor letters, invitation letters, letters of authorization that fall short of a power of attorney, guarantees. We draft the document where the client does not have one, in Georgian with a parallel column in the client's language, in the wording the receiving institution expects.

Foreign-language documents and the interpreter

Most documents brought for this act are for foreign institutions and are in English, German, Italian, Russian, Turkish or another language. The notary may authenticate a signature on a document in a foreign language, provided the notary can establish that the signatory understands what they sign and that the document is not unlawful; in practice the notary requires either that the notary reads the language, or that a translation into Georgian accompanies the document for the notary's file, and where the signatory does not speak Georgian, that an interpreter is present and recorded in the act. We handle this in one step: the document is translated into Georgian (certified for the notary's file, notarized where the institution or the notary requires it), our interpreter attends where the signatory is a foreigner who does not speak Georgian, the notary certifies the signature, and the foreign-language document leaves with the notary's certification on it, ready for apostille. Where a foreign institution's template must be signed exactly as issued, it is; where the client needs a document written, we write it bilingually so that the signatory and the notary both read it.

What to bring and how the appointment runs

Bring a valid passport or Georgian ID and the document unsigned - the notary must see you sign, or hear you acknowledge a signature already made as yours - and, for a consent or a declaration concerning another person or a property, the details of that person or property and any supporting document (a child's birth certificate, a marriage certificate, a property extract) that the receiving institution will expect to be referenced. Send the document or a description of what you need to sign on WhatsApp or Telegram in advance, and we prepare the text or its translation and book the appointment at Agmashenebeli 117; the act itself takes about fifteen minutes. Foreign passports are translated and notarized for the notary's file beforehand from a photo. The certified document is yours to take at once, a scan is sent the moment the notary signs, and an electronic version with the notary's qualified signature is issued where the institution accepts it.

Use abroad: apostille and the foreign institution's requirements

A signature authenticated by a Georgian notary is a Georgian notarial act, and a foreign institution accepts it after the apostille through the Ministry of Justice route (one to three business days) or, for non-Hague countries, consular legalization; the document itself is either already in the institution's language or is translated with a notarized translation that we make, and where the institution's country requires its own sworn translators, our partner there re-certifies the text. Common-law institutions - courts, immigration authorities and universities in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Ireland - accept a Georgian notary's authentication in place of the affidavit or statutory declaration they would take at home, with the apostille; civil-law institutions accept it as a "signature légalisée", "beglaubigte Unterschrift" or "firma autenticata". We draft affidavits and declarations in the form the institution's practice expects - the jurat, the declaration of truth, the numbered paragraphs - so that the foreign reader recognizes the document.

Refusal grounds, fees and practical points

The notary refuses to authenticate a signature where the signatory cannot be identified from a valid document, where the signatory does not appear to understand the document or to sign voluntarily, where the document is manifestly unlawful or its content is uncertain (blank spaces, erasures, missing pages), where a minor or a person without capacity signs without a guardian, and where the document is one that by law requires full notarial certification rather than a signature authentication - a will, a power of attorney for certain transactions, a contract that the law requires in notarial form. We tell you in advance where the act will not serve and which act will. Fees follow the official tariff per signature authenticated, so a document signed by two people is two acts and a document signed once for several purposes is one; the translation and the interpreter are quoted separately in advance. A signature authenticated in the morning is registered and usable the same day.

Frequently asked questions

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