Certification of the Translator's Signature - The Act Behind Every Notarized Translation in Georgia

How a translator becomes registered with a notary

The act rests on the notary knowing the translator. Before a notary certifies a translator's signature for the first time, the translator presents identity documents and proof of qualification in the language - a university diploma in the language or in translation, a certificate of the language at the required level, or other proof the notary accepts - and the notary records the translator's identity, signature specimen and languages in the notary's records; from then on the notary can certify that translator's signature for those languages without re-examining the qualification each time. Our translators are registered with our partner notary for every language we notarize, which is what allows a translation in Vietnamese, Hebrew, Mongolian or Malay to be notarized here within the hour when other offices cannot notarize it at all; for the rarest pairs, where no translator in Georgia is registered anywhere, we arrange registration of a qualified translator before the work begins and say so at the quote. The registration is with a particular notary, which is why a translation made by an office without its own notary must travel to a notary who has registered its translator, and why ours does not.

What the notary's certification says

The certification the notary adds to the translation states, in Georgian and in a form fixed by the notarial procedures, that the authenticity of the signature of the translator, identified by name, is certified; that the translator's identity has been established; that the translator is known to the notary as competent in the language from which and into which the translation was made; the date and place of the act; the register number under which the act is entered in the electronic register of notarial acts; the fee charged under the tariff; and the notary's name, signature and seal. The certification does not state that the translation is accurate - that is the translator's responsibility, assumed by signing - which is the legal difference from the certification of the translation's accuracy that a notary can give only in languages the notary knows. For foreign readers we add, on request, a translation of the certification into the target language, so that a registrar in Berlin or Almaty can read what the Georgian notary certified.

Binding: the translation, the original and the bundle

The translation is not certified loose. The notary binds it to the document it translates - the original, or a copy of the original certified by the notary in the same act - numbers the pages, seals the binding and places the certification so that it covers the whole; the reader can therefore see, in one physical bundle, the source, the translation and the notary's act, and can be sure that the translation is of that source and no other. This is the reason the original must be presented at the notarization step for every document except passports, ID cards and driving licenses, which the notarial practice allows to be bound as copies from a photo; it is also the reason we advise against unstapling a bundle to scan it, since a separated translation is no longer a notarial act, and the reason we scan bundles as one file for portals before they leave the office. Where the original must stay with the client - a diploma, a passport - the translation is bound to a certified copy and the original returns to its owner.

Bundling several documents in one act, and when not to

Several documents can be translated and notarized in one act - a residence permit file of passport, marriage certificate and criminal record certificate, a company file of extract, charter and resolution - bound together with one certification and charged as one act under the tariff, which saves money and keeps the file together. But a bundle is submitted as a whole, and if the documents go to different offices, or one of them will be returned and another kept, or one will need its own apostille, they should be notarized separately; we advise on the split at the quote, because unbundling later means re-notarizing. Multi-page documents - a curriculum, a contract, a court file - are one act regardless of length, with the pages numbered and the translation bound to the certified copy of the whole.

Verification: how an authority checks the act

Every act carries the register number, and the electronic register of notarial acts maintained by the Notary Chamber allows a Georgian authority - and anyone with the number - to confirm that an act with that number was made by that notary on that date; Georgian registries and banks check it, and foreign authorities that receive the apostilled bundle rely on the apostille, which the Ministry of Justice issues after verifying the notary's signature and seal against its specimens and which can itself be verified online. We keep a copy of every act in our records, so that a client who loses a notarized translation obtains a re-issue from the notary's file without a second translation, and so that a document translated years ago matches one translated today. The electronic form of the same act, signed with the notary's qualified signature, carries the same register number and is verified in the PDF and in the register.

What to bring, fees and timing

Bring the original document - or send a photo for passports, ID cards and driving licenses - and, if you will present the bundle yourself, your identity document; the person presenting need not be the document's subject. Send a photo of every page in advance on WhatsApp or Telegram, tell us the target language and the receiving office, and the translation is ready when you arrive at Agmashenebeli 117, so that the notarial act takes minutes; from the first message to the finished bundle is 1-2 hours for standard documents. Fees are the translation at our rate plus the notary's fee for certifying a signature under the official tariff, one fee per act however many pages, with the bundling advice above applied; the apostille for abroad, in one to three business days, is quoted separately. A scan is sent the moment the notary signs, the paper bundle is collected or couriered, and the electronic act is issued in parallel where wanted.

Frequently asked questions

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