Confirmation of Identity with a Photograph - The Notary Certifies That the Face in the Picture Is Yours

What the notary certifies

Among the facts a Georgian notary may certify is the identity of a person with the person shown in a photograph: the person appears before the notary in person, the notary establishes their identity from a valid passport or ID, compares the person with the photograph presented, and certifies on the photograph or on a document to which the photograph is affixed that the person named, identified by the document stated, is the person shown, with the date, the notary's signature and seal and the register number. The photograph is bound or attached so that it cannot be replaced, and the act is entered in the electronic register of notarial acts. The certification is of identity with the image, not of the image's date or origin, and it is valid as at the date of the act; institutions that want a current likeness ask for a recent photograph and a recent act, and we advise on both. The act can be made on a photograph the client brings or on one taken at our office to the institution's specification.

Who asks for it

Foreign pension and social security funds paying pensions to people living in Georgia - German, Greek, Israeli, Russian, Ukrainian, Kazakh, Armenian and other funds - periodically require proof that the pensioner is alive and is the person entitled, and some specify a photograph certified by a notary alongside or instead of the life certificate. Embassies and consulates issuing passports, travel documents and consular registrations to citizens who cannot appear ask for notarized photographs. Universities and examination bodies registering candidates who sit remotely, professional bodies admitting members abroad, foreign banks and brokers opening accounts remotely, notaries and lawyers abroad identifying a signatory for a document made in Georgia, dating and matrimonial agencies' formal procedures, and online identity verification services that accept a notarial certification in place of a video call all use the act. In each case the institution's requirement determines the photograph's format and the wording of the certification, which we obtain from the institution or its published rules before the appointment.

Photograph requirements and the certification text

Institutions specify the photograph: passport format or larger, colour or monochrome, recent (within months), plain background, full face without glasses or head covering except for religious reasons, and sometimes a particular number of prints; we photograph clients at our office to the specification where the client does not bring a suitable print, and we advise where a client's own photograph will be refused. The certification is written in Georgian as the notarial procedures require, and for foreign institutions we add a translation into the institution's language, notarized and, where the institution requires legalized documents, apostilled through the Ministry of Justice route in one to three business days; some institutions supply their own form on which the notary certifies, and the notary completes it where its content is compatible with Georgian notarial form, or attaches the Georgian certification to it where it is not. For online verification services, the certified photograph and identity document copy are scanned as one file and, where the service accepts qualified electronic signatures, issued as an electronic act.

Foreign clients and interpreter

The act is available to any person identified by a valid document, Georgian or foreign; a foreign passport is translated and notarized for the notary's file beforehand from a photo, and where the person does not speak Georgian our interpreter attends and is recorded, since the person must understand the act they request. Where the receiving institution is in the client's own country and the client is abroad only temporarily, the act done in Tbilisi with apostille and translation is accepted in place of the act the client would have done at home; where the institution is Georgian and the client is a foreigner - a Georgian bank or a Georgian university verifying a remote client - the Georgian certification is used directly. Persons who cannot come to the office because of illness or disability can be visited by the notary, and we arrange the visit for pensioners and patients, with the interpreter where needed.

Related acts: identity documents, copies and life certificates

Institutions often ask for more than the photograph. A certified copy of the identity document accompanies it in most cases, and is made in the same appointment; a certificate that the person is alive is required by pension funds alongside or instead of the photograph; a specimen signature certified by the notary is asked for by banks and registries; and a declaration by the client - of address, of marital status, of continued entitlement - with the signature authenticated completes the fund's or the institution's file. We do the set in one visit, bind or scan it as the institution wants, apostille and translate it, and send it by courier or email.

What to bring, fees and timing

Bring your valid passport or Georgian ID and, if you have it, the photograph in the format the institution requires, or be photographed at our office; send the institution's requirement or form in advance on WhatsApp, Telegram or email so that we prepare the certification and any accompanying acts. The act takes minutes at Agmashenebeli 117, and the certified photograph leaves with you, with a scan sent at once. Fees follow the official tariff for the certification of a fact; the photograph, the translation, the apostille and courier are quoted separately in advance. Where the institution requires the act periodically - annual pension confirmations are the usual case - we remind clients and repeat it in the same form each time.

Frequently asked questions

Other notary services