Notarized and Certified Thai Translation - The MFA Legalization Division, the Amphur and the Georgian Notary

How Thailand certifies a translation, and the Georgian notarized translation

Thailand has no register of sworn or court translators. A translation of a foreign document for official use in Thailand is made by a translator or translation company, and then the Legalization Division of the Department of Consular Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Chaeng Watthana Road in Bangkok (with branch offices and a mobile service) checks it against the legalized original and stamps it as a certified translation; the MFA rejects translations with errors, inconsistent name spellings or unconverted dates, and its checkers know the standard forms of Thai and foreign documents well. A translation of a Thai document for use abroad is also certified by the MFA, after the Thai original has been legalized there. Thai authorities - the amphur for marriage and registration, the Immigration Bureau for visas and extensions, courts, the Ministry of Education and universities, the Department of Business Development - require the MFA stamp on translations of foreign documents. Georgia has the translation notarized by a Georgian notary, who certifies the signature of a translator registered as competent in Thai.

We translate the Georgian original into Thai here to the MFA's standard, notarize it, run the legalization of the original through the Georgian MFA and the Thai embassy accredited to Georgia, and our partner office in Bangkok submits the translation to the MFA Legalization Division for certification; where the MFA's checkers ask for a change, the partner makes it on the spot. A Thai document with an MFA-certified English translation is, from Georgia's point of view, a foreign document; for use in Georgia it must be legalized by the Thai MFA and the Georgian embassy accredited to Thailand and translated into Georgian and notarized here.

The amphur: marriage, registration and the Kor Ror forms

Marriage in Thailand is registered at any amphur (district office, or khet in Bangkok), and for a foreigner the amphur requires an affirmation of freedom to marry issued or certified by the foreigner's embassy, legalized by the Thai MFA and translated into Thai with MFA certification, plus the passport with a certified Thai translation and, if previously married, the divorce or death certificate through the same chain. For a Georgian citizen the affirmation comes from the Georgian diplomatic mission accredited to Thailand or is built from a Georgian marital status certificate legalized through the chain; we prepare the Georgian documents, translate them into Thai and route them through legalization and MFA certification. The amphur issues the Kor Ror 3 (ทะเบียนสมรส, the marriage registration) and the Kor Ror 2 (ใบสำคัญการสมรส, the marriage certificate), which then go the other way for the Georgian Civil Registry: legalized by the Thai MFA and the Georgian mission, translated into Georgian and notarized here. Divorce by mutual consent is also registered at the amphur and produces the Kor Ror 6 and Kor Ror 7; a Thai spouse's name change after marriage produces a ใบเปลี่ยนนามสกุล. We know these forms and their numbering and translate them field by field.

Thai immigration, work permits and the Thai embassy accredited to Georgia

Georgians staying in Thailand beyond the visa exemption period - on non-immigrant O visas as spouses, on retirement, education, business and the newer long-term resident and digital nomad categories - apply at the Immigration Bureau with documents that, when Georgian, must be legalized and translated with MFA certification: marriage certificates for the O visa, bank and income documents, diplomas for education and work categories, and criminal record certificates for some long-term visas. Work permits for Georgians employed in Thailand go through the Department of Employment with the same standard. The Thai embassy accredited to Georgia, which is not resident in Tbilisi, issues visas for categories outside the exemption, legalizes Georgian documents in the consular chain and performs consular acts for Thai citizens in Georgia; documents submitted there in Georgian need translations into Thai or English, which we provide, and its consular acts are used in Georgia after translation and notarization here.

Thai documents for Georgian authorities: work permits, marriage, residence

Any Thai-language document used in Georgia must be translated into Georgian and notarized here, and the underlying public document must have been legalized by the Thai MFA and the Georgian mission accredited to Thailand unless the Georgian office accepts it without. The largest category is the work permit and residence file of Thai therapists and cooks: the passport (translated from a photo, no visit needed), the police clearance certificate from the Royal Thai Police, massage and spa certificates from the Ministry of Public Health's Department of Health Service Support or from schools such as Wat Pho and the Union of Thai Traditional Medicine Society, culinary certificates, the medical certificate, and the employment contract with the Georgian spa or restaurant. Next come marriage and family documents - the Kor Ror 2 and 3, birth certificates (สูติบัตร), the tabien baan (ทะเบียนบ้าน), name change certificates, and the Thai ID card - for marriage registration and family residence permits; diplomas and transcripts for recognition; company affidavits (หนังสือรับรองบริษัท) from the Department of Business Development, lists of shareholders (บอจ.5) and powers of attorney for company registration; and bank statements and employment letters for proof of income. We also offer e-Notary certification with a qualified electronic signature.

Name changes, titles and the Thai ID number

Thai personal documents have features that trip up translators unfamiliar with them. Thais change first names and surnames relatively often, for astrological, family and personal reasons, and each change produces a ใบเปลี่ยนชื่อ or ใบเปลี่ยนนามสกุล that must accompany documents in the old name; a Georgian office seeing a birth certificate and a passport in different names needs the change certificate translated alongside, and we ask for it at the quote stage. Titles - นาย (Mr), นาง (Mrs), นางสาว (Miss) - appear before every name on Thai documents and encode marital status for women, which Georgian civil registrars read; we render them consistently and explain them in a note. The 13-digit ID number identifies a person across every Thai document and is reproduced exactly. Thai romanization of names varies between documents (the same name may appear as Somchai and Somchay), and we anchor the Georgian transliteration to the passport spelling and note variants. Dates are converted from the Buddhist Era.

Certified translation without notarization, and when it is enough

Not every recipient needs the notary or the MFA. Thai hospitals, employers, condominium juristic persons, universities for initial admission, insurers and online portals accept a certified translation with our agency stamp and translator statement in Thai or English, which is quicker and cheaper, as do Georgian spa and restaurant employers reviewing a candidate's certificates before the work permit file is built. The amphur, the Immigration Bureau, Thai courts, the Ministry of Education, Georgian courts, registries, the Public Service Hall and banks do not. Tell us who will receive the document and we recommend the right level; a certified translation can be upgraded to a notarized, legalized and MFA-certified one later without re-translating. For clients who submit documents by email we issue digitally signed PDFs, and we print, stamp and courier the same file when paper is required.

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