Legalization of Documents Between Georgia and Vietnam - the Consular Chain, Step by Step

Why there is no apostille for Vietnam

The 1961 Hague Convention replaced consular legalization with a single apostille stamp among its member states. Georgia joined in 2007; Vietnam has not joined. A Georgian apostille on a document bound for Vietnam is therefore meaningless there, and a Vietnamese document cannot carry an apostille at all. Instead, both countries apply the older system of consular legalization (hợp pháp hóa lãnh sự): the issuing country's foreign ministry certifies the document, and the receiving country's diplomatic mission legalizes that certification. This applies to all public documents - civil status certificates, judicial record certificates, diplomas and transcripts, court decisions, notarial acts, company registration documents and powers of attorney. It does not apply to passports, driving licenses and private documents such as bank statements and unsigned contracts, which are translated directly.

Vietnamese documents for use in Georgia: the chain

• Step 1 - certification in Vietnam: the document is submitted to the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hanoi (Cục Lãnh sự), the Department of External Relations in Ho Chi Minh City, or an authorized provincial Department of Foreign Affairs, which certifies the signature and seal of the issuing authority. Notarized copies and translations made in Vietnam can be certified too, but for Georgian purposes only the original needs it.
• Step 2 - legalization by Georgia: the certified document is legalized by the Georgian diplomatic mission accredited to Vietnam. Georgia has no embassy in Hanoi; accreditation is handled from a Georgian embassy in the region, and submissions are made by post or through a representative. We coordinate this step through partners.
• Step 3 - translation and notarization in Tbilisi: once the legalized original is in Georgia, we translate the document and both legalization certifications into Georgian and the notary certifies the translation, usually within 1-2 hours.

Doing step 3 before steps 1 and 2 leaves the legalization certifications untranslated and the file is returned; doing step 1 on a photocopy rather than the original is the most common error and wastes the fee.

Georgian documents for use in Vietnam: the reverse chain

• Step 1 - translation and notarization: we translate the Georgian document into Vietnamese and the notary certifies the translation.
• Step 2 - certification by the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: the notarized document is certified by the Consular Department of the Georgian MFA in Tbilisi, which we submit and collect.
• Step 3 - legalization by Vietnam: the certified document is legalized by the Vietnamese embassy accredited to Georgia, which is located outside Tbilisi; we handle the submission through partners so you do not travel.
• Step 4 - delivery: the legalized bundle is shipped by DHL to Vietnam or handed to you for carrying.

Vietnamese authorities may additionally require the legalized foreign document to be translated by a Vietnamese notarial office on arrival; our Vietnamese translation is the basis for that step and avoids re-translation.

Documents most often legalized between Vietnam and Georgia

• Students: high school diplomas and transcripts, university degrees and bảng điểm, lý lịch tư pháp for the student residence permit.
• Workers: lý lịch tư pháp, vocational certificates and diplomas, marriage and birth certificates for family members.
• Marriage in Georgia: giấy xác nhận tình trạng hôn nhân, giấy khai sinh, divorce decisions.
• Business: giấy chứng nhận đăng ký doanh nghiệp, điều lệ công ty, giấy ủy quyền for company registration in Georgia.
• For Vietnam: Georgian university diplomas and supplements of Vietnamese graduates for công nhận văn bằng, Georgian marriage certificates for registration in Vietnam, birth certificates of children born in Georgia for Vietnamese citizenship and passports, Georgian court decisions.

Vietnamese graduates of Georgian universities: degrees for Vietnam

The most frequent Georgian-to-Vietnamese legalization file is the diploma of a Vietnamese student who has completed medicine, dentistry, pharmacy or IT at a Georgian university and is returning home. Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training requires foreign degrees to be recognized (công nhận văn bằng) before they can be used for employment or licensing, and the Vietnamese medical licensing process asks for the diploma, the supplement with clinical hours, and often the internship or rotation records. Each must be legalized through the Georgian MFA and the Vietnamese embassy and translated into Vietnamese. We prepare the full packet during the student's final semester so it is ready at graduation, and we keep the student's transliteration and glossary from their admission file so the Georgian and Vietnamese records match.

Timing, validity and common errors

The Vietnamese certification step takes a few business days in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City; the Georgian legalization step abroad takes one to three weeks depending on postal transit and the mission's schedule; the reverse chain through the Georgian MFA and the Vietnamese embassy takes one to three weeks. Translation is 1-2 hours and is started from a scan while the chain runs. The lý lịch tư pháp is valid for a limited period and Georgian practice treats a certificate older than a few months with suspicion, so time it to arrive legalized close to the application date. The errors we correct most often are legalization on a photocopy instead of the original, a bilingual Vietnamese-English extract legalized only on the Vietnamese side, a name in unaccented form on one document and accented form on another, and a bundle unstapled for scanning, which both countries' offices treat as invalid. Send photos of both sides of every page and we run this check before anything is submitted.

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