Translation of Form 100: the health certificate for a visa, studies, employment and treatment abroad

Form 100 (medical documentation form IV-100/a) is the most frequently used medical certificate in Georgia. It is issued to confirm a person's state of health and is understood the same way by every institution within Georgia. Abroad, however, this document only works if the translation is prepared so that a foreign clinic, embassy, university or employer understands its structure, the diagnosis and the doctor's conclusion without additional questions. We translate Form 100 and other medical certificates into English, German, Turkish, Russian, Hebrew and other languages, and foreign medical certificates into Georgian, with the necessary certification and preparation for an apostille.

What Form 100 is and what it contains

Form 100 is a standardised extract issued by a medical institution, which contains:

• the patient's identification data and the institution's details
• the reason for the referral and a short description of the anamnesis
• the principal and concomitant diagnoses, often with ICD-10 codes
• the examinations carried out and their results in summarised form
• the treatment carried out and the current prescriptions
• the doctor's conclusion and recommendations
• the doctor's signature, personal seal and the institution's seal

It is exactly this standardised structure that makes Form 100 convenient for submission abroad: one document brings together what you would otherwise have to collect from several discharge summaries and tests.

When you need a translation of Form 100

Treatment abroad

Before admitting a patient a foreign clinic asks for a summary of their state of health, on the basis of which it draws up a preliminary conclusion, calculates the cost and issues an invitation. An exact translation of Form 100 is decisive at this stage: on its basis the clinic decides which department will admit the patient and which tests will be needed on arrival.

Medical visa

Many countries' embassies require a health certificate and the clinic's invitation together for a medical visa. Here a notarized translation is needed, sometimes an apostille too, because the consular officer treats the document as a legal paper.

Studies and scholarships

Foreign universities, exchange programmes and halls of residence require a health certificate from a student on enrolment. Some countries also require specific vaccinations and test results for infectious diseases, which are attached to Form 100.

Employment abroad

A work visa and a foreign employer, especially in the medical, construction, maritime and food sectors, treat a health certificate as a mandatory document. In some countries the certificate must be in a specific format, so together with the translation we advise what the original should contain for the receiving party to accept it.

Insurance reimbursement and social services

When reimbursing treatment received abroad, an insurance company requires the Georgian medical certificate with a translation. Social services, pension funds and the commissions that determine disability status require a notarized translation.

Particularities of the translation

Form 100 is a short document, but almost every risk of medical translation is gathered in it:

• The diagnosis is often written in Latin or abbreviated. We match it with the clinical equivalent of the target language and leave the ICD-10 code unchanged
• Handwritten entries. In many institutions Form 100 is still filled in by hand. An unclear fragment is marked with a translator's note and never filled in by guesswork
• Seals and signatures. The doctor's personal seal, the institution's round seal and the triangular seal are described in square brackets, because a consulate and a foreign clinic check every element
• Form details. The form number, the reference to the approving order and other bureaucratic elements are translated, because they confirm the official status of the document
• Names of medicines. In the current prescriptions we give, alongside the trade name and where needed, the international nonproprietary name (INN)

Which certification you need

Unlike other medical documents, a translation of Form 100 more often needs notarization, because it is often submitted to a non-medical body:

• For a foreign clinic: a translation certified with the agency's seal, which confirms completeness and correspondence to the original
• For an embassy, university, employer: a notarized translation; where needed an apostille on the original too
• For a court, a pension or social service: a notarized translation, and for submission abroad an apostille

The apostille is placed on the original Form 100, and the translation is made from the apostilled document, including the text of the apostille. If you change this order, the document may not be accepted, so we plan the procedure together when taking the order.

Why a translated certificate is sometimes not accepted

From practice we know why an embassy or a foreign clinic returns a translation of Form 100, and we check every one of these points in advance:

• the first name and surname in the translation do not match the Latin entry in the passport
• the date of birth or the date of issue of the certificate is written in a format different from the receiving country's
• the seals and signatures are not described in the translation at all
• the date of issue of the certificate is outside the validity period allowed by the receiving party (often 1-3 months)
• the level of certification does not match the purpose, for example a translation was submitted to an embassy without notarization

Translation of a foreign medical certificate into Georgian

The opposite direction is frequent too: a medical certificate received abroad, a vaccination card, a fitness-for-work certificate or a doctor's conclusion for submission in Georgia. Such documents are often written in a different structure and do not resemble the Georgian Form 100. We translate so that the Georgian institution easily grasps the content of the document, and where needed we advise what additional certificate you may be asked for.

Deadlines and process

A translation of Form 100 is ready as standard within 1 working day, and in an urgent case within a few hours. Notarization is completed the same day, while the apostille deadline depends on the issuing authority. If together with Form 100 you are also translating test results and a discharge summary, one team works on the whole package, so that the diagnosis and terminology are the same in every document. The other medical services are described on the main medical translation page.

Frequently asked questions