Belarusian translator in Tbilisi

Translation of the Belarusian language reached a completely new scale in Georgia after 2020: the move of Belarusian IT companies, freelancers, entrepreneurs and their families to Tbilisi and Batumi has turned a Belarusian-language document into the daily working material of the residence agency, the bank, the school and the notary. At the same time Belarusian is one of the languages most often "misunderstood" by the client: most Belarusian citizens use Russian in everyday life, while some documents are printed in Belarusian or are bilingual, and it is exactly this duality that creates the specifics of the translation. On this page we explain which Belarusian document is in which language, why the Latin entry in the passport does not match the Russian form, what this changes on the Georgian residence card, and how we work with bilingual Belarusian papers so that a Georgian authority accepts them the first time.

Two state languages and one document

Under the Constitution of Belarus there are two state languages: Belarusian and Russian. In practice state proceedings are conducted mainly in Russian, but many documents are issued in Belarusian or in both languages. The passport has Belarusian, Russian and English pages; birth and marriage certificates are filled in now in Belarusian, now in Russian, depending on the region and the period; university diplomas and supplements are often in Belarusian; court judgments and notarial acts, as a rule, are in Russian. The printed text of a form in one language and the handwritten entry in the other is an ordinary occurrence.

For translation this means that the translator of a Belarusian document must understand both languages and must be registered with the notary for both language pairs. A translator of Russian only cannot certify the text of a Belarusian form, even if they understand it by meaning: the notary will not find their signature in the register for the Belarusian language. Our Belarusian translators work with both registrations, and both source languages appear in the certification entry.

The Latin entry in the passport: Aliaksandr, not Alexander

The Latin entry of a Belarusian passport is made from the Belarusian form of the name and surname, not from the Russian one. That is why Александр is Aliaksandr in the passport, Владимир is Uladzimir, Анна is Hanna, Татьяна is Tatsiana, Николай is Mikalai, Сергей is Siarhei. This is the result of the Belarusian romanisation system, which follows Belarusian phonetics (Ў as U, Г as H, Дз as Dz), and it often surprises Belarusian citizens themselves, who know themselves by the Russian form.

For Georgia this is a decisive detail: the residence card, the bank card, the Public Registry entry and the Georgian tax number rely on the Latin entry of the passport. If in the translation the name is transcribed from the Russian form (Alexander, Vladimir), it does not match the entry on the residence card (Aliaksandr, Uladzimir), and the authority considers the document inconsistent with the original. That is why we always create the Georgian transcription from the Latin entry, and if the Russian form appears in another document, we link it with a translator's note.

Which documents come from Belarus most often

• Passport (trilingual), residence and identity card
• Birth certificate (пасведчанне аб нараджэнні), marriage and divorce certificate
• Certificate of secondary education, diploma with supplement, certificate of study
• Criminal record certificate from the Ministry of Internal Affairs
• Certificate of salary or income (даведка аб даходах), tax return
• Charter of an ООО/ТАА (LLC), extract from the Unified State Register, certificate of registration of an ИП (individual entrepreneur)
• Court judgments, enforcement documents, notarial powers of attorney (даверанасць)
• Medical certificates, vaccination card (form 063/у), epicrisis, conclusion of the МРЭК
• Driving licence and vehicle technical passport

The Belarusian alphabet and features of the orthography

Belarusian Cyrillic differs from Russian by a few letters: Ў (short u), І (decimal i) and the apostrophe, which performs the function of the Russian Ъ; Щ and И do not exist in Belarusian. These details matter in transcription: Ў becomes U in Latin, and Г becomes H and not G, which is exactly what creates the forms Hanna and Siarhei. Belarusian orthography has two variants, the official one ("наркамаўка") and the classical one ("тарашкевіца"), which is used in diaspora and partly in cultural texts; in official documents only the first occurs, but our translators know both.

The Embassy of Belarus and the Minsk Convention

The Embassy of the Republic of Belarus operates in Tbilisi, and the Embassy of Georgia in Minsk. Both countries are members of the Hague Apostille Convention (Belarus since 1992) and both are parties to the 1993 Minsk Convention, which provides for the acceptance of officially issued documents without additional legalisation. This means that consular legalisation is not needed in either direction, and an apostille is formally not mandatory; in practice banks and private organisations require it anyway, so we advise having the apostille attached to the document in Belarus itself. In Belarus the apostille is issued by the Ministry of Justice (civil status acts, notarial and court documents), the Ministry of Education (educational documents) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (other documents).

Residence, business and the bank: the route of Belarusian relocants

A citizen of Belarus has the right to stay in Georgia for one year without a visa, but a residence permit, registering a company or an individual entrepreneur, a bank account and the children's school require a notarised Georgian-language translation. The typical route is this: the Public Service Development Agency for residence (passport, criminal record certificate, document confirming the grounds), the Public Registry for registering an individual entrepreneur or an LLC (often with small business status), the bank for opening an account (certificate of income, contract with the client, documents of the Belarusian company), the school or kindergarten (birth certificate, vaccination card, certificate from the previous school). Bank compliance requires from Belarusian clients especially detailed documentation of the origin of funds, and it is exactly these certificates, returns and contracts that are the most frequent subject of translation.

The IT sector and the High Technologies Park

A significant part of the Belarusian IT industry was resident in the Minsk High Technologies Park (ПВТ), and the documents of the companies and specialists who moved to Georgia are often connected with exactly this status: the certificate of residency, the contract with a foreign client, acts on the transfer of intellectual property, a salary certificate with an indication of the preferential tax regime of the ПВТ. For a Georgian bank and tax authority this terminology needs an explanation, which we add in the translation. When Belarusian IT companies are registered in Georgia with virtual zone status, the Belarusian corporate papers are translated into Georgian, while the Georgian status certificate is translated, where needed, into Russian or Belarusian for Belarusian partners.

Education: a Belarusian school certificate and diploma in Georgia

The Belarusian certificate of secondary education uses a ten-point grading system, which is structured differently from the Georgian ten-point system (in Belarus 1-2 is unsatisfactory, 3-4 satisfactory, and so on), while in a university supplement the credits are often recorded in hours. The National Centre for Educational Quality Enhancement and Georgian universities require an explanation of the grading system together with the translation, which we add as a note. The diplomas of Belarusian universities, especially the Belarusian State University, the technical university and the medical universities, are often printed in Belarusian, so their translation is certified with exactly the Belarusian language registration. When school-age children are enrolled in a Georgian school, the certificate from the previous classes (табель) and the vaccination card are translated.

Medical and social documents

Belarusian medical documents are often drawn up on a Belarusian form with a Russian entry: the vaccination card (form 063/у), which a Georgian kindergarten and school require; the epicrisis and the extract from the outpatient card for continuing treatment; the conclusion of the medical rehabilitation expert commission (МРЭК) on a disability group, which is needed in Georgia for social status. The names of vaccines in Belarus occur in Soviet and modern nomenclature at the same time, and in the translation we use the established equivalents of Georgian practice, keeping the original.

Car and driving licence

A Belarusian driving licence is temporarily valid in Georgia, and after obtaining residence its replacement with a Georgian one requires a translation. The Belarusian licence is bilingual, the category designations follow the European standard, but the names of the fields are in Belarusian; in the translation we keep the original designation of the categories. Bringing a car from Belarus requires a translation of the technical passport (пасведчанне аб рэгістрацыі), the sale contract and, if the car was cleared through customs on the territory of the Eurasian Economic Union, the customs documents. The character-by-character transfer of the VIN code and the engine number is a separate stage for the editor.

Real estate and financial history

Some Belarusian clients buy a flat in Georgia, and a Georgian bank, at the time of a mortgage or bringing in funds, requires documents on the origin of funds: a contract for the sale of property in Belarus, a certificate of income, a tax return, a statement from a Belarusian bank. Belarusian banking terminology is close to Georgian, but the names of authorities, the form numbers and the designations of tax regimes differ; in the translation we keep the original number of the form and explain its function, so that the compliance officer understands the nature of the document immediately. The sale contract, the extract from the Public Registry and the mortgage agreement, in turn, are translated into Russian or Belarusian for the client, so that they sign consciously.

Linguistic features that affect the translation

Belarusian is an East Slavic language, close to Russian and Ukrainian, but its vocabulary carries Polish and Lithuanian influences, which show in official terminology too: пасведчанне (certificate), даведка (reference certificate), даверанасць (power of attorney), пагадненне (agreement), сведка (witness). "False friends" with Russian are a real trap: the Belarusian "час" is time and not an hour, "трус" is a rabbit, "дыван" is a carpet. In an official document this rarely creates a problem, but in handwritten entries, seals and the names of local authorities (райвыканкам, the district executive committee; ЗАГС, the civil status registration office) an exact equivalent is needed.

Why a Russian specialist cannot replace a Belarusian translator

A translator of Russian often understands a Belarusian text, but cannot certify it for two reasons: they are not registered with the notary for the Belarusian language, and the nuances of Belarusian romanisation, orthography and administrative terminology are read incorrectly with Russian logic. The most frequent result is a transcription of the name from the Russian form, which causes a mismatch with the residence card. With us a Belarusian translation is done by a translator registered for the Belarusian and Russian languages at the same time.

Typical mistakes in Belarusian translation

• Transcribing the name from the Russian form (Vladimir) instead of the Latin entry of the passport (Uladzimir)
• Skipping the text of the Belarusian form and translating only the Russian handwritten entry
• Replacing the letters Ў and І with the Russian У and И in transliteration
• Translating "час" and similar false friends with their Russian meaning
• "Equating" the Belarusian ten-point grade with the Georgian ten-point one without an explanation
• Leaving abbreviations of the МРЭК and ЗАГС type untranslated or without an explanation

Quality control of Belarusian translation

Every Belarusian translation goes after the translator to an editor, who checks three things: the numerical data (personal number, series, dates) character by character, the proper names against the Latin entry of the passport, and the terminological consistency throughout the package, so that the same authority is named identically everywhere. In the case of a bilingual original the editor additionally checks that not a single field of the Belarusian form has been skipped and that false friends have not been translated with their Russian meaning.

Deadlines

One or two pages are ready in one working day, in express mode in 1-2 hours, a contract or a diploma supplement in two to three days. Minsk is one hour behind Tbilisi, so an order sent from Belarus is processed within our working day. Notarisation, an apostille at the House of Justice and delivery by courier are completed within one order.

Confidentiality

The documents of Belarusian clients often contain sensitive information: financial data, the identity of clients, sometimes the personal circumstances because of which a person left the country. Every translator and editor works under a signed confidentiality agreement, files are kept in encrypted storage, are not uploaded to external platforms and are deleted after a set period from the completion of the order, unless the client asks otherwise. No third party, including an authority of any country, is given access to a client's documents without the client's consent.

Who this service is for

Three types of client look for a Belarusian translator with us: a Belarusian relocant who is arranging residence, business, a bank, a school or property in Georgia; a Georgian company that works with a Belarusian partner or employee; and a citizen of Georgia or a family of Belarusian origin who must settle matters of property, inheritance or relatives left in Belarus from Georgia. In all three cases the same team works, but the set of documents, the target authority and the form of certification differ.

How the order proceeds

You upload the document on the website or send it by messenger; within an hour and a half you receive the exact deadline. Before starting the translation we ask for a copy of the passport page with the Latin entry, so that we establish the transcription correctly. You receive the finished translation electronically, by courier anywhere in Georgia or by international parcel. For clients in Belarus the whole process is arranged remotely.

Frequently asked questions