Greek translator in Tbilisi

Greece is one of the European countries most "familiar" to Georgians: tens of thousands of Georgians live and work there, the Iviron Monastery founded by Georgians on Mount Athos has stood for more than a thousand years, the Greeks of Tsalka unite the two countries with family ties, and the Greek merchant fleet, the largest in the world, is one of the main employers of Georgian seafarers. A powerful flow of documents follows this link: residence permits, family status certificates, diplomas, maritime certificates, church papers, pension certificates. We translate personal, academic, corporate and medical documents from Greek into Georgian and from Georgian into Greek, certify them notarially and attach the apostille. This page describes how Greece's system of official translation changed from 2021, what the Greek embassy and authorities require, what the peculiarities of the Greek alphabet and the transliteration of names are, and where typical errors appear.

Official translation in Greece after 2021

For decades official translation in Greece was made by the Translation Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and many Georgians still remember the queues in Athens. From September 2021 this service was abolished and in its place the Register of Certified Translators (Μητρώο Πιστοποιημένων Μεταφραστών) was created, kept by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: a translator entered in the register certifies the translation with their own stamp, signature and register number, and every Greek authority accepts it. In parallel, a Greek lawyer has the right under the Code of Lawyers to certify a translation, and this route is widely used in practice. Certified translators in the Georgian-Greek pair exist in Greece, though they are few, and Greek authorities, in our experience, often accept a Greek translation certified by a Georgian notary with an apostille directly, especially for civil status records, diplomas and certificates. When taking the order we find out who the recipient is, and when needed we cooperate with a register translator or a lawyer in Greece.

The apostille between Georgia and Greece

Greece has been a member of the Hague Convention since 1985, Georgia since 2007, so documents move between the two countries with an apostille, without consular legalisation. In Georgia the apostille is issued by the Public Service Hall, in Greece by two bodies depending on the type of document: for administrative documents (civil status extract, family status certificate, diploma, criminal record certificate) the Decentralised Administration (Αποκεντρωμένη Διοίκηση) by region, and for court and notarial documents the Court of First Instance (Πρωτοδικείο). A document brought from Greece must have its apostille attached in Greece itself; "fixing" this in Georgia is impossible; for a Georgian living in Greece this is often a matter of one day, for someone who has arrived in Georgia it means weeks of sending it back.

The Greek embassy in Tbilisi and visa practice

The consular section of the Greek embassy in Tbilisi accepts applications for national (type D) visas: family reunification, employment, study, matters of persons of Greek origin. For Georgian citizens short-term travel in the Schengen area is visa-free, so dealings with the embassy mainly concern long-term residence. In the application package Georgian papers go with an apostille and a Greek translation: marriage and birth certificates, criminal record certificate, medical certificate, bank statement, documents of the employer or the family member living in Greece. The embassy, in our experience, accepts a Greek translation certified by a Georgian notary, while after arrival in Greece the migration service or the municipality may require a register translator's version for some documents, which we tell you in advance.

Which documents are translated most often

• The family reunification and residence permit package: marriage and birth certificates, criminal record certificate, medical certificate, bank statement
• Documents proving Greek origin for the Greeks of Tsalka and other regions: birth certificates, Soviet-period passports with the "nationality" entry, church records
• Greek civil status extract (ληξιαρχική πράξη) and family status certificate (πιστοποιητικό οικογενειακής κατάστασης) for registration in Georgia
• Diploma, transcript and school certificate for DOATAP recognition and university enrolment
• Seafarer's certificates, seaman's book and crewing contracts for Greek shipping companies
• Pension certificates from EFKA and work record documents for the Pension Agency of Georgia
• Church documents: baptism certificate, church marriage certificate, which carry civil force in Greece
• Extract from the business register (GEMI), charter and power of attorney for business and real estate

The Greek alphabet and ELOT 743: transliteration of names

The Greek alphabet differs from the Latin one, and in a Greek document a Georgian's name is written in Greek letters (Γκιόργκι, Νίνο, Μπερίτζε), while the Latin form is added under the ELOT 743 standard, which Greek passports, identity cards and authorities use. Here the most frequent problem appears: the Latin form obtained under ELOT 743 often does not match the Latin line of the Georgian passport (Greek Μπ becomes Mp in Latin, Γκ becomes Gk, Ντ becomes Nt), and on a Greek residence card a Georgian's name may be written as "Gkiorgki Mperitze". When translating from Georgian into Greek we write the name in Greek letters and indicate the Latin form from the Georgian passport unchanged, while when translating from Greek into Georgian we record the Latin form of the Greek card in a note, so that a Georgian authority can identify the same person. The Georgian transcription of Greek surnames (Παπαδόπουλος, Γεωργίου rendered as Papadopulosi, Georgiu) follows the established rule and is identical in all documents of one client.

The gender form of the surname and cases

A Greek surname changes by gender: the male Παπαδόπουλος becomes Παπαδοπούλου in the case of a woman, which is grammatically the genitive case, and members of one family appear in documents in different forms. A Georgian woman's surname in a Greek document, as a rule, stays unchanged, but the Greek case system applies to foreign names too, and in a document a Georgian name may be in the genitive or vocative case, while the father's name, which is an obligatory field in Greek documents, is in the genitive. When translating from Greek into Georgian all forms are reduced to the nominative, the passport form, while the female form of a Greek surname goes into Georgian as it is in the specific person's document, with the gender form preserved, because for a Greek authority these two forms are one surname, while for a Georgian authority they are two different ones.

Georgians of Greek origin and EDTO

The Greeks of Tsalka, Tetritskaro and other regions, like Tbilisians of Greek origin, live in Greece with the status of a person of Greek origin (ομογενής), and for the Greeks of the former Soviet Union Greece issues a special identity document, the EDTO, which gives the right of residence and work and opens the way to citizenship. To confirm this status a specific package of documents goes from Georgia: birth certificates for several generations, a copy of the Soviet-period passport with the "nationality" entry, church records, archival certificates. These documents are often old, handwritten and in Russian, and their translation into Greek requires the simultaneous involvement of Russian, Georgian and Greek, while the transliteration of names, where the same Greek surname is written in a Russian form in a Soviet document and in a Georgian form in a Georgian document, requires special care. We have prepared these packages for years and know the requirements of the Greek consulate.

DOATAP and recognition of education

Recognition of foreign higher education in Greece is carried out by DOATAP, and after the 2022 reform a National Register of Recognised Foreign Institutions was created, in which the diploma of a listed university is recognised by a simplified procedure, while the diploma of a university not in the register passes full review. In both cases the apostilled original of the diploma and transcript and a Greek translation are needed, and in full review a translation of the syllabi too, where the names of subjects must correspond to the terminology of Greek higher education. The favourite destinations of Georgian students are the Kapodistrian University of Athens, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the Technical University of Athens, the universities of Patras and Crete, while the Greek language certificate is issued by the Centre for the Greek Language (Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας). In the opposite direction a Greek diploma is translated into Georgian for the National Centre for Educational Quality Enhancement.

The Greek fleet and Georgian seafarers

The Greek merchant fleet, the largest in the world by tonnage, is one of the main employers of Georgian seafarers, and the shipping companies of Piraeus, crewing agencies and Greece's Ministry of Maritime Affairs regularly receive a Georgian seafarer's documents: certificates of competency (STCW), seaman's book, medical fitness certificate, criminal record certificate, crewing contract. In the maritime industry the working language is English, and most documents go in English, but a Greek administrative procedure (recognition of a certificate, a maritime incident investigation, pension record in the seafarers' pension fund) requires a Greek translation. Maritime terminology stands on the language of international conventions and must sound in the established form in both languages, while certificate numbers, positions and limitations are checked one to one against the original.

Church documents: Athos, Iviron and church marriage

Georgia and Greece are linked by Orthodoxy and a thousand-year church history: the Iviron Monastery on Athos, founded by Georgian monks, is a centre of Greek-Georgian manuscripts, papers and pilgrimage links. On a practical level this means that church documents carry legal force on the Greek direction: in Greece a church marriage has civil force and is registered at the lixiarchio (civil status office), a baptism certificate is also used in confirming Greek origin, and a Georgian church wedding certificate is translated for registering a marriage in Greece. Church terminology, the names of saints and church offices must sound in the established form in both languages, and a translator with the relevant education works on these documents.

The layers of the Greek language: monotonic, polytonic, katharevousa

Since 1982 Greek orthography has been monotonic, with one accent, but documents issued before that date are written in the polytonic system, with three accents and breathing marks, while until 1976 the official language was katharevousa, an artificially archaised variant whose vocabulary and grammar differ sharply from modern demotic. In cases of confirming Greek origin, inheritance and church matters such documents occur regularly, and their translation requires a separate qualification that a translator of modern Greek does not automatically have. Some of our translators with an education in classical philology work precisely on these layers, and the translation notes that the original is written in the old orthography or in katharevousa.

Greek business, GEMI and real estate

The presence of Greek companies in Georgia is modest, but the export of Georgian wine, food products and tourism services to Greece, the founding of companies and the acquisition of real estate in Greece by Georgians, and the cooperation of Greek hotels and shipping companies with Georgian partners create a regular flow. Greek company forms (IKE, EPE, AE, OE) are translated with the Georgian equivalent, the extract from the business register (GEMI) and the tax number (AFM) stay unchanged, and a bilingual contract passes a check by two native-speaking editors and a lawyer. In Greece a non-EU citizen can freely acquire real estate, with the exception of border zones, and the Greek notarial deed, cadastre extract and power of attorney are translated in both directions.

The medical direction and pension documents

The medical documents of Georgians living in Greece, discharge summaries of Greek clinics, certificates of EOPYY (the National Organisation for Healthcare) and disability conclusions are translated into Georgian for continuing treatment in Georgia, insurance reimbursement and pension matters, while a Georgian medical history is translated into Greek for planning treatment in Greece. A separate voluminous flow is pension documents: the insurance record from EFKA of Georgians who worked in Greece for decades, pension decisions and extracts of insurance periods for the Pension Agency of Georgia, and the other way round. These documents require knowledge of the social legislation of both countries, where the concepts of insurance period, retirement age and degree of disability are defined differently.

Who translates and how quality is checked

Qualified Greek translators in Georgia come from three sources: the school of classical philology and modern Greek studies of Tbilisi State University and other higher education institutions, Georgians who worked and studied in Greece for years, and bilingual specialists of Greek origin, for whom both languages are native. Only a translator registered with the notary in the Greek-Georgian pair works on a translation to be notarised; a translation from Georgian into Greek is checked by a native-speaking editor, from Greek into Georgian by a Georgian language editor, while ELOT 743 transliteration, the gender form of the surname, cases, dates and seals are checked separately at the format control stage. On the Greek side, when needed, we cooperate with a register translator or a lawyer.

What we cannot do and where we advise another route

We cannot put an apostille on a document issued in Greece, because only the Decentralised Administration and the Court of First Instance can do that. We cannot "issue" a Greek register translator's or lawyer's certification from Georgia, though we cooperate with a partner in Greece. We cannot confirm Greek origin, which is the competence of the consulate, though we prepare the package according to its requirements. And we cannot promise that Georgian notarisation will be accepted by every Greek authority, because this depends on the practice of the specific authority. In every such case we tell you exactly which route works.

Deadlines, format and confidentiality

A Greek translation of a standard personal document with notarisation is ready within one working day, in express mode within 1-2 hours. The apostille is added within the Public Service Hall deadlines, which we name when confirming the order. For a package of old, polytonic or Russian-language documents the deadline is calculated individually. The whole process is online: you upload the document on the website and receive the translation electronically or by courier in any city in Georgia, and for sending to Greece we arrange the international courier ourselves. Commercial and medical documents are processed under a confidentiality agreement.

Frequently asked questions