In the Spanish direction notarisation most often begins with three questions: for Spain or for Latin America, a sworn translator or a Georgian notary, and the apostille on the original or on the translation. Spain has its own strict system of official translation (Traductor-Intérprete Jurado), which differs structurally from Georgian notarisation, and each Latin American country has its own. At the same time the Hague Convention works in both directions, and a Georgian notarised translation with an apostille is legally recognised in the Spanish-speaking world. This page explains in detail how this system works, where which certification is needed and how to plan the chain so that the document is accepted at the first submission.
Georgian notarisation through the eyes of the Spanish system
In Spain the notary (notario) works in the field of public deeds, real estate, companies and inheritance and does not certify translations; an official translation is done by a sworn translator appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose stamp and signature give the translation independent force. So for a Spanish official a Georgian notarised translation, in which the notary certifies the translator's signature, is an unfamiliar form, and the basis for accepting it is the provision of Spanish law that accepts a duly legalised translation made abroad. In practice this means: a Georgian notarised translation with an apostille is sufficient for some Spanish bodies (universities, banks, some municipalities), while others (Extranjería, the Registro Civil, ministries) require the involvement of a Spanish sworn translator or the consulate. Which route is right for your body we clarify before the order.
The two-stage scheme: Georgian, English, Spanish
A sworn translator for Georgian practically does not exist in the Spanish register, while there are hundreds for English. So for Spanish official bodies the most common route is the two-stage scheme: in Tbilisi the Georgian document is translated into English, notarised and apostilled, then a Spanish sworn translator translates from English into Spanish and certifies it with their own stamp, since 2020 also with an electronic signature, remotely. This scheme is legitimate because the Spanish translator translates an apostilled official document, and in terms of time it is often faster than consular legalisation. We manage both stages: we prepare the English notarised translation with an apostille and, at the client's wish, cooperate with Spanish colleagues so that the process is managed from one window. The alternative is a direct Spanish notarised translation with an apostille, where the body accepts it.
The apostille route for Spain and Latin America
Spain since 1978, Mexico since 1995, Argentina since 1988, Colombia since 2001, Chile since 2016 and Peru since 2010 are parties to the Hague Convention, so consular legalisation is not needed for the main countries of the Spanish-speaking world. The apostille on a Georgian document is placed by the Public Service Hall, and for a diploma or school certificate the process is preceded by the National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement confirming the authenticity of the document. The apostille must be attached to the original before translation so that the translation also reflects the text of the apostille, which Spanish and Latin American bodies look for. If the body also requires legalisation of the translation (often in notarial and court matters), a second apostille is placed on the notarised translation. In the two-stage scheme the apostille is placed on the English notarised translation, which the Spanish sworn translator then translates.
Extranjería and residence documents
In the procedures for legalisation of residence (arraigo), family reunification and renewal of residence, the Extranjería office requires the apostilled original and an official translation of the Georgian criminal record certificate, birth, marriage and divorce certificates, certificate of family status and, where needed, proof of income. The Spanish equivalent of the criminal record certificate is the "certificado de antecedentes penales", and the absence of a record is rendered with the standard formula ("no constan antecedentes"). The certificate of family status, which the Spanish system knows as the "certificado de fe de vida y estado" or "certificado de estado civil", is in the Georgian system a certificate of no impediment to marriage or a marriage certificate, and the title of the translation reflects this correspondence. The validity of Extranjería documents is usually three months, so we plan the translation and the apostille as soon as the document is received.
Registro Civil: marriage, birth, citizenship
The Spanish civil registry, when registering a marriage to a Georgian citizen (expediente matrimonial), requires the apostilled original and sworn translation of the full version of the Georgian birth certificate and the certificate of no impediment to marriage, while a Spanish citizen marrying in Georgia obtains from the Registro Civil a certificate of capacity to marry (certificado de capacidad matrimonial), which is valid for six months and is submitted to the Public Service Hall with an apostille and a Georgian notarised translation. To register a child born in Spain in Georgia, the Spanish "certificación literal de nacimiento" is submitted with an apostille and a translation, while since 2021 the Spanish "libro de familia" is no longer issued to new families and has been replaced by the individual registry, which creates a difference between old and new documents. In a citizenship application the Ministry of Justice requires sworn translations of the Georgian birth certificate and criminal record certificate.
Homologation and certification of educational documents
In a homologation or equivalence application at the Ministry of Universities the apostilled original and sworn translation of the diploma and its supplement are submitted, and for regulated professions (doctor, nurse, pharmacist, architect) an hour-by-hour description of the curriculum (plan de estudios) is additionally translated, by which the ministry compares Georgian and Spanish education and, where needed, imposes compensatory measures (an exam or a traineeship). The Georgian degree is rendered in Spanish with Bologna terminology (grado, máster, doctorado), while single-cycle medical education corresponds to the "grado en medicina" (six years). In the translation of the transcript the grading scale is not changed, but a note on the scale is added, because the declaration of equivalence of the grade point average is drawn up from precisely these data. For a school certificate UNEDasiss also requires the results of the Unified National Exams for the access credential.
Certification of medical professions
For a Georgian doctor to work in Spain, first homologation of the diploma is needed (Ministry of Universities), then either the residency competition (MIR) to obtain a specialty or, if they already have a specialty, recognition of the specialty at the Ministry of Health, and finally registration with the provincial medical college (Colegio de Médicos). This package is the most voluminous in the Spanish direction: diploma, supplement, residency certificate, state certificate, certificates of work experience, curriculum, criminal record certificate, and every document needs separate certification and an apostille. A nursing qualification in Spain is a four-year university degree (grado en enfermería), and an hour-by-hour translation of the Georgian curriculum is decisive for the comparison. Caregivers (cuidadoras), the job of a large share of Georgian women in Spain, need no recognition of qualification, but the documents of the "empleadas de hogar" system are often translated.
A Spanish document in Georgia: the reverse route
The document of a Spanish citizen or of a Georgian living in Spain goes through three steps in Georgia: apostille in Spain, Georgian translation in Tbilisi, notarisation. The body issuing the Spanish apostille depends on the document type: on notarial acts the dean of the College of Notaries, on court documents the secretariat of the High Court of Justice, on administrative documents (criminal record certificate, Registro Civil certificates, diplomas) the Ministry of Justice or its territorial offices, and since 2011 an electronic apostille is also issued, whose authenticity is verified online. The apostille on Latin American documents is usually issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (in Mexico also by the state government). A Spanish multilingual civil status act (the 1976 Vienna Convention form) does not include Georgian, so a translation is still needed.
Corporate and notarial documents
When a Spanish company is registered in Georgia, the Public Registry requires a notarised translation of the commercial registry certificate (certificación del Registro Mercantil) or extract (nota simple mercantil), the articles of association (estatutos), the deed of incorporation (escritura de constitución) and the document appointing the director, in which the signatory's powers ("administrador único", "administradores solidarios/mancomunados", "apoderado") are unambiguous: the difference between "mancomunados" (joint) and "solidarios" (acting separately) directors is decisive for the registry. A power of attorney drawn up before a Spanish notary (poder notarial) is valid in Georgia with an apostille and a Georgian notarised translation, but the Georgian notary requires a specific list of powers, while a Spanish "poder general" is often too general; so before a power of attorney is drawn up in Spain, we give clients a bilingual list of the Georgian notary's requirements. The structure of a Spanish notarial deed ("comparecencia", "exponen", "otorgan", "estipulaciones") is a continental form familiar to a Georgian notary.
Employment record book, vida laboral and pension documents
The Spanish social security system (Seguridad Social) records work service in the form of the "informe de vida laboral", which is issued online and contains all periods of work, the employer and the regime (including the "Sistema Especial de Empleados de Hogar" regime for domestic workers). This document is translated into Georgian for the Pension Agency of Georgia, while the Georgian employment record book, certificate of service and documents of the Soviet period are translated into Spanish for the INSS (National Social Security Institute), which takes foreign service into account under bilateral agreements. Soviet documents are often bilingual (Georgian and Russian), handwritten and stamped, and for notarisation they are translated in full, including the entries in both languages. Spanish pension terminology ("jubilación", "base reguladora", "cotización", "incapacidad permanente") is rendered descriptively in the Georgian system.
Driving licence and vehicle documents
The logic of the DGT (Dirección General de Tráfico) for a Georgian driver is this: for six months after obtaining residence you may drive on the Georgian licence, then either "canje" (exchange), if a mutual recognition agreement with the country is in force, or passing the Spanish exam. In the "canje" application both sides of the Georgian licence are translated, and the provincial DGT office (Jefatura de Tráfico) requires the translation from a Spanish traductor jurado or with consular legalisation, so here the two-stage scheme is the standard route. In the translation the Georgian categories (B, C, D, with subcategories) are rendered with a note on correspondence to the Spanish classification (B, C1, C, D1, D), while the dates of issue and validity stay unchanged, because the DGT checks the "validity" of the licence with particular care. In Latin America (Mexico, Argentina) the driving licence is issued at state or provincial level and the exchange rules are local. In the opposite direction, a Spanish "permiso de conducir" is exchanged in Georgia at the Service Agency with a Georgian notarised translation, and the Spanish "permiso de circulación" and "ficha técnica" are translated when a car is registered in Georgia, including the ITV (roadworthiness test) records.
Certification of medical and insurance documents
In the Spanish direction the notarisation of a medical document most often arises in three scenarios. The first is a Georgian working in Spain who needs documents of an operation or treatment carried out in Georgia for Spanish social security (INSS): confirmation of incapacity for work, extension of "incapacidad temporal" or reimbursement of medical expenses, where the Georgian discharge summary and invoices are submitted with a certified Spanish translation. The second is the determination of the degree of disability or dependency at the social services of the autonomous community, which requires a translation of the Georgian medical-social examination report and the full medical history and assesses it by its own percentage system, without automatic recognition of the Georgian group. The third is a patient returning from Spain to Georgia, whose "informe de alta", "historia clínica" and "resolución de grado de discapacidad" are needed in Georgian, with notarisation, by the Georgian doctor and the Social Service Agency. In all three cases the notary checks completeness at certification, and handwritten Spanish notes, seals and laboratory tables are translated in full.
Who performs a Spanish notarised translation
A notarised Spanish translation is performed only by a translator registered with a specific notary in the Spanish-Georgian pair, whose qualification the notary has verified in advance. Our Spanish translators have experience of studying or working in Spain or Latin America and know Spanish administrative formats: how the "CERTIFICA" block is written, how a seal is described ("sello de tinta con el escudo de Georgia"), how the ten fields of the apostille are rendered in Spanish and how an illegible fragment is marked ("ilegible"). These details are a sign of the document's reliability for a Spanish official and, in the two-stage scheme, also make the work easier for the Spanish sworn translator.
What causes rejection at a Spanish body
- A Georgian notarised translation where Extranjería or the Registro Civil required a sworn translator
- An apostille that does not appear in the translation, because it was not attached before translation
- Writing the first name and surname so that the Spanish two-surname system takes the patronymic as a second surname
- A criminal record certificate older than three months or a certificate of capacity to marry older than six months
- Leaving seals and notes on the back page undescribed
- The absence of a note on the grading scale in the transcript for the grade point average declaration
- Submitting a translation prepared in Spain's terminology to a Mexican or Argentine body
Deadlines, organisation and delivery
A notarised translation of a one-page document is ready in one working day, in express mode in 1-2 hours. The apostille at the Public Service Hall is a separate deadline, and in the two-stage scheme the Spanish sworn translator's deadline is added, usually a few working days. The whole process is managed online, and you receive the finished document electronically and by courier, for clients in Spain by international courier or through a representative in Georgia. For Latin America communication is managed electronically, taking the time difference (7-10 hours) into account. Every order is handled under a confidentiality agreement.
Frequently asked questions
Why is there no sworn translator for Georgian in Spain?
Georgian is practically not represented in the register of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So we use the two-stage scheme via English, or a Georgian notarised translation with an apostille and consular legalisation, depending on the body.
Is the two-stage scheme legitimate?
Yes. The Spanish sworn translator translates an apostilled official English document, and their translation keeps full force at Spanish bodies. Many Georgians in Spain prepare their documents precisely this way.
Is my presence at the notary required?
No. The notary checks the translator's signature, so your presence is not required. The process is managed entirely online.
Should I apostille the original first or the translation?
For the Spanish system the answer depends on the route: for a direct Spanish notarised translation the apostille is placed on the original before translation; in the two-stage scheme the apostille is placed on the English notarised translation, because that is what goes to the Spanish sworn translator; and in court and notarial matters the Spanish side sometimes requires both.
Is a Spanish electronic apostille accepted in Georgia?
Yes, the Spanish electronic apostille is verifiable online and the Georgian notary accepts the printed version if the verification code is legible. The apostille data is rendered in full in the translation.
How do I use a Mexican or Argentine document in Georgia?
The document must be apostilled in the issuing country (usually at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), then translated into Georgian in Tbilisi and notarised. Latin American terminology differs from that of Spain, which we take into account in the translation.
Extranjería rejected the translation as "traducción no oficial". What should I do?
This is the most frequent rejection in the Spanish direction and means that the body needed a sworn translator's stamp or consular legalisation. A new translation is not needed: we apostille the existing English or Spanish notarised translation and send it to a Spanish traductor jurado, who certifies it within a few days.