We translate Estonian population register extracts, commercial register cards (B-kaart) and articles of association, diplomas, criminal record certificates, court judgments, discharge summaries and contracts from Estonian into Georgian and from Georgian into Estonian. We notarise the translation: the notary confirms the authenticity of the signature of a translator registered for the Estonian-Georgian pair. The standard turnaround is 1 working day, and a notarised translation received during working hours can be ready as an express order in 1-2 hours. The key rule for Estonia is this: Georgia is not a member of the European Union, so a Georgian document needs an apostille for Estonia, the apostille goes on the Georgian original and not on the translation, and in Estonia official translation has since 2020 been done only by a sworn translator (vandetõlk), while in the Georgian-Estonian pair such a translator practically does not exist. You upload a scan of the document on the website, send us the .asice file itself if it is a digital Estonian document, or bring the document to our office (115 Davit Aghmashenebeli Ave); the whole process can also run remotely, from Tallinn or Tartu.
Estonia is in the EU, Georgia is not: what this changes for documents
Estonia has been a member of the European Union since 2004, of Schengen since 2007 and of the eurozone since 2011. Within the EU, public documents circulate without legalisation or apostille under Regulation 2016/1191, and Estonian officials are used to this rule. A Georgian document is not covered by the regulation, because it is a public document issued by a third country, so a Georgian birth certificate, diploma or certificate needs an apostille for Estonia, which often surprises even the Estonian side. An Estonian official sometimes says that no apostille is needed and later sends the document back, so we always prepare a Georgian document for Estonia with an apostille, even if the recipient did not ask for one at first.
Who comes to us for Estonian translation
- Georgian entrepreneurs with e-Residency who need the documents of their Estonian company for a Georgian bank, the tax authority or a partner
- IT specialists and start-up employees applying for a residence permit in Estonia: diploma, employment contract, certificates of experience
- Doctors, nurses and pharmacists registering with the Health Board (Terviseamet)
- Students at the University of Tartu, Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), Tallinn University and the Estonian University of Life Sciences
- Georgian-Estonian families: marriage, registration of a child in both countries, divorce, inheritance
- Estonian companies, foundations and development programmes in Georgia, especially in e-government and cyber security
Notarised translation into and from Estonian
A sworn translator instead of a notary: the Estonian reform
In Estonia, as in Georgia, a notary used to certify translations too. Under the Sworn Translators Act (vandetõlgi seadus), since 1 January 2020 official translation in Estonia has been done only by a sworn translator, who passes an examination organised by the Ministry of Justice, certifies the translation with his own seal or digital signature and takes personal responsibility for its accuracy. An Estonian notary no longer has the right to certify a translation. The list of sworn translators mainly covers English, Russian, Finnish, German and a few other languages, but not Georgian. A Georgian document for Estonia is therefore prepared in one of two ways: either the apostilled Georgian original is translated in Georgia into Estonian or English and the translation is notarised, or an English translation is turned into Estonian in Estonia by an English-Estonian sworn translator. Which route is shorter depends on the specific authority, and we find this out before ordering.
What a Georgian notary certifies and what an Estonian one does
A Georgian notary does not check the content of the translation: he confirms that the translation was signed in his presence by a translator registered in his register for the Estonian-Georgian pair, and certifies the document with a seal and a register number. There are very few such translators in Georgia, which is exactly why Estonian documents are often translated on the market via English or Russian; our translators command Estonian directly. An Estonian notary today performs two functions relevant to this process: he issues the apostille and certifies signatures and copies, including the conformity of a printout of a digitally signed document.
The apostille: a notary in Estonia, the Public Service Hall in Georgia
Estonia joined the Hague Apostille Convention in 2001, and since 2010 the apostille on an Estonian document has been issued by any notary in any city of the country; the authenticity of the apostille is checked in the online register of the Chamber of Notaries. The route of a Georgian document to Estonia is: first the apostille on the Georgian original at the Public Service Development Agency (Public Service Hall), then the translation including the apostille, and finally the notary certifies the authenticity of the translator's signature. In Georgia no apostille is placed on the notarised translation itself: under the Agency's rules, the notarial certification of a translation or a copy cannot be apostilled, so nobody can promise you a "double apostille". Nor is an apostille placed on identity documents and their copies (except a copy of a Georgian passport certified by the issuing body), on a driving licence, or on a private company's document, including an employment contract, other than documents of medical and educational institutions. For details see apostille in Georgia and the document route.
If an Estonian authority additionally requires the translation to be done by its own sworn translator or confirmed by a consul, that is the recipient's requirement, and we clarify it in advance. One more option: the Public Service Development Agency itself translates a document subject to apostille and apostilles its own translation, and the Service Agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs does the same for its own documents, such as the criminal record certificate, in eight languages including English and Russian. To bring an Estonian document to Georgia the chain is: an Estonian notary attaches an apostille to the document, our translator translates it into Georgian, a Georgian notary certifies the translator's signature, and the translation is valid at any Georgian authority.
Digital Estonian documents: .asice, digiallkiri and paper
An extract from the population register (rahvastikuregister), a commercial register (äriregister) card, a criminal records certificate and a certificate from the Tax and Customs Board (Maksu- ja Tolliamet) are requested with an ID card, Mobile-ID or Smart-ID and stored as a digitally signed container (.asice or .bdoc). A Georgian notary binds the translation to the original or a copy, and a digital container cannot be physically bound. There are two solutions. First: an Estonian notary prints the digital document, confirms that the printout conforms and attaches an apostille; this paper package is a full original in Georgia. Second: if the document does not need an apostille (for example, for a private company or a bank's internal requirement), we print the document and the signature validation sheet from the container, translate both and state the result of the signature validation in the translation. In both cases we keep the container intact, because a digital signature can only be verified on the original file, and in the translation we reflect the signature data, time stamp and verification link precisely.
Georgian documents for Estonia: who needs which language
The Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) accepts a foreign document for residence permit and visa applications together with a certified translation into Estonian, English or Russian, provided the document itself is apostilled, so for most of our clients an English notarised translation is enough. The population register, where a Georgian living in Estonia registers a marriage, a child's birth or a change of name, asks for an Estonian translation and does not always accept English; an Estonian notary asks for an Estonian or English translation of a Georgian power of attorney, and a court asks for Estonian. University admissions offices, company HR departments and the e-Residency programme often also accept an English translation certified with the bureau's stamp. So the first question we ask when you order is which Estonian authority the document is going to, because this determines both the language and the form of certification.
Powers of attorney for and from Estonia
A Georgian in Estonia who wants to sell property, accept an inheritance or manage a company in Georgia can issue a power of attorney in two ways: at the Embassy of Georgia in Tallinn, in Georgian, which needs no translation, or before an Estonian notary, in Estonian or English, after which an Estonian notary attaches an apostille to the deed and a notarised Georgian translation is added in Georgia. The Georgian Public Registry requires specific powers: the cadastral code of the property, the type of transaction, the term, so we advise you to agree the text with us before visiting the Estonian notary. A Georgian notarial power of attorney for Estonia first receives an apostille and is then translated into Estonian or English.
Marriage, birth and a register that does not always print certificates
In Estonia a marriage is registered by a population register office or a notary, and the Georgian party must submit a certificate of no impediment to marriage, which is issued by the Public Service Development Agency; the certificate, the birth certificate and, in the case of a previous marriage, the divorce document are prepared with an apostille and an Estonian translation. Many authorities accept such a certificate only within a limited period, so we check the validity with the recipient in advance. In the opposite direction an event in Estonia is recorded in the population register, and the "certificate" needed for Georgia is often a register extract (rahvastikuregistri väljavõte), which combines data on birth, marriage, place of residence and marital status in one document. The Public Service Hall accepts this extract if it carries an Estonian notary's apostille and our notarised translation; in the translation we keep the document's title exactly and explain in a note that it is the equivalent of a certificate in the Estonian system.
Certificates with a validity period and timing
A Georgian criminal record certificate is valid for 15 calendar days from issue, and Estonian certificates often need to be recent too: many authorities no longer accept a register extract or criminal records certificate older than a few months, and banks often want a commercial register card less than a month old. So ordering the document, the apostille, the translation and submission are planned so that the document is not out of date at the moment of submission; for a client in Estonia we send the certified document by international courier and provide the scan in advance.
Why Estonian translations are rejected
The common reasons are: a surname left in the genitive case that no longer matches the passport; an attempt to have the translation certified by an Estonian notary; a translation made from a printout of a digital document without the signature sheet, the notary's certification and the apostille; asking for an apostille on the translation instead of the original; translating OÜ as a "joint-stock company"; rendering "B-kaart" via English as a "B card"; entering the isikukood in the Georgian personal number field. If the apostille is missing on the Estonian side, we send the client's Estonian contact precise instructions.
Translation in both directions
Estonian into Georgian: 14 cases and names that change
Estonian is a Finno-Ugric language unrelated to the Indo-European languages, and its 14 cases also apply to personal names and the names of institutions. Mari Tamme sünnitõend means the birth certificate of Mari Tamm, and Jüri Kase diplom the diploma of Jüri Kask; Tartu Ülikooli means "of the University of Tartu", Harju Maakohtu "of Harju County Court". A case form sometimes changes the stem too, and an inexperienced translator writes the surname as Tamme in the Georgian translation, after which the document no longer matches the passport. Our translators return every name to the nominative, compare it with the passport or ID card and add the official name in Latin script as well. Official vocabulary is built from compounds (rahvastikuregister, karistusregister, elamisluba) that are often missing from dictionaries, and we translate the names of Estonian authorities with Georgian forms fixed once: Politsei- ja Piirivalveamet is always the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA), and Maksu- ja Tolliamet the Tax and Customs Board (MTA). Estonian compounds pack information densely, so the text grows noticeably in a Georgian translation.
Gender that does not show in the text
In Estonian "he" and "she" are one word (tema/ta), professions have no gender forms, kinship terms are often neutral (laps is simply "child"), and there is no separate future tense form at all. A Georgian registrar, however, needs "son" or "daughter", "wife" or "husband", and this information is restored from other sources: the personal code, the name, the attached passport. The Estonian personal code (isikukood) has eleven digits, like the Georgian personal number: the first digit indicates sex and century, the next six the date of birth. In the translation the code stays unchanged and is explained in a note as an identifier of the Estonian register, not a Georgian personal number. In a legal text we read the time frame of an obligation from the context, because the future tense does not show in the form.
Georgian into Estonian: the Language Act and the official style
The Estonian Language Act (keeleseadus) sets Estonian as the language of communication with state authorities, and a translation going to the population register, a court or a notary must follow the Estonian official style: short sentences, terms from Estonian legislation, names in the correct case, dates in dd.mm.yyyy format. The Georgian phrase "the certificate is issued for submission as required" is not translated word for word; its equivalent in an Estonian certificate is "Tõend on väljastatud esitamiseks". A Georgian LLC corresponds to an osaühing (OÜ), a JSC to an aktsiaselts (AS), but in the translation we keep the Georgian legal form and add the Estonian equivalent in brackets; the Public Service Hall is translated descriptively, because Estonia has no exact analogue. A translation from Georgian into Estonian is read by an Estonian-speaking editor without the original, who marks every place where a case or term sounds odd.
Names, dates and addresses
We render Estonian names into Georgian by pronunciation: Jüri becomes Iuri, Tõnu becomes Tinu, Ülle becomes Ile, and places such as Pärnu, Tartu, Tallinn and Võru take their spoken forms. The letters õ and ü have no exact match in Georgian, so a form once chosen stays unchanged in all documents of that person or place, while the Latin form keeps its diacritics. A Georgian name in an Estonian translation is written according to the Latin spelling in the passport; the transcription table of the Institute of the Estonian Language (Georgian j as dž, sh as š, gh as gh) is only for published texts. In an Estonian sentence a Georgian name must also take the correct case. The month in an Estonian date is in a case form (1. jaanuaril, "on 1 January"), amounts are in euros with a decimal comma, and we keep an address in its Latin form with a Georgian transcription in brackets.
Educational documents: the A-F scale and ENIC/NARIC
Estonian higher education grades with letters: A (5) is the best, E (1) the lowest pass, F (0) a fail; schools use a five-point system. An explanation of the scale is attached to the Georgian translation of an Estonian diploma and academic transcript (akadeemiline õiend), and for the recognition of a foreign diploma in Georgia every foreign-language document needs a notarised Georgian translation. Recognition of a Georgian diploma in Estonia is handled by the ENIC/NARIC Centre, part of the Education and Youth Board (Harno); it accepts documents in Estonian or English and asks for the diploma together with its supplement or transcript. The University of Tartu, TalTech and Tallinn University ask for an English translation for English-taught programmes and Estonian for Estonian-taught ones, such as medicine in Tartu, with Estonian academic terms: bakalaureusekraad, magistrikraad, ainepunkt (credit), õppekava (curriculum). Subject names must match word for word in the diploma, the supplement and the motivation letter.
Residence in Estonia: the PPA and the immigration quota
To work, study or join family, a Georgian citizen needs a temporary residence permit (tähtajaline elamisluba), issued by the PPA. A feature of Estonia is the annual immigration quota (sisserände piirarv), which does not exceed 0.1 per cent of the population. The quota does not apply to IT specialists, start-up employees, students, family members of an Estonian citizen or permanent resident, or highly paid specialists, which is why most of our Georgian clients come from IT and academia. For the PPA, Georgian public documents are prepared with an apostille and an Estonian or English translation, while the employment contract, as a private document, only with a translation.
Legal and medical translation
Company documents: OÜ, AS and e-Residency
The e-Residency programme has been running since 2014, and the Estonian osaühing (OÜ) is the corporate form most often translated for Georgian entrepreneurs: the company is set up online and managed from Tbilisi. A Georgian bank, the Revenue Service or a partner asks for the company's card (B-kaart), articles of association (põhikiri), board resolutions and annual report (majandusaasta aruanne) in Georgian. The terms come from the Estonian Commercial Code (äriseadustik): juhatus is the management board and not a "board" in the sense of a Georgian supervisory board, osanik is a shareholder, osakapital is share capital, and the eight-digit registry code and the status of a procurator are explained in a note. After the reform of February 2023 the minimum capital requirement for an OÜ was effectively abolished, so there is no inconsistency between an old articles of association stating 2,500 euros and a new one that does not, and in the translation we link the document's date to the law in force in a note. In the opposite direction an extract from the register of entrepreneurs is an äriregistri väljavõte in Estonian, and the Estonian tax system, under which profit is taxed only when distributed, is explained in a note for a Georgian accountant.
Contracts in the language of the Law of Obligations Act
Estonian contracts are built on the terminology of the Law of Obligations Act (võlaõigusseadus), which follows the German model and is structurally close to the Georgian Civil Code. This helps a translator who knows both systems: leppetrahv is a contractual penalty, taganemine is withdrawal from a contract, ülesütlemine is termination by notice. In a translation made via English this distinction is lost, because the English word termination merges both institutions into one. Employment contracts rest on the Employment Contracts Act (töölepingu seadus), where the probation period (katseaeg), annual leave (põhipuhkus) and notice periods are regulated differently from the Georgian Labour Code, and we add a short note on these differences to the translation. An Estonian contract is often signed digitally, and Estonian and Georgian qualified electronic signatures do not automatically "see" each other, so in a bilingual contract we agree the signing procedure and the language precedence clause in advance.
Court, notarial and inheritance documents
The Estonian court system has three tiers: county court (maakohus), circuit court (ringkonnakohus) and the Supreme Court (Riigikohus). Judgments (kohtuotsus) and rulings (kohtumäärus) are often digital; for recognition in Georgia a judgment needs an Estonian notary's apostille, a note of entry into legal force and a notarised Georgian translation. In divorce, custody (hooldusõigus) and maintenance (elatis) cases the terms of the Family Law Act (perekonnaseadus) are carried over into the terms of the Georgian Civil Code. In Estonia an inheritance case is conducted by a notary, who issues a certificate of succession (pärimistunnistus) that corresponds in content to a Georgian certificate of inheritance; seadusjärgne pärija is a statutory heir, testamendijärgne pärija an heir under a will, sundosa the compulsory share. In an extract from the land register (kinnistusraamat), encumbrances (koormatised) are explained in the sense of Georgian restrictions on rights. We take every term from Riigi Teataja, where laws are published in consolidated form, and cite the article number when needed.
Medical translation: from Estonian digital medicine to a Georgian doctor
An Estonian discharge summary (epikriis) is printed from the national health information system with standard fields, and the diagnosis is given with an RHK-10 code, the Estonian version of ICD-10 with identical codes; in the translation we keep the codes unchanged, translate the diagnosis with Georgian terminology and add the Latin name. Estonian medical vocabulary also has words of its own (südamepuudulikkus is heart failure, vererõhk blood pressure), and decoding compounds requires medical knowledge. Prescriptions in Estonia have been digital since 2010 (digiretsept), and in the translation of a printout we write the trade name together with the active substance (toimeaine, INN). A Georgian patient's medication list is translated for an Estonian doctor with INNs, and a Georgian discharge summary of an Estonian tourist is translated into Estonian or English for an Estonian insurer or the Health Insurance Fund (Tervisekassa).
Terviseamet and Georgian doctors
A specialist with medical education obtained outside the EU undergoes a qualification assessment conducted by the University of Tartu before registering with the Health Board (Terviseamet), and confirms knowledge of Estonian at B2 to C1 depending on the profession, at C1 for doctors. Translation is needed at the very first stage: the diploma, transcript, curriculum with hours, internship or residency certificate, specialty certificate and certificate of work experience, all with an apostille and a notarised translation, using Estonian medical education terms (arstiteadus, residentuur, eriarst). The Estonian side often accepts English, but the package must be in one language, not half Estonian and half English, and we agree this when you order.
Simultaneous and consecutive interpreting
When you need an Estonian interpreter
Estonians speak English at one of the best levels in Europe, and most business meetings in Tbilisi are held in English; if Estonian is not required by protocol or by the participants, we recommend English-Georgian interpreting. An Estonian interpreter is needed at official meetings with delegations of the Estonian parliament (Riigikogu) and municipalities, at a court hearing or notarial transaction involving an Estonian citizen, at an Estonian-language conference where a Georgian speaker presents, and when an older Estonian participant does not speak English well. We do not recommend Russian as an intermediate language unless the Estonian side asks for it: with an official delegation it is inappropriate in terms of protocol and may even be perceived as offensive, and the younger generation often does not speak Russian at all.
Language features for the interpreter
The absence of grammatical gender directly affects interpreting: the interpreter determines gender in the Georgian phrase from context or asks the speaker, and listens carefully for time markers (homme, järgmisel aastal). Compounds (riigihange, public procurement) have to be decoded in a split second. Estonian speakers are concise, keep their pauses and avoid emotional rhetoric, and the interpreter preserves this style, while in the opposite direction he brings a long, metaphorical Georgian speech down to a restraint that sounds natural to an Estonian listener. On a municipal visit, vallavanem (municipal mayor) and volikogu esimees (chair of the council) must correspond correctly to Georgian positions.
Which mode when
Consecutive interpreting is our most requested Estonian interpreting service: official meetings at ministries, parliament and municipalities, interviews, signing ceremonies, where an interpreter who knows Estonian works directly in both directions. Whispered interpreting is used for one or two Estonian participants at a Georgian-language seminar, tasting or company visit, or with a portable system. Direct Estonian-Georgian simultaneous interpreting from a booth is a very rare skill at a professional level, and we say so frankly: at a large conference we use relay, Estonian into English in one booth and English into Georgian in another, as in the EU institutions, and we warn the organiser about the delay in advance. If the Estonian speaker talks in English, one booth is enough. Two interpreters in a booth take turns every 20-30 minutes.
At the notary, in court and online
An Estonian citizen who buys property, sets up a company or marries in Georgia goes to the notary with an interpreter: if a party does not speak Georgian, the notary acts with an interpreter, and the interpreter's identity is recorded in the deed. In court, at the police or in a clinic the interpreter speaks in the first person, shortens nothing and conveys each question precisely. The time difference with Tallinn is only one or two hours depending on the season, so an online interview with the PPA, a remote transaction with an Estonian notary or a video conference with Tallinn is easy to schedule: the interpreter works in the interpretation channel of Zoom or an RSI platform from our studio.
Preparation and booking
- First check with the Estonian side whether Estonian is required or can be replaced by English
- Send us the slides and the list of speakers with names in advance: Jüri is pronounced "Yuri", Tõnis is close to "Tinis", and the sound õ does not exist in Georgian
- For technical topics (e-services, X-tee, cyber security, municipal management) we send you our terminology base for approval
- For an online or hybrid event we schedule a technical test one day in advance
Interpreters who know Estonian are few, so we recommend booking at least two weeks in advance, and earlier for simultaneous relay; in an urgent case, in court or at a notary, an interpreter can be provided within a few hours if he is in Tbilisi.
Official sources
- Public Service Development Agency: apostille and legalization: which Georgian documents can get an apostille, which cannot, and how long it takes
- Hague Conference: Apostille Convention member states: the current list of countries: apostille or consular legalization
- Estonian ENIC/NARIC (Harno): assessment of foreign diplomas, the application and required documents
Frequently asked questions
Should I translate Georgian documents for Estonia into Estonian or English?
It depends on the authority: the PPA, universities and ENIC/NARIC also accept English, while the population register, courts and Estonian notaries often ask for Estonian. We prepare both options in Georgia from the apostilled original, with notarisation, and recommend the safer one for your specific case.
Will an Estonian notary certify my translation?
No: since 2020 official translation in Estonia has been done only by a sworn translator (vandetõlk), and notaries no longer have this right. In the Georgian-Estonian pair a sworn translator practically does not exist, so the apostille goes on the Georgian original and the translation is notarised in Georgia.
Does the translation need an apostille too?
No, and in Georgia it is not even possible: the notarial certification of a translation cannot be apostilled. The apostille goes on the Georgian original and is translated along with it; if an Estonian authority asks for more, this is usually certification by its own sworn translator or a consul, or a translation by the Public Service Development Agency with an apostille.
I only have the Estonian document as an .asice file. Will it be accepted in Georgia?
Not directly: an Estonian notary must certify a printout of the digital document and attach an apostille, after which we translate and notarise it. We tell the client exactly what to ask the notary for, so that one visit is enough.
Estonia does not give me a birth certificate. What should I submit in Georgia?
An extract from the population register on the birth, with an Estonian notary's apostille and our notarised translation. In the translation we explain in a note that this is the equivalent of a certificate in the Estonian system.
My surname is written differently in my Estonian diploma than in my passport. Is that a mistake?
Probably not: an Estonian document often gives a name in the genitive case, and Tamme is a form of Tamm. In the translation we return the surname to the nominative and compare it with the passport, so no mismatch remains in the Georgian translation.
What do I need to submit to the Terviseamet to register as a doctor?
The diploma, transcript, curriculum with hours, internship or residency certificate, specialty certificate and certificate of work experience, all with an apostille and a notarised translation in one language. The qualification assessment and the confirmation of language skills are the next stages.
My OÜ's old articles of association state a capital of 2,500 euros, the new ones state nothing. Which is correct?
Both, depending on the date: until February 2023 the minimum capital of an OÜ was 2,500 euros, and after the reform the requirement was effectively abolished. In the translation we note the document's date and the law in force, so that a Georgian registrar does not see an inconsistency.
How is the termination of an Estonian contract translated into Georgian?
The English word does not help here: taganemine (withdrawal from a contract) and ülesütlemine (termination by notice) are two different institutions, and each has its own equivalent in the Georgian Civil Code. That is why we translate directly from Estonian.
Is direct Estonian-Georgian simultaneous interpreting possible?
In consecutive and whispered mode, yes, directly. For simultaneous interpreting from a booth we use relay with Estonian-English and English-Georgian booths, and we warn the organiser about the delay in advance.
Estonians speak Russian. Should we use a Russian interpreter?
We do not recommend it unless the Estonian side asks for it: with an official delegation Russian is inappropriate in terms of protocol, and the younger generation often does not speak it. English or Estonian is the right choice.
How long does an Estonian translation take?
A personal document takes 1 working day, and a notarised translation received during working hours can be ready as an express order in 1-2 hours. A register extract, articles of association or court judgment takes 1-3 days depending on volume, and the apostille on the original follows the Agency's timelines.
Do you have an Estonian document to translate, are you preparing documents for Estonia, or do you need an Estonian interpreter? Upload a scan or the .asice file on the website, or come to our office at 115 Davit Aghmashenebeli Ave, tell us the receiving authority, and we will quickly tell you which language and which certification you need and when the translation will be ready. For other languages see the translation page.