Hungarian translator in Tbilisi

Hungarian translation in Georgia has one main gateway: Stipendium Hungaricum, the Hungarian government's scholarship programme, through which hundreds of Georgian students go every year to the universities of Budapest, Debrecen, Szeged and Pécs. They are followed by Georgian doctors who received their medical education in Hungary and must have their diploma recognised in Georgia, Georgian-Hungarian families, Georgian companies with Hungarian partners and Georgian specialists working in Hungary. We translate from Hungarian into Georgian and from Georgian into Hungarian, notarise the translation and attach the apostille at the House of Justice. On this page we explain what makes Hungary different from the rest of Europe: the only state translation bureau, which the authorities trust as a monopoly, a language that has nothing in common with Indo-European and writes the surname before the given name, and an apostille that is divided between three different authorities.

OFFI: the state translation bureau and its monopoly

Hungary is the only country in Europe where the right to issue a certified translation (hiteles fordítás) is given by law to one state organisation, the National Office for Translation and Attestation (OFFI, Országos Fordító és Fordításhitelesítő Iroda). Hungarian authorities, the population register, the immigration service, the courts, often require exactly a translation with OFFI's seal, and a translation by a private translator or a foreign notary is not automatically official for them. There are exceptions: since 2006 the translation of founding documents for the companies register can also be done by a qualified private translator, and universities and many employers accept an English translation anyway. What matters for a Georgian client is that OFFI works with the Georgian language, but often through an intermediate language, and the deadlines are measured in weeks. So in practice we have two routes: an English or Hungarian translation of the Georgian document in Georgia, with notarisation and an apostille, which universities, employers and banks accept, or sending the apostilled original to OFFI for those authorities that recognise nothing else. Which route is needed we find out before the order, because the wrong choice means lost weeks.

Stipendium Hungaricum: what is translated for the application and what after arrival

The Stipendium Hungaricum application is sent through an online portal and at the first stage requires an English translation of the documents: the school certificate or diploma, the mark sheet, the motivation letter, a medical certificate in the form set by Hungary, a language certificate. At this stage the translation must be notarised, but an apostille is not yet needed. After admission the picture changes: the university requires the original documents with an apostille, and for the residence permit the National Directorate-General for Aliens Policing (OIF) expects the birth certificate and, where needed, certificates with a Hungarian or English translation. Our clients' most frequent mistake happens exactly here: a translation made for the application without an apostille has to be redone after admission. So we prepare the scholarship package from the start so that the same documents also serve after arrival, with an apostille and a full translation. In the medical certificate form that Hungary requires, the doctor's signature, seal and test results are on one sheet, and we translate this sheet in full, including the laboratory values.

Who comes to us for Hungarian translation

• Stipendium Hungaricum candidates and already enrolled students at the universities of Budapest, Debrecen, Szeged, Pécs and Miskolc
• Georgian doctors with medical, dental and pharmaceutical education from Hungary who have their diploma recognised in Georgia
• Georgian specialists in Hungary's car and electronics factories, IT companies and service centres
• Georgian-Hungarian families: marriage, registration of a child in both countries, divorce, inheritance
• Georgians living in Hungary who need a Hungarian certificate, court decision or register extract in Georgia
• Georgian companies with Hungarian partners: wine, agricultural machinery, pharmacy, tourism
• Hungarian companies and foundations working in Georgia, especially in water management, energy and education projects

The apostille in Hungary: three authorities for one seal

Hungary has applied the Hague Apostille Convention since 1973, but the issuing of apostilles is divided between three authorities according to the type of document, and this is the first thing we clarify for a client in Hungary. On court documents the apostille is attached by the Ministry of Justice; on notarial documents, including notarised copies and powers of attorney, by the Hungarian Chamber of Civil Law Notaries (MOKK); on everything else, birth and marriage certificates, diplomas, certificates, by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. If you take a diploma to the Ministry of Justice, they will turn you back; if you take a notarial power of attorney to the Foreign Ministry, the same will happen. We tell the client in advance which document is apostilled where, and in Budapest this means saving a week and three visits. In the opposite direction everything is simple: a Georgian document for Hungary receives its apostille at the House of Justice, which we do within the order.

The Hungarian language in translation: surname first, 18 cases and long words

Hungarian is a Finno-Ugric language, has no kinship with Indo-European languages, and is a linguistic island in the middle of Europe: neither German, nor Slavic, nor Romanian knowledge is of any use in a Hungarian document. For translation its three features matter most. First: a Hungarian writes the surname before the given name; Nagy Péter means Péter Nagy, not Nagy Péter, and in the Georgian translation the order must be reversed, while a note must explain the rule of the original, or a Georgian official will mix up the surname and the given name. Second: Hungarian has up to eighteen cases and an extensive system of suffixes that packs a whole phrase into one word, and in a document a person's name too may carry a suffix (Nagy Péternek, Nagy Pétertől); in the translation the name is returned to the passport form without the suffix. Third: Hungarian official language is characterised by long, complex compounds (for example, társadalombiztosítási azonosító jel, the social insurance number), which do not pass into Georgian word for word and require a functional equivalent. Our Hungarian translators command the language directly, with experience of studying or living in Hungary.

Education documents: from 1 to 5, the oklevél and recognition in both directions

In Hungary both school and university use a five-point system: 5 (jeles) is the best, 2 (elégséges) the passing minimum, 1 (elégtelen) a fail. The Georgian system uses a 100-point scale at university and a 10-point scale at school, so an explanation of the scale is attached to the Georgian translation of a Hungarian diploma (oklevél) and supplement (oklevélmelléklet). The recognition in Georgia of a medical diploma obtained in Hungary is a separate topic: the English-language medical programmes of Semmelweis, Debrecen, Szeged and Pécs are popular among Georgian students, and after returning the diploma, the supplement and a description of the curriculum with hours are presented to Georgia's National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement. These documents are often bilingual, Hungarian and English, and we translate both texts, because the Center requires the Hungarian part of the supplement too. In the opposite direction the recognition of a Georgian diploma in Hungary is handled by the Hungarian Equivalence and Information Centre of the Educational Authority (Magyar Ekvivalencia és Információs Központ), which accepts documents with an OFFI translation or, for study purposes, in English. The recognition of a school certificate (érettségi bizonyítvány) has separate rules, and the Georgian school-leaving examinations differ structurally from the Hungarian érettségi, which is explained in the translator's note.

Residence in Hungary: the OIF, the new law of 2024 and the employer's role

From January 2024 Hungary brought into force a new immigration law, which changed the categories of work residence for third-country nationals: the guest worker residence permit, the Hungarian Card for qualified specialists, the investor and researcher permits. This law changes the deadlines, the employer's obligations and the rules of family reunification, and many instructions on the internet still describe the old system. What matters for a Georgian client is that the application is often submitted by the employer, and the document package includes the Georgian diploma, a professional certificate, a criminal record certificate and, in the case of a family, marriage and birth certificates with an apostille and a Hungarian or English translation. The National Directorate-General for Aliens Policing (OIF) is strict about the form of certification of the translation, and here the OFFI question appears again; in practice a translation notarised and apostilled in Georgia is accepted at most regional offices, but we clarify this for the specific office, because practice differs between regions.

Marriage and family: the anyakönyvvezető and double registration

In Hungary a marriage is concluded by the civil status registrar (anyakönyvvezető), and the foreign partner must present a certificate that there is no impediment to marriage under Hungarian law, and if this certificate cannot be obtained from their country, the district administration issues an exemption. The Georgian certificate of family status, the birth certificate and, in the case of a previous marriage, the divorce document are prepared with an apostille and a Hungarian translation; the Hungarian registrar is strict about the form of the translation too, and this is one of the cases where OFFI is often mandatory. The birth of a child in Hungary means double registration for a Georgian parent: the Hungarian birth certificate (születési anyakönyvi kivonat) goes with the Foreign Ministry's apostille and our Georgian translation to the consulate or the House of Justice. A Hungarian certificate is also issued in the multilingual European form, but Georgian is not in this form, so a translation is still needed, and we translate both texts, the Hungarian one and the European fields of the form, as one document.

The Hungarian documents we translate most often

• Birth, marriage and death certificates (anyakönyvi kivonat)
• Criminal records certificate (erkölcsi bizonyítvány), which Hungary issues both on paper and electronically
• Address card (lakcímkártya) and identity card data, which a Georgian authority requires as a certificate of address
• Diploma, supplement, school certificate, curriculum description, the hour schedule of medical programmes
• Certificates of the National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV) on income or the absence of debts
• Documents of the National Health Insurance Fund (NEAK) and the pension directorate
• Court decisions in maintenance, custody, divorce and inheritance cases
• Companies court register extract (cégkivonat), founding act, specimen signature (aláírási címpéldány)

Business with Hungary: the Kft., the cégkivonat and the specimen signature

The Hungarian limited liability company (Kft., korlátolt felelősségű társaság) is the analogue of a Georgian LLC, while the Zrt. and Nyrt. are the closed and open forms of a joint-stock company. Companies are registered in the court register (cégbíróság), and the register extract (cégkivonat) is the corporate document most often translated for the Georgian Public Registry and a bank. One peculiarity of Hungarian corporate practice is the specimen signature (aláírási címpéldány), a notarised document that confirms who has the right to sign on behalf of the company and how, alone or jointly; in the Georgian system there is no exact analogue of this, and in the translation a functional explanation is attached to it. The main directions of Georgian-Hungarian business are wine, agricultural machinery, pharmacy and water management technology, where Hungary works in Georgia with export credits and development programmes, and the contracts, specifications and reports of these projects are translated from Hungarian or English. The Hungarian tax number (adószám) and the European VAT number (with the HU prefix) appear separately in invoices, and in the translation both remain unchanged.

Transliteration: Hungarian names in Georgian

Hungarian spelling renders sounds by its own rules, and reading it with the logic of English always goes wrong: s in Hungarian is sh, sz s, cs ch, zs zh, gy a soft d, ly y, ny a soft n. Nagy in Georgian is Nadzi, not Nagi; Szabó Sabo; Kovács Kovachi; Szeged Segedi; Pécs Pechi; Győr Diori; Debrecen Debretseni. Long vowels (á, é, ő, ű) pass into the Georgian alphabet approximately, and a form chosen once remains unchanged in all documents of that person or place. In the Hungarian system the surname comes first, and in the Georgian translation we return the order to the Georgian rule, with a note. A separate topic is a Hungarian woman's traditional married name, which includes the husband's full name with the suffix -né (Nagy Péterné, literally "the wife of Nagy Péter"): this form still appears in old documents, in pension and inheritance cases, and in the translation we keep it, explain it in a note and indicate the woman's own birth name separately. A Georgian name goes into Hungarian by the Latin record of the passport, and we do not change this record.

Healthcare and the social system: the TAJ, NEAK and pensions in two countries

In Hungary relations with healthcare and the social system proceed through the social insurance number (TAJ-szám), which is on a card and appears in every medical and insurance document. A Georgian working in Hungary enters this system, and when returning to Georgia or arranging a pension in both countries the certificates of the National Health Insurance Fund (NEAK), the pension directorate and NAV are translated into Georgian: a certificate of work record, an extract of contributions, a sick leave certificate, a disability determination report. In the opposite direction the Georgian work book, an archive certificate of work record and a pension certificate go into Hungarian. The documents of medical care received in Hungary, a discharge letter, an epicrisis, an operation report, are translated for a Georgian doctor, and here Hungarian medical terminology, which alongside Latin also uses its own Hungarian words, requires specialised experience.

Typical mistakes in Hungarian translation

When checking other people's translations the same mistakes recur: leaving the surname and given name without reversing the order, after which Nagy becomes a given name in the Georgian document; a Hungarian surname read with the logic of English (Nagi, Szabo instead of Sabo); a name left with a suffix, which no longer matches the passport; translating a name in the -né form as "the husband's name"; looking for the apostille on a diploma at the Ministry of Justice and on a notarial power of attorney at the Foreign Ministry; preparing a scholarship translation without an apostille and ordering it again after admission; ignoring OFFI's requirement where it is mandatory, or the reverse, losing weeks at OFFI where an English translation was enough; citing the residence categories in force before 2024; and translating the specimen signature (aláírási címpéldány) as a "signature sample" without a functional explanation. Each of these items is on our checklist, and the editor checks every Hungarian translation against this list.

What sets our Hungarian translation apart

• We know which Hungarian authority requires OFFI and which is satisfied with a translation certified in Georgia, and we tell you this before the order
• The Stipendium Hungaricum package is prepared from the start so that it also serves after admission
• Correct transfer of the order of Hungarian names, suffixes and the -né form, compared with the passport
• Knowledge of the three apostille authorities in Hungary and one order in Georgia: notarisation by a translator registered for the Georgian-Hungarian pair and the apostille at the House of Justice
• A standard personal document in 1 working day, by express in 1-2 hours, the process fully remote, from Budapest and from Debrecen too

Frequently asked questions