Kazakh is no longer an exotic language for Georgia: the activation of the Middle Corridor (the Trans-Caspian transport route), the Kazakh management of the Batumi oil terminal and the annually growing flow of Kazakh tourists have turned a Kazakh-language document into ordinary working material. On this page we explain what translating from and into Kazakh means in practice: which documents come to us most often, why a Kazakh paper is almost always bilingual, what the switch to the Latin alphabet changes, and how we handle names, numbers and seals so that a Georgian authority or a Kazakh state body accepts the translation the first time.
Why a Kazakh document is almost always bilingual
Under the Constitution of Kazakhstan the state language is Kazakh, while Russian is used in state bodies on an equal footing with Kazakh. In practice this means that a birth certificate (туу туралы куәлік), a marriage certificate (неке қию туралы куәлік), a diploma or an extract from the business register issued in Kazakhstan is, as a rule, printed in two columns or on two pages: one in Kazakh, the other in Russian. This often makes the client think that translating the Russian column is enough and the Kazakh one "is the same anyway".
In reality the two columns do not always match exactly. The text of the seal, the name of the authority, sometimes even the name of the settlement (for example, Astana-Nur-Sultan-Astana since 2019) appear in different forms in the columns. We translate both columns and state unambiguously in the translation which text comes from which language. This way the notary certifies the translation as done from Kazakh and Russian, and the receiving authority is left with no question about why part of the text is "missing".
Cyrillic, Latin and the transition period
Kazakhstan officially began a gradual switch to the Latin alphabet in 2017, the final version of the alphabet was revised several times, and the deadline for full implementation was moved to the early 2030s. For translation this has a concrete consequence: the same person's old document is in Cyrillic, while a new banner, a company letterhead or a website may already be printed in Latin. Kazakh Cyrillic differs from Russian by nine additional letters (Ә, Ғ, Қ, Ң, Ө, Ұ, Ү, Һ, І), and it is exactly these letters that create difficulty when a text has been typed on a Russian keyboard and К is written instead of Қ.
Our translators read both writing systems, and in the translation we always keep the form that is in the original. If a name or a place name appears in both scripts in a document, we establish one transcription in the Georgian translation and note that both entries denote the same person or place.
Which documents come from Kazakhstan most often
- Identity documents: passport, identity card (жеке куәлік), residence certificate, extract of the ZhSN (individual identification number)
- Civil status acts: birth, marriage, divorce and change-of-surname certificates, certificate of marital status
- Educational documents: school certificate, bachelor's and master's diploma with supplement, certificate of study
- Business papers: registration certificate of a ZhShS (LLC), charter, decision of the founders, senimkhat (power of attorney)
- Financial and banking: salary certificate, bank statement, tax return
- Criminal record certificate, medical certificates, transport documents
Certificates issued electronically from egov.kz deserve a separate mention: they are certified with a QR code and an electronic signature and have no physical seal. In the translation of such a document we indicate the details of the electronic signature and the verification link, so that the Georgian authority knows that the absence of a seal is not a defect but the format of the document.
The ZhSN and other numbers: what we translate and what we leave
Most Kazakh documents carry the twelve-digit individual identification number ZhSN (ЖСН, жеке сәйкестендіру нөмірі, in Russian ИИН), whose first six digits reflect the date of birth. This number, like the business identification number BSN (БСН), is transferred into the translation unchanged, while the abbreviation is spelled out in Georgian with the original left in brackets. This matters because Georgian banks and the Public Registry identify a Kazakh citizen or company by exactly this number, and any error in a digit makes the document unusable.
Names, surnames and the -ұлы/-қызы endings
Kazakh anthroponymy consists of three layers: the Russian model of the Soviet period (Серикович, Сериковна), the Kazakh patronymic forms that spread from the 1990s (Серікұлы, Серікқызы) and the increasingly frequent variant where a person carries the surname without the -ов/-ев ending. Members of one family may have all three models in their documents. In the Georgian translation we keep the patronymic as it is in the original, and for the transcription we rely on the Latin entry of the Kazakh passport, which is made according to the ICAO standard (for example, Қайрат as Kairat, Әсел as Assel, Нұрлан as Nurlan). It is this Latin entry that ends up on the Georgian residence card, so the Georgian transcription must always be aligned with this version and not with the Russian-language column.
The Embassy of Kazakhstan and the Georgian authorities
The Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan operates in Tbilisi, and the Embassy of Georgia in Astana. The citizens of both countries enter each other's territory without a visa, which removes part of the bureaucracy, but for a long stay (study, work, business, marriage) translation and certification of documents is still necessary. The typical route of a Kazakh citizen in Georgia is this: the Public Service Development Agency for the residence permit, the Public Registry for registering a company, the notary for buying a flat, the National Centre for Educational Quality Enhancement for study. Each of them needs a notarised Georgian-language translation, and the foreign-language original needs, where required, an apostille. Kazakhstan has been a member of the Hague Convention since 2001, so consular legalisation is not needed in either direction.
Business along the Middle Corridor
The Trans-Caspian route directs Kazakhstan's cargo from Aktau and Kuryk via Baku, Tbilisi and the Black Sea ports towards Europe. Georgian companies involved in this logistics chain deal daily with Kazakh-language freight forwarding contracts, CMRs, consignment notes, phytosanitary certificates and customs declarations. Because of its membership of the Eurasian Economic Union, Kazakhstan's customs documentation uses specific terminology (for example, the numbers of EAEU technical regulations and declarations of conformity), which does not directly match the terms of the Georgian Customs Code. We keep the names of the original and add the functional equivalent in Georgian, so that the term is understandable to both sides.
Tourism and real estate
For Kazakh tourists Georgia is one of the most popular destinations of recent years, and some visits end with buying a flat in Batumi or founding a company in Tbilisi. The sale contract, the extract from the Public Registry, the bank loan agreement, the preliminary agreement with the construction company: the Kazakh buyer needs all this in their own language to sign consciously, and the notary needs it to be sure that the party understands the text. We work in both directions: a Georgian document into Kazakh for the buyer, a Kazakh certificate of income or marital status into Georgian for the bank and the notary.
Education: Kazakh students in Georgia and Georgians in Kazakhstan
The number of students from Kazakhstan on the medical and business programmes of Georgian universities grows every year. Enrolment requires a translation of the school certificate or previous diploma, the UNT (Unified National Testing) certificate and, often, a health certificate. The Kazakh school grading system is five-point, while universities use a letter-based GPA system, so in the translation of the supplement we attach an explanatory note to the grade table. In the opposite direction, recognition of a Georgian diploma in Kazakhstan is handled by a centre subordinate to the Ministry of Education, which requires an apostilled document translated into Kazakh or Russian; we prepare both versions.
Linguistic features that affect the translation
Kazakh belongs to the Kipchak group of Turkic languages, is agglutinative, and the verb stands at the end of the sentence. One Kazakh word often corresponds to a whole Georgian phrase (for example, куәландырылған means "certified" plus specific case and possessive markers), so the volume of the translation into Georgian may grow by 15-20 percent. Legal terminology in Kazakh comes from two sources: calques of Soviet Russian law and Kazakh neologisms introduced after the 1990s (мемлекеттік тіркеу, state registration; жарғы, charter). We know both layers and choose in Georgian the term that is established in Georgian legislation.
Why a Turkish or Uzbek specialist cannot replace a Kazakh translator
Kazakh, Turkish and Uzbek belong to one language family and are partly mutually intelligible in speech, but for translating an official document this kinship is not enough. Kazakh legal vocabulary is built on the tradition of Russian law and often does not match at all the Ottoman-Arabic or European sources of Turkish: the Kazakh "жарғы" (charter) is "tüzük" or "ana sözleşme" in Turkish, and "сенімхат" (power of attorney) is "vekâletname". There is more shared vocabulary with Uzbek, but the phonetics and the declension system differ, and a specialist who has switched to Uzbek Latin cannot read Kazakh Cyrillic freely. That is why a separate translator is registered with the notary for the Kazakh language, and it is that translator who signs the document.
Seals, stamps and handwritten entries
Old forms of Kazakh civil status acts, especially certificates issued before the 1990s, are often handwritten, and the seals are in both languages but superimposed on each other. In such a document we translate every legible element: the outer ring of the seal, the central text, the series and number of the form, the registration entry and marginal notes, for example an entry on a change of surname or citizenship. If a fragment is physically illegible, we say so directly in the translation rather than guess and fill it in: for an authority, "illegible" is an honest and acceptable entry, while invented text is grounds for rejecting the document.
What the editor does after a Kazakh translation
Every Kazakh translation goes after the translator to a second specialist, who checks three things: the numerical data (the ZhSN, form numbers, dates, amounts) character by character, the proper names against the passport, and the terminological consistency, so that the same authority is named identically throughout the text. This double control is needed especially for Kazakh, because in a bilingual original an error slips in twice as easily.
Typical mistakes that get a Kazakh translation returned
- Translating the Russian column and skipping the Kazakh one, so that the Kazakh name of the seal or the authority does not appear in the translation at all
- Replacing the letters Қ, Ғ, Ң with the Russian К, Г, Н in the transcription, which makes the name differ from the passport
- "Correcting" the form of the patronymic: turning Серікұлы into Серикович or vice versa, although the original has one specific form
- Writing the Astana/Nur-Sultan place name uniformly when the document shows different names according to the date of issue
- Not noting the "absence" of a seal on an egov.kz electronic certificate, so that the Georgian authority considers the document incomplete
Correcting each of these mistakes requires re-certification, so before starting the translation we always ask for a copy of the passport and clarify which authority the document is going to.
Deadlines for the Kazakh language
The deadline depends on the volume: one or two pages in one working day, a contract or a diploma supplement in two to three days, while the 1-2 hour express applies to short documents received during working hours. Kazakhstan's time zone is one hour ahead of Tbilisi, so an order sent from Astana or Almaty in the morning is processed within our working day.
Confidentiality when working with Kazakh documents
A significant part of Kazakh corporate and banking documents contains commercial information: the value of cargo, the turnover of an enterprise, the shares of the founders. Every translator and editor works under a signed confidentiality agreement, files are kept in encrypted storage and are deleted after a set period from the completion of the order, unless the client asks otherwise. We never upload documents containing the ZhSN and bank details to external platforms.
Who this service is for
Three types of client look for a Kazakh translator with us: a Kazakh citizen who is arranging residence, property, study or marriage in Georgia; a Georgian company that cooperates with a Kazakh partner in Middle Corridor logistics, construction or the tourism business; and a citizen of Georgia who is going to Kazakhstan to work, study or found a business and needs Georgian papers in Kazakh or Russian. In all three cases the same team works, but the set of documents, the target authority and the form of certification differ, so at the first consultation we clarify exactly these details.
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. A standard one-page paper is ready in one working day, in express mode in 1-2 hours. Notarisation, an apostille at the House of Justice where needed, and delivery by courier are completed within one order, without you coming to the office. To clients in Kazakhstan we send the scan of the finished translation electronically, and the original by international courier.
Frequently asked questions
Is it enough to translate only the Russian column of a Kazakh document?
No. In a bilingual document the seals, the names of authorities and individual entries may differ between the columns, so we translate both columns and indicate which text comes from which language.
Does a Kazakh document need an apostille to be submitted in Georgia?
Kazakhstan is a member of the Hague Convention, so consular legalisation is not needed. A specific Georgian authority may or may not require an apostille; we clarify this when the order is placed, and if it is needed, the apostille must be attached to the original in Kazakhstan itself.
How is an electronic certificate issued from egov.kz translated?
In the same way as a paper document, and in addition we indicate the details of the electronic signature and the verification link, so that the absence of a seal does not look like a defect to the receiving party.
Which transcription is used in the Georgian translation, the Russian or the Kazakh form?
We rely on the Latin entry of the passport, because it is exactly that which appears on the Georgian residence card and other official documents. We link the variants found in other documents with a note.
Do you translate Kazakh text written in the Latin alphabet?
Yes, our translators command both writing systems, and a mix of Cyrillic and Latin in one document is not a problem either.
Can I order from Kazakhstan without coming to Georgia?
Yes. You upload the scan of the document online, pay remotely, and receive the finished translation electronically and, if you wish, by international courier.