Lithuanian language translator in Tbilisi

Lithuanian translation is the most frequent of the three Baltic languages in Georgia, and this has two reasons. The first is political: Lithuania is one of Georgia's most consistent partners in the European Union, there is a Georgian diaspora and a Georgian parish in Vilnius, and Lithuanian development programmes, projects of European integration and local self-government, have worked in Georgia since the 2000s. The second is economic: Lithuania's logistics, laser, fintech and construction companies hire Georgian specialists, the shortage of Lithuanian drivers is filled by Georgian drivers, the universities of Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipeda admit Georgian students, while Lithuanian business works in Georgia in tourism and real estate. We translate from Lithuanian into Georgian and from Georgian into Lithuanian, notarise the translation and attach the apostille at the House of Justice. On this page we explain what makes Lithuania different: a language that is the most archaic among the Indo-European languages and gives even a foreign surname a Lithuanian ending, a notary who also issues the apostille, and a residence system that has changed several times in recent years.

Lithuania is in the EU and Georgia is not: what this changes in documents

Lithuania has been a member of the European Union since 2004 and of Schengen since 2007, and joined the eurozone in 2015. For a Georgian client this means three things. For a short visit the same visa-free 90 days apply in Lithuania as in the other Schengen countries, and no translation is needed. For work, study or family reunification a temporary residence permit (leidimas laikinai gyventi) is needed, which the Migration Department (Migracijos departamentas) issues, and it is exactly this application that the package of Georgian documents accompanies. Third: inside the EU public documents move without an apostille, and a Lithuanian official is used to this; a Georgian document, however, is outside this rule and always needs an apostille. So we prepare a Georgian document for Lithuania with an apostille, even if the recipient does not ask for it at first. Lithuania's residence system changed several times in 2022-2024, in the parts on quotas, employers' obligations and the deadlines of family reunification, and many instructions on the internet still describe the old rules; we prepare the package of documents by the Migration Department's current list.

The Lithuanian notary, the absence of a sworn translator and who certifies a translation

Lithuania, unlike Latvia and Estonia, has no state institution of a sworn or court translator. An official translation in Lithuania is performed by a translation agency, and certification is of two kinds: with the agency's own seal, which universities, employers and banks usually accept, or by a notary's certification of the translator's signature (vertėjo parašo tvirtinimas), which state authorities, civil registry offices and the Migration Department require. This system is similar to the Georgian one, and that is exactly why Lithuanian authorities usually accept without a problem a translation notarised in Georgia, which the apostille gives the force of a foreign public document. A translator in the Georgian-Lithuanian pair is rare in Lithuania, and Lithuanian agencies often translate a Georgian document via Russian or English, which affects both time and quality; so the Lithuanian translation of a Georgian document done directly in Georgia, without an intermediate language, is often the faster and safer route, and we clarify this before the order for the specific authority.

Who comes to us for Lithuanian translation

• Drivers, builders, welders and other qualified workers in Lithuania's logistics and construction companies: a diploma, a professional certificate, a certificate of experience, a criminal record certificate for the work permit
• IT specialists, engineers and employees of the fintech sector in Vilnius and Kaunas
• Students at Vilnius University, Kaunas University of Technology, Vytautas Magnus University, in Klaipeda and at ISM
• Doctors and nurses from whom Lithuania's healthcare system requires documents for registration
• Georgian-Lithuanian families: marriage, registration of a child in both countries, divorce, inheritance
• Georgians living in Lithuania who need a Lithuanian certificate, court decision or register extract in Georgia
• Georgian and Lithuanian companies that conclude contracts with each other: logistics, tourism, wine, laser and IT technologies
• Lithuanian development programmes, foundations and municipalities that carry out projects in Georgia

The apostille in Lithuania: the notary, not a ministry

Lithuania has applied the Hague Apostille Convention since 1997, and since 2019 the apostille on a Lithuanian document is issued by notaries instead of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in any city of the country, while an electronic apostille also exists, verified online. For a Georgian in Lithuania this is convenient: a birth or marriage extract, a diploma, a criminal record certificate or a court decision is apostilled at a local notary in one visit. One detail that is often forgotten: a Lithuanian civil status extract, issued from the population register by a civil registry office or the electronic system, also exists in the European multilingual format, but Georgian is not in that format, so a translation is needed anyway. In the opposite direction a Georgian document receives the apostille at the House of Justice, which we carry out within the order. The apostille is attached to the original, not to the translation: first the original, then the translation including the apostille, and last the notary.

The Lithuanian language in translation: a surname that reveals marital status

Lithuanian is a Baltic language, in a separate group together with Latvian, and is considered the most archaic among the Indo-European languages: seven cases, remnants of the dual number, a tonal accent and an inflection that gives every name, including a foreign one, a Lithuanian ending. The most important thing for translation is the Lithuanian system of surnames, which has no analogue in Europe: one and the same surname is written for a man with the ending -as, -is, -us (Kazlauskas), for a married woman with -ienė (Kazlauskienė), for an unmarried woman with -aitė, -ytė, -ūtė, -utė (Kazlauskaitė), while since 2003 a woman may also choose the neutral ending -ė (Kazlauskė). A Georgian authority looking at a Lithuanian family reads three different surnames for the members of one family, and in the translation's note we explain this system, or the "different" surnames of the mother and the child in a birth certificate raise questions for a Georgian official. In the opposite direction a Lithuanian document inflects a Georgian surname too: Giorgi Beridze becomes Giorgio Beridzės, Giorgiui Beridzei in a Lithuanian text, and in the translation we return the name to the passport form. The Lithuanian alphabet has diacritical letters (ą, č, ę, ė, į, š, ų, ū, ž), which must not be lost in transliteration.

Education documents: the 10-point system and SKVC

In Lithuania both school and university use a ten-point system, where 10 is the best and 5 the passing minimum, and this is similar to the Georgian school system, though at university it differs from the Georgian 100-point scale; an explanation of the scale is attached to the Georgian translation of a Lithuanian diploma and its supplement (diplomo priedėlis). Recognition of a Georgian diploma in Lithuania is carried out by the Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education (SKVC, Studijų kokybės vertinimo centras), which is also Lithuania's ENIC/NARIC centre, accepts documents in Lithuanian or English, requires the supplement or mark sheet together with the diploma and uses an online application; for the purpose of study, recognition is often carried out by the university itself. The English-language programmes of Lithuania's universities are popular among Georgian students, especially medicine, IT and business, and for admission the school certificate, mark sheet and language certificate are translated into English, while for residence the birth certificate and financial certificate go in Lithuanian or English. A Lithuanian school certificate (brandos atestatas) writes the scores of the state examinations (valstybiniai egzaminai) on a 100-point scale, which is explained separately in the translation of the certificate.

Residence in Lithuania: the Migration Department, MIGRIS and the employer

Residence matters in Lithuania have been handled since 2020 in a single electronic system (MIGRIS), where the application is filled in online and documents are uploaded as PDFs, while biometrics and originals are presented at the Migration Department's office or at an embassy. For a work residence permit the employer often first needs a decision of the Employment Service (Užimtumo tarnyba), except for those professions that are on the list of shortage occupations, which simplifies the procedure; drivers, welders and IT specialists have regularly been on this list in recent years. The package of Georgian documents includes a diploma or professional certificate, a certificate of work experience, a criminal record certificate and, in the case of a family, marriage and birth certificates, with an apostille and a Lithuanian or English translation. The Migration Department requires a foreign-language document with a certified translation, and a translation notarised and apostilled in Georgia satisfies this requirement. We format the translation so that on upload to MIGRIS the apostille, the original and the translation read as one document.

Marriage and family: the civilinės metrikacijos skyrius and double registration

In Lithuania a marriage is registered by the civil registry office (civilinės metrikacijos skyrius) or, in the case of a religious marriage with civil force, by the church, and a foreign partner must present a certificate that there is no impediment to the marriage. The Georgian certificate of marital status, the birth certificate and, in the case of a previous marriage, the divorce document are prepared with an apostille and a Lithuanian translation, and the office requires notarisation on the translation. The birth of a child in Lithuania means double registration for a Georgian parent: the Lithuanian birth extract (gimimo įrašo išrašas) goes with a notary's apostille and our Georgian translation to the consulate or the House of Justice, so that the child receives Georgian citizenship and a passport. Here the Lithuanian system of surnames appears again: the Lithuanian document gives the child of a Georgian father and a Lithuanian mother a surname with a Lithuanian ending, unless the parents requested otherwise, and for a Georgian authority this form is explained in a note, so that the child's Georgian passport matches the father's surname.

The Lithuanian documents we translate most often

• Birth, marriage and death extracts from the population register
• A certificate of the declared place of residence, which a Georgian authority requires as a certificate of address
• A criminal record certificate (pažyma dėl teistumo), which Lithuania also issues electronically
• Diploma, supplement, school certificate, description of a curriculum, certificates of professional qualification
• Certificates of the State Tax Inspectorate (VMI) and the Social Insurance Fund (Sodra) on income, service and contributions
• Court decisions in cases of child support, guardianship, divorce and inheritance
• An extract from the register of legal entities (Juridinių asmenų registro išrašas), articles (įstatai), the decision appointing a director
• Employment contracts of transport and logistics companies, documents of a driver's qualification (Code 95)

Business with Lithuania: the UAB, the Centre of Registers and logistics

A Lithuanian private limited liability company (UAB, uždaroji akcinė bendrovė) is the functional analogue of a Georgian LLC, while the small partnership (MB, mažoji bendrija) was created for start-ups and small business; both are registered at the Centre of Registers (Registrų centras), which keeps the registers of legal entities, real estate and the population together and issues extracts electronically, in Lithuanian or English. The documents of Georgian-Lithuanian business move in both directions: a Lithuanian extract, articles and the director's authority for the Georgian Public Registry and a bank, a Georgian extract and articles for a Lithuanian partner and bank, while Lithuania's fintech sector, one of the largest in Europe, requires corporate documents under strict licensing rules when Georgian companies open accounts. Logistics is a separate topic: Lithuanian transport companies own one of the largest freight fleets in Europe and are the main employers of Georgian drivers, and their employment contracts, rules of posting, per diem and working time regime (Mobility Package) documents are translated from Lithuanian into Georgian, so that the driver understands before signing what they are signing. Lithuania's tax number, the company's nine-digit code and the European VAT number (with the LT prefix) appear separately on invoices, and all three stay unchanged in the translation.

The social system: Sodra and service in two countries

A Georgian working in Lithuania pays contributions into the Social Insurance Fund (Sodra), and when returning to Georgia or arranging a pension in both countries the Sodra certificates are translated into Georgian: a certificate of service, an extract of contributions, a sick leave certificate, a decision on maternity leave, a record establishing incapacity for work. In the opposite direction Georgia's labour book, an archival certificate of service and a pension certificate go in Lithuanian. The concepts of the Lithuanian social system that have no analogue in the Georgian system are delivered with a functional explanation, while a Sodra decision is often accompanied by an indication of the form in which an appeal is made and the time limit within which it is admissible; we never shorten this part. Lithuania's healthcare system operates through the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund (PSDF), and the documents of treatment received in Lithuania, a discharge summary, an epicrisis, an operation record, are translated for a Georgian doctor, where Lithuanian medical terminology uses its own Lithuanian words alongside Latin and requires experience in the field.

Transliteration: Lithuanian names in Georgian

The rendering of Lithuanian names in Georgian follows pronunciation: Jonas is Ionas in Georgian, Vytautas Vitautasi, Rūta Ruta, Kazlauskas Kazlauskasi, Vilnius Vilniusi, Kaunas Kaunasi, Klaipėda Klaipeda, Šiauliai Shiauliai. č is ch, š is sh, ž is zh, ė a closed e, ų and ū a long u, while the loss of a diacritic often means a different word. The ending of a Lithuanian surname we keep in the Georgian translation exactly as it is in the original, the man's -as, the woman's -ienė or -aitė, and explain in a note that this is the surname of one family. A form chosen once stays unchanged in all documents of that person or place. In the opposite direction a Georgian name goes into Lithuanian by the Latin record of the passport, and we keep this record without a Lithuanian ending if the document is not intended for entry in the population register; in that case the Lithuanian authority itself decides in which form it will record the name, and we state both forms in the translation.

Typical mistakes in Lithuanian translation

When checking other people's translations the same mistakes repeat: translating the three forms of a Lithuanian surname as three different surnames without a note; a Georgian name left in an inflected case (Beridzės), which no longer matches the passport; the loss of diacritics in transliteration; translating a Georgian document into Lithuanian via Russian, where the names of Georgian authorities pass by Russian logic; looking for the apostille at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, when since 2019 a notary issues it in Lithuania; presenting a European multilingual form without a translation to a Georgian authority; equating a ten-point university mark directly with the Georgian 100-point one; citing old residence rules; translating a UAB as a "joint-stock company" without a note; and omitting those clauses of a driver's employment contract that concern the structure of pay and the per diem for posting. Each of these points is on our checklist, and the editor checks every Lithuanian translation against this list.

What sets our Lithuanian translation apart

• Georgian-Lithuanian translation directly, without intermediate Russian or English, by translators who studied or worked in Lithuania
• The correct rendering of the system of Lithuanian surnames, the cases and the diacritics, compared with the passport and with notes
• Knowledge of the current requirements of the Migration Department, SKVC and civil registry offices, including the MIGRIS format
• The terminology of logistics, fintech and corporate documents, with explanations of Sodra and VMI certificates
• Notarisation by a translator registered in the Georgian-Lithuanian pair and the apostille at the House of Justice in one order
• A standard personal document in 1 working day, by express in 1-2 hours, the process fully remote, from Vilnius and Klaipeda too

Frequently asked questions