Mongolian language translator in Tbilisi

Last reviewed: 13 November 2026 · facts checked against official sources

We translate passports, birth, marriage and divorce certificates, certificates of no criminal record, school certificates and diplomas, documents of an ХХК (LLC), powers of attorney, court decisions, sports contracts and medical documents from Mongolian into Georgian and from Georgian into Mongolian. The translation is certified by a Georgian notary, who confirms the authenticity of the signature of a translator registered for Mongolian. A standard personal document is ready in 1 working day, and a notarised translation of a document received during working hours can be done as an express order in 1-2 hours. Mongolia and Georgia are both parties to the Apostille Convention, so a Mongolian document is apostilled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ulaanbaatar and a Georgian one by the Public Service Development Agency, and consular legalization is not needed in either direction; there are no resident embassies between the two countries, so a defect in a document can only be fixed in Mongolia. Send us a scan of the document online or bring it to our office at 115 Davit Aghmashenebeli Avenue; before translating we ask for a copy of the Latin-script passport entry, and for a family package the documents of all members together.

A surname that does not exist: the Mongolian name system

Traditionally a Mongolian has one given name (нэр), preceded by the father's (or mother's) name in the possessive form: Батбаярын Болд means Bold, child of Batbayar. Since 1997 documents have also had a field for the clan name (овог), which many families filled with a historical or chosen name (for example, Боржигон), but it is hardly used in everyday life. In the Surname field of a Mongolian passport there is, as a rule, the father's name, in the Given name field the person's own name, and the clan name in a separate field or not at all.

A Georgian authority that expects a given name and surname structure misreads this system without an explanation: it takes the father's name for a surname, and members of one family who have different surnames on paper for strangers. Our notarised translation reproduces the structure of the passport fields exactly, explains the Mongolian name system in the translator's note, and in a family package confirms the family relationship on the basis of the birth certificates, so that the Agency, a school and a bank see the relationship correctly. The Georgian transcription follows the Latin entry in the passport, which is made under the Mongolian national standard and goes onto the residence card; rendering the letters Ө and Ү as О and У is a typical mistake. Changing the transcription after certification means certifying the whole document again.

The registration number, two scripts and dates

The central identifier of a Mongolian document is the registration number (регистрийн дугаар): two Cyrillic letters and eight digits (for example, УБ12345678), where the letters indicate the place of birth and the digits the date of birth and gender. In the machine-readable zone of the passport the letters are transliterated into Latin, while in other documents they stay in Cyrillic. In the translation we keep the number in the script of the original, add the Latin variant in brackets and confirm in a note that they are identical, because replacing a letter with a Latin one without a note turns the document into one with a different number.

Mongolia has used Cyrillic with two extra letters (Ө, Ү) since 1941, and since 2025 the traditional vertical Mongolian script has also appeared on some state documents, in the title of the form, on seals and sometimes in the fields. For notarisation this is one language and is certified under one registration; in the translation we state which fragment is in which script, and translate both if the content differs. Soviet-era certificates are often on Russian forms, and both languages are clearly marked in the translation. Documents from Inner Mongolia (China) written entirely in the vertical script are considered individually.

A Mongolian date is in the year.month.day format (2024.05.12), and in the translation we carry it over unambiguously to the Georgian day.month.year format, so that 05.12 stays 12 May and not 5 December; the editor checks this separately. The currency is the tugrik (MNT), and we keep amounts without conversion. An Ulaanbaatar address is written with the district (дүүрэг) and khoroo (хороо, subdistrict), and in the aimags with the sum (сум) and bag (баг), which have no Georgian counterparts; we keep the original and add a transcription and a short explanation in brackets.

Why a Russian or Chinese specialist cannot replace a Mongolian translator

Mongolia's older generation speaks Russian and the young speak English, Korean or Chinese, so there is a temptation to hand the document to a translator of a similar language. Mongolian is neither Slavic nor Chinese: it is agglutinative with vowel harmony, the verb stands at the end of the sentence, and relations are expressed with postpositions and case suffixes. A Georgian notary registers a translator for a specific language, and a translator registered for Russian, Chinese or Korean cannot sign the translation of a Mongolian document; a Soviet-era Russian form is additionally certified under a Russian-Georgian registration. With us a Mongolian translation is done by a translator registered for Mongolian and edited by a specialist educated in Mongolia.

Notarised translation into and from Mongolian

What the Georgian notary certifies

Mongolia's notariat follows the continental model, and the Mongolian formula орчуулагчийн гарын үсгийг гэрчлэх, certification of the translator's signature, is the exact equivalent of a Georgian notarial act: in both countries the notary confirms the authenticity of the translator's signature, not the content of the translation. At certification the notary checks the translator's registration for Mongolian, binds the copy of the original with the translation, numbers the pages and puts the certification note with the register number on the last page, which can be verified in the Notary Chamber's electronic register. One document often goes to several authorities in Georgia and an authority keeps the certified copy in its file, so certify as many copies from the start as you have recipients.

The apostille in Mongolia: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Mongolia joined the Apostille Convention at the end of 2009, and Georgia has been a party since 2007. In Mongolia the apostille on all official documents is placed by the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ulaanbaatar: on birth and marriage certificates issued by the General Authority for State Registration, on diplomas, certificates of no criminal record, notarial acts and court decisions. Centralisation is convenient because one authority handles every document, but it requires a visit to Ulaanbaatar or a representative, and documents from the aimags are sent to the capital. If a Mongolian document lacks an apostille, it can only be added in Mongolia: adding an apostille to a Mongolian document in Georgia is impossible.

The apostille on a Georgian document

A Georgian original receives its apostille from the Public Service Development Agency (applications are also accepted at the Public Service Hall). The sequence is always the same: first the apostille is placed on the original, then the document is translated into Mongolian 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 of a copy cannot be apostilled. Nor can an identity document or its copy be apostilled (the exception is a copy of a Georgian passport certified by the issuing authority), nor a driving licence or a certificate from a private company, except medical and educational institutions. If the recipient requires a translation certified with an apostille, the alternative is the Agency's own service, which translates a document subject to apostille itself and certifies that translation with an apostille; some Mongolian notaries require an additional certification by a local translator, who uses our translation as the basis. Check the requirement with the recipient in advance: document route, apostille in Georgia.

An English translation from Ulaanbaatar

Mongolian documents meant for use abroad are often translated into English in Ulaanbaatar and certified by a local notary, and the client assumes this is enough for Georgia. Georgian authorities, however, require a Georgian translation certified by a Georgian notary. The English version is useful for comparing the Latin spelling of names and terms, but it does not replace the translation: we make the Georgian translation from the Mongolian original. Ordering an English translation in Ulaanbaatar is not necessary for Georgia, while an apostille on the original is essential.

A power of attorney when you cannot travel to Ulaanbaatar

This is the most frequent companion document of a Mongolian notarised translation, because an apostille, a new certificate or a property matter can only be handled in Mongolia. The power of attorney (итгэмжлэл) is drawn up in Georgian at a Georgian notary, receives an apostille, is then translated into Mongolian including the apostille, and the translator's signature is notarised. Mongolian practice expects a specific list of powers and a term (бичиг баримт авах, өгөх, receiving and handing over documents; апостиль авах, obtaining an apostille), and the state registration authority may reject a power of attorney worded in general terms. So we draft the Georgian text from the start so that the Mongolian version matches the local standard, and we add a note on the name system, because the attorney and the principal may be recorded with different surnames.

The criminal record certificate, electronic documents and reasons for rejection

The Mongolian certificate of no criminal record (ял шийтгэлийн лавлагаа) is a compulsory document for a residence permit and is valid for a limited period from issue; from abroad it is obtained through a power of attorney or Mongolia's electronic state services, and the apostille is placed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since the validity period runs and an international courier takes weeks, we plan the translation, certification and submission in one short cycle. Certificates of the state registration authority are often issued with a QR code and an electronic signature and no seal; in the translation we state the verification data, and the procedure for an apostille on an electronic document should be confirmed with Mongolia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in advance.

A translation done elsewhere is most often returned because the father's name was written as a surname without a note, the letters of the registration number were replaced with Latin ones, an English translation from Ulaanbaatar was submitted without Georgian certification, the notary did not accept the signature of a Russian translator, or the apostille fields were left untranslated. Each of these can be fixed without translating from scratch: we establish the reason for the rejection, correct that part and certify again.

Translation in both directions

From Mongolian into Georgian

Citizens of Mongolia may enter Georgia without a visa, but residence, study, a sports contract, marriage and registering a company require a notarised Georgian translation. What comes most often: the identity card (иргэний үнэмлэх), birth (төрсний гэрчилгээ) and marriage (гэрлэлтийн гэрчилгээ) certificates, a certificate of no criminal record, a school certificate and a diploma with supplement, an ХХК registration certificate and articles, a medical certificate (эмнэлгийн магадлагаа) and federation letters. Mongolian official vocabulary has three layers: Mongolian roots, Russian borrowings from the Soviet period and English terms of recent decades, and one concept may be expressed with different words in documents from 2005 and 2024 (лиценз and тусгай зөвшөөрөл, диагноз and онош). The translator recognises both and chooses one established term in Georgian, so that two words do not turn into two different documents.

From Georgian into Mongolian: Mongolian or English

Under Mongolia's 2015 language law, official business in state bodies is conducted in Mongolian, and civil registration, the courts, recognition of education, company registration and customs require a Mongolian translation. English is enough for international university programmes, international companies, especially in mining, and some sports federations; Russian is no longer accepted as an official document. Georgian realities (the Public Service Hall, the Public Registry) are translated descriptively, and the Georgian concept of a surname is foreign to the Mongolian system: whether a Georgian's surname is entered in the овог or the эцгийн нэр field of the Mongolian register has to be clarified before registration. In this direction the translation is done by a native Mongolian translator, with a Georgian editor taking part.

Typical scenarios: residence, study, marriage, a child

For a residence permit, the Agency requires notarised translations of the passport, a certificate of no criminal record and a document proving the grounds. A student's school certificate uses percentage or letter grades (A-F), and for diploma recognition we add an explanation of the grading table to the translation, without conversion; diplomas of the National University of Mongolia and the Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences are bilingual, and we use the English entry as an aid. A student should obtain the apostille on the school certificate before arriving, because sorting it out later by power of attorney takes weeks. For marriage in Georgia, the Public Service Hall requires a Mongolian citizen to provide a certificate that they are not married in Mongolia, with an apostille and a notarised translation, and the Georgian marriage certificate is then apostilled and translated into Mongolian. When a child is born, the Mongolian register records them with the father's name and the clan name, the Georgian one with a surname, and we link both entries in the translation with a note. A consent for a child to travel is drawn up at a notary in Mongolia, apostilled at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and translated into Georgian.

Export: a label in Mongolian

To bring Georgian wine, mineral water and food to the Mongolian market, the label must be in Mongolian, and conformity certificates, laboratory reports and customs documents are translated into Mongolian with the designations of standards kept unchanged. Mandatory warnings follow the regulator's standard wording, while the terms for grape varieties and regions are often new in Mongolian and need transcription and explanation. An English-only label for the Mongolian market is a typical mistake.

Legal and medical translation

The legal system and companies

Mongolia's Civil Code of 2002 is built on the German model, and the court system has three tiers: the first-instance court (анхан шатны шүүх), the court of appeal (давж заалдах шатны шүүх) and the Supreme Court (Улсын дээд шүүх). The General Authority for State Registration (Улсын бүртгэлийн ерөнхий газар) keeps the registers of civil acts, companies and real estate at the same time, which in Georgia is the function of several bodies, and this is explained in the translation. ХХК (хязгаарлагдмал хариуцлагатай компани) is an LLC, ХК (хувьцаат компани) a joint-stock company, дүрэм the articles of association. To register a subsidiary of an ХХК in Georgia, the Public Registry requires notarised translations of the registration certificate, the articles, the founders' decision and the document confirming the director's powers; we keep the name in transliteration and explain the legal form in brackets. An article of a Mongolian contract is often one long sentence with postpositional constructions, which is split into several sentences in Georgian, and in a bilingual contract we compare the article numbering, deadlines and date format as a separate step.

Court acts, sports contracts and mining

In the translation of a court decision we keep the full name of the court, the case number, the note of entry into force and the exact wording of the operative part; нэхэмжлэгч is the claimant, хариуцагч the defendant, шийдвэр a decision, шийтгэх тогтоол a criminal sentence. The apostille on a decision is placed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mongolia and Georgia are among the leaders in judo and wrestling, and the sports contract is the most regular legal document: remuneration, bonuses, image rights, transfer conditions, insurance and the dispute resolution body. The titles of Mongolian national wrestling (бөх), such as аварга, арслан, заан and начин, may be linked to an athlete's status in the contract and are rendered in Georgian with an explanation. In mining projects English is the working language between companies, but special licences (тусгай зөвшөөрөл), environmental opinions and tax reporting for state bodies are prepared in Mongolian.

Medical documents

Mongolian medical documents follow a Soviet format updated with an electronic system: the medical history (өвчний түүх), the doctor's opinion (эмчийн дүгнэлт), the medical certificate (эмнэлгийн магадлагаа) and the vaccination card. The terminology has three layers: онош is diagnosis, эмчилгээ treatment, мэс засал surgery, alongside Russian and Latin terms. In the translation of a discharge summary we keep diagnoses with their ICD-10 codes and write medicines by their international non-proprietary names, because Korean, Chinese and Russian medicines on the Mongolian market are often known only by a local name. A student's medical certificate does not follow the structure of the Georgian form 100, and in the translation we show how the fields correspond; the Mongolian vaccination schedule differs from the Georgian one in several items. Documents on an athlete's injury, clearance for a tournament and anti-doping are prepared with priority, and the translation is read by an editor with medical training.

Simultaneous and consecutive interpreting

Who really understands which language

Mongolia's older generation speaks Russian, the middle and younger generations English, Korean or Chinese, and athletes perform in international English but prefer their native language on technical and emotional matters. So the first question is which language the participant understands precisely. In court, at a notary and at an interview the participant chooses their own language, and if they name Mongolian, the interpreter must be a Mongolian one. Our Mongolian interpreters often also speak Russian and English and switch between languages in a mixed delegation. Khalkha Mongolian is partly understood by Inner Mongolians and Buryats, and in a sensitive legal procedure we confirm the language preference in advance.

Sport: tournaments and training camps

At an international judo tournament in Tbilisi a Mongolian delegation goes through accreditation, weigh-in, the technical meeting, the medical check and the press conference, and needs an interpreter at every stage; at a training camp, coaches' meetings and communication with athletes happen daily. A sports interpreter knows judo and wrestling techniques, weight categories and disciplinary procedures, and works with a portable system while moving around the hall. Book an interpreter for a sports tournament as soon as the event is announced.

The verb at the end: why Mongolian simultaneous interpreting lags

In Mongolian the verb stands at the end of the sentence, and negation and tense are attached to the verb as suffixes, so the interpreter knows the point of the sentence, whether someone agreed or refused, only at the last word, which creates a lag of several seconds in simultaneous interpreting. The organiser should ask speakers to keep a moderate pace and add a few minutes to the timing; in consecutive mode this problem does not exist. In simultaneous mode two interpreters take turns every 20-30 minutes, an English channel is almost always needed, and in a relay scheme the other booths use the English or Georgian channel of the Mongolian booth. Mongolian simultaneous interpreters are very few in Georgia, so where needed we connect an interpreter remotely from Ulaanbaatar.

At a notary, in court and at a clinic

A Georgian notary must make sure that a foreign party understands the content of the transaction, and the interpreter's signature becomes part of the act. If the party clearly speaks English or Russian, the notary also accepts that, but a power of attorney that will go to Mongolia's state registration authority is better explained by a Mongolian interpreter in terms of Mongolian law, as is the name system: who is written in the surname field and why it does not match the other family members. In court the interpreter is warned of liability for a false interpretation and conveys what is said word for word. At a clinic a diagnosis must be stated as the doctor stated it, and the patient must fully understand informed consent before signing.

Remote interpreting and booking

Ulaanbaatar is four hours ahead of Tbilisi: 10 a.m. in Tbilisi is 2 p.m. in Ulaanbaatar, so we schedule online meetings in the Tbilisi morning. On Zoom, Teams or an RSI platform the interpreter works simultaneously on a separate language channel or consecutively in a shared call. Book a simultaneous event three to four weeks ahead, and an interpreter for a notary or court a few days ahead; the minimum booking for a short visit is one hour. The interpreter needs the programme, a list of participants with their language preference (Mongolian, English, Russian), and presentations and draft contracts three to four days in advance, so that we can prepare a glossary.

Official sources

• Public Service Development Agency: apostille and legalization: which Georgian documents can be apostilled, which cannot, and the processing times
• Hague Conference: Apostille Convention contracting parties: the current list of countries: apostille or consular legalization
• Hague Conference (HCCH): Mongolia's competent apostille authority - the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, address and contact

Frequently asked questions

Upload a scan of your Mongolian document and a copy of your passport, or call us: we will check what the recipient needs, explain the name system in the translation and prepare a notarised translation, for collection at our Tbilisi office, by courier within Georgia or by international post to Mongolia.