Romanian translator in Tbilisi

Romanian translation in Georgia serves two countries: Romania and Moldova, where one and the same language operates through two different administrative systems. For this language our clients are Georgian students from the medical universities of Iasi, Cluj, Bucharest and Constanta, where medicine taught in English is popular among Georgians, Georgian seafarers and logistics companies working with the port of Constanta and Black Sea shipping, engineers linked to the Black Sea submarine electricity cable project, Georgian-Romanian and Georgian-Moldovan families, Georgian specialists working in Romania and Moldova, and the wine producers of both countries, who see each other as competitors and partners at once. We translate from Romanian into Georgian and from Georgian into Romanian, certify the translation before a notary and attach the apostille at the House of Justice. On this page we explain what makes Romania and Moldova different: the institution of the authorised translator, whose signature a notary certifies, the apostille, which in Romania is split between three bodies, the CNP and IDNP numbers, and the diacritical letters that are written in two ways in older documents.

Romania and Moldova: one language, two systems, one line towards Georgia

Romania has been a member of the European Union since 2007, of air and sea Schengen since March 2024 and of full Schengen since January 2025; Moldova is an EU candidate, on the Eastern Partnership road together with Georgia, and since 2023 its official language is Romanian by the constitution as well, in place of "Moldovan". For a Georgian client this means practical differences. For Romania a Georgian document is a document from outside the EU and always needs an apostille; Georgia's bilateral relationship with Moldova is simpler, but the apostille is the standard here too, because both countries are parties to the Hague Convention. The names of Romanian authorities, the forms of documents and the procedures differ from the Moldovan ones even though the language is the same, and the translation is prepared in the terminology of the receiving country: Romania's Inspectoratul General pentru Imigrari and Moldova's Agentia Servicii Publice are different bodies with different forms. Moldovan documents are moreover often bilingual, Romanian and Russian, especially papers from the 1990s and 2000s, and our Romanian translators also command Russian, so that a bilingual document is prepared as a single translation. The first thing we establish when taking an order is precisely the receiving country.

The authorised translator (traducator autorizat) and the notary

In Romania an official translation is performed by a translator authorised by the Ministry of Justice, who holds an authorisation number and a stamp, and for state authorities the translation is certified by a notary through legalisation (traducere legalizata), that is, the notary confirms the translator's signature and authorisation. This system resembles the Georgian one, and that is why Romanian authorities ordinarily accept a translation certified before a notary in Georgia, which the apostille gives the force of a foreign public document, although some bodies, especially civil status offices and IGI, ask for a translation by a translator authorised in Romania. A translator authorised for the Georgian language practically does not exist in Romania, and Romanian bureaus often translate a Georgian document through English or Russian. In Moldova the system is analogous, the Ministry of Justice appoints the authorised translator and the notary certifies the signature, and a translator of Georgian is rare in Chisinau as well. So for both countries we have two routes: a Romanian translation of a Georgian document made in Georgia directly, with notarial certification and an apostille, or an English translation, which universities, employers and banks accept directly and which in Romania an authorised translator of English converts into Romanian on the spot. Which route a particular authority requires we establish before the order.

Who comes to us for Romanian translation

• Students of medical, dental and pharmaceutical programmes in Iasi, Cluj-Napoca, Bucharest, Timisoara and Constanta, and the same people after their return, for recognition of the diploma
• Seafarers and employees of logistics and shipowning companies working with the port of Constanta and Black Sea shipping
• Engineers and energy specialists around the Black Sea submarine cable and other energy projects
• IT specialists in the technology companies of Cluj and Bucharest
• Georgian-Romanian and Georgian-Moldovan families: marriage, registration of a child in both countries, divorce, inheritance
• Georgians living in Romania and Moldova who need a Romanian certificate, court decision or register extract in Georgia
• Georgian and Romanian wine, agriculture, construction and tourism companies concluding contracts with each other
• Moldovan companies and farmers working with Georgia in wine, fruit and logistics

The apostille in Romania: the prefecture, the tribunal and the chamber of notaries

Romania has applied the Hague Apostille Convention since 2001, and the issuing of the apostille is split between three bodies according to the type of document, which is the first source of confusion for a Georgian in Romania. On administrative documents, birth and marriage certificates, diplomas, criminal record certificates and medical certificates, the apostille is attached by the prefecture (Institutia Prefectului), in every county; on court documents by the tribunal (tribunalul); on notarial documents, including translations legalised by a notary, powers of attorney and copies, by the chamber of public notaries (Camera Notarilor Publici). If you take a diploma to the tribunal, you will be turned away; if you take a power of attorney to the prefecture, the same will happen. In Moldova the apostille is centralised, the Ministry of Justice issues it, and an electronic apostille also exists, which is verified online. We tell the client in advance where each document is apostilled. In the opposite direction a Georgian document receives the apostille at the House of Justice for both countries, which we handle within the order. The apostille is attached to the original, not to the translation: first the original, then the translation including the apostille, and the notary last.

CNP and IDNP: thirteen digits that appear in every document

In Romania every citizen and resident has a personal numeric code (CNP, cod numeric personal), thirteen digits in which the first marks sex and century, the next six the date of birth and two more the county of birth; in Moldova an analogous thirteen-digit IDNP applies, and companies have an IDNO. This code appears in every document, from a birth certificate to a contract, and it stays unchanged in the translation, with a note that this is an identifier of the Romanian or Moldovan register, not a Georgian personal number, which has eleven digits. A foreigner in Romania is assigned a CNP together with the IGI residence permit, and at that stage a Georgian birth certificate and, in the case of a family, a marriage certificate are needed with an apostille and a translation. Part of the Romanian state services runs online, through ghiseul.ro and the ANAF virtual space, and tax and criminal record certificates are often issued electronically with a digital signature; a Georgian authority asks for a printed version with an apostille, and we tell the client in advance which document must be requested on paper so that the prefecture can attach the apostille.

Romanian in translation: the article at the end, cases and two variants of the letters s and t

Romanian is a Romance language, a relative of Italian and French, but with Slavic, Hungarian and Turkish borrowings and with two grammatical features that do not exist in the other Romance languages: the definite article is attached at the end of the word (om, omul; casa, casa), and the noun is declined, changing its form in the genitive-dative case (diploma lui Ion Popescu, but diploma Mariei Popescu). A woman's name in a document is often in a case form (Mariei, Elenei), and in the translation we return the name to the nominative and compare it with the passport. The second feature is technical: the Romanian letters s-comma and t-comma are written in two ways in computer systems, with a comma below (ș, ț) and with a cedilla (ş, ţ), and in documents, websites and electronic certificates of the 2000s both variants occur, sometimes within one document; for a Georgian client this is of no importance, but when translating a Georgian document into Romanian the use of the correct, standard letters is the first sign of quality for a Romanian authority, while the loss of the letters a-breve, a-circumflex and i-circumflex often means a different word. Moldovan Romanian differs in vocabulary through Russian borrowings and some Soviet administrative terms, and the translation follows the norm of the receiving country. Our Romanian translators command the language directly, with the experience of study or life in Romania or Moldova.

Educational documents: from 1 to 10, CNRED and a medical diploma from Iasi

In Romania both school and university use a ten-point system, where 10 is the best and 5 the pass minimum, though at university a threshold of 6 or higher often applies for particular subjects; Moldova also uses a ten-point system with a pass threshold of 5. 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 Romanian diploma and its supplement (supliment la diploma). The English-language and French-language medical programmes of Romanian universities have been especially popular with Georgian students over the past decade, in the medical universities of Iasi, Cluj, Bucharest and Constanta, and for admission the school certificate, the transcript, a medical certificate and a language certificate are translated into English or Romanian, while CNRED (Centrul National de Recunoastere si Echivalare a Diplomelor) at the Romanian Ministry of Education issues the letter recognising the school certificate, without which the university does not enrol a foreigner; this letter is the longest stage of the whole admission process and calls for planning of deadlines. After the return, a Romanian medical diploma, its supplement and the description of the study programme with hours are submitted to Georgia's National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement with a prefecture apostille and our Georgian translation. The Romanian baccalaureate certificate (bacalaureat) records the subject marks in the ten-point system, and the Moldovan BAC certificate is analogous.

Residence: IGI in Romania, ASP in Moldova

In Romania the residence permit is issued by the General Inspectorate for Immigration (IGI, Inspectoratul General pentru Imigrari), and a work residence begins with the work permit obtained by the employer (aviz de angajare), which IGI issues within an annual quota; this quota has grown considerably in recent years, because Romanian construction, HoReCa and logistics look for labour outside the European Union. The package of Georgian documents includes a diploma or vocational certificate, a certificate of work experience, a criminal record certificate, a medical certificate and, in the case of a family, marriage and birth certificates, with an apostille and a Romanian translation, and IGI asks for legalisation of the translation, which a translation certified before a notary in Georgia and apostilled ordinarily satisfies. For a student residence the CNRED letter, proof of enrolment and a financial certificate are needed. In Moldova residence is handled by the Public Services Agency (ASP, Agentia Servicii Publice), with different categories and deadlines, and for a Georgian citizen a visa-free regime and simplified procedures apply with Moldova; we clarify this separately when taking the order.

Marriage and family: stare civila and an Orthodox wedding in two countries

In Romania a marriage is concluded at the civil status service (serviciul de stare civila) in the municipality, and the foreign partner must submit a birth certificate and a certificate from their country or embassy stating that there is no impediment to the marriage, with an apostille and a translation by an authorised translator; this is the case where the requirement of a translator authorised in Romania is strictest. A church wedding in Romania, as in Georgia, takes place after the civil registration and carries no legal force, but Georgian-Romanian Orthodox families often ask for the wedding documents of the churches of both countries, and church certificates, which do not count as official documents, appear regularly in our translations. The birth of a child in Romania means a double registration for a Georgian parent: the Romanian birth certificate (certificat de nastere) goes with a prefecture apostille and our Georgian translation to the consulate or the House of Justice. The Romanian certificate is also issued in the European multilingual form, but Georgian is not among the languages of that form, so a translation is still needed. In Moldova civil status acts are handled by the ASP offices, and a Moldovan certificate, often bilingual, comes with the apostille of the Ministry of Justice.

Romanian and Moldovan documents we translate most often

• Birth, marriage and death certificates, extracts from civil status acts, a certificate of family status
• The criminal record certificate (certificat de cazier judiciar), which Romania also issues online, and the Moldovan cazier
• Documents of the residence permit, the work permit and IGI decisions
• Diploma, supplement, baccalaureate certificate, description of the study programme, the CNRED letter, a medical licence
• ANAF tax certificates, social insurance (CNPP) certificates on length of service and pension
• Health insurance (CNAS) documents, medical prescriptions, discharge summaries
• Court decisions on maintenance, guardianship, divorce and inheritance cases, the notarial certificate of inheritance
• The trade register extract (ONRC), the constitutive act (act constitutiv), decisions of the association, the CUI certificate
• Seafarer's documents: seaman's book, certificates of competency, certificates of the Constanta maritime authority
• Extracts of Moldovan companies from the ASP register, the IDNO certificate, bilingual contracts

Business with Romania and Moldova: SRL, ONRC, Constanta and wine

The Romanian limited liability company (SRL, societate cu raspundere limitata) is the counterpart of the Georgian Sh.P.S., and the SA of the joint stock company; both are registered at the National Trade Register Office (ONRC), and the register extract (certificat constatator) is the corporate document most often translated for the Georgian public register and for banks. A Romanian company has two numbers, the register number (J40/.../...) and the tax code (CUI or CIF, with the RO prefix for a VAT payer), and both stay unchanged in the translation. A Moldovan SRL is registered in the ASP register of legal persons, with an IDNO number. The main directions of Georgian-Romanian business lie on the Black Sea: the port of Constanta, sea shipping, the employment of seafarers, the Black Sea submarine electricity cable project uniting Georgia, Romania, Azerbaijan and Hungary, and the documents of its engineers, contractors and regulators; agriculture and wine, where Romania is one of Europe's large producers and Moldova, like Georgia, is a wine country, and where Georgian wine's relationship with both is a mixture of competition and cooperation; and tourism, where the flow of Romanian and Moldovan tourists to Georgia is growing. The contracts, certificates, customs documents and technical specifications of this relationship are translated from and into Romanian, while in the case of Romania the terminology of European regulations must be carried over exactly.

Transliteration: Romanian names in Georgian

Romanian names are carried into Georgian by pronunciation: Ion becomes Ioni, Gheorghe becomes Georges, Stefan becomes Shtepani, Mihai becomes Mikhai, Ioana becomes Ioana, Popescu becomes Popesku, Ionescu becomes Ionesku, Iasi becomes Iashi, Cluj-Napoca becomes Kluzh-Napoka, Constanta becomes Konstanca, Timisoara becomes Timishoara, Chisinau becomes Kishiniovi. The letter s-comma sounds as sh, t-comma as ts, c before e and i as ch, gh as a hard g, while a-breve and a-circumflex are vowels that have no exact counterpart in Georgian, and a final i is often barely heard. Once chosen, a form stays unchanged in every document of that person or place, and if a name has a form established in Georgian (Bukaresti, Kishiniovi), we keep it. A name standing in a case form (Mariei, Elenei) is returned to the nominative and compared with the passport. In the opposite direction a Georgian name goes into Romanian in the Latin spelling of the passport, and we do not change that spelling; a Romanian authority compares the name with the passport, not with the pronunciation. In Moldovan documents, especially older ones, the name may also appear in a Russian form (Ion instead of Ivan, Georgii instead of Gheorghe), and in the translation of a bilingual document we keep both forms, with a note that this is one and the same person.

Typical mistakes in Romanian translation

When we check other people's translations, the same mistakes recur: confusing the names and forms of Romanian and Moldovan authorities; looking for the apostille on a diploma at the tribunal or on a power of attorney at the prefecture; a woman's name left in a case form (Mariei), which no longer matches the passport; the wrong variant of the letters s-comma and t-comma or the loss of a diacritic, which means a different word; confusing the CNP with the Georgian personal number; translating only one language of a bilingual Moldovan document; translating a Georgian document into Romanian through Russian, where the names of Georgian authorities pass over with Russian logic; omitting the CNRED letter from the study package, after which the university halts the enrolment; printing and translating an electronic cazier without an apostille; equating a Romanian 6 directly with the Georgian 100-point scale; translating SRL as "joint stock company"; and submitting a church wedding certificate as a civil one. Every one of these points is on our checklist, and the editor checks every Romanian translation against that list.

What sets our Romanian translation apart

• Knowledge of the systems of both Romania and Moldova in one translator's hands, in the terminology of the receiving country, including bilingual Moldovan documents
• We know which authority asks for a translator authorised in Romania and which is satisfied with a translation certified in Georgia or with English, and we tell you before the order
• Knowledge of the three apostille bodies in Romania and one order in Georgia: notarial certification by a translator registered in the Romanian-Georgian pair and the apostille at the House of Justice
• Document packages for medical students, seafarers and energy projects, following the requirements of CNRED, IGI and ONRC
• Correct handling of Romanian cases, diacritics and names, checked against the passport, without going through Russian
• A standard personal document in 1 working day, express in 1-2 hours, the process fully remote, from Bucharest and from Chisinau as well

Frequently asked questions