What this costs in Georgia
Tbilisi price lists start around 25 to 30 GEL a page for a standard document in English, German or Russian. Certified legal translation of the same page runs roughly 40 to 70 GEL. Rarer pairs such as Japanese, Persian or Finnish sit above 70 GEL. Rush work is a stated percentage at the better offices, commonly 25% for 24 hours and 50% for same day.
The apostille itself is a state tariff, not an agency margin. The Public Service Development Agency charges 30 GEL for an eight-working-day apostille, 60 GEL at four days, 120 GEL at two days and 150 GEL same day, with a 55 GEL remote and electronic track at three days. Consular legalisation for non-Hague destinations runs on a similar scale. Notary certification is a small per-document fee on top.
A realistic all-in budget for one diploma translated, notarised and apostilled is 100 to 200 GEL. A company file with several powers of attorney and courier costs to Europe lands closer to 400 to 900 GEL.
How to choose
Work backwards from the authority that asked for the document. A Georgian bank, the Public Service Hall, a foreign university and a foreign consulate all want slightly different things, and the difference is almost always in the certification rather than the translation.
Three things worth settling before you pay
- Which stamp you actually need. Agency certification, notary certification and apostille are three separate steps with three separate prices.
- Who books the notary. Some offices hand you a translation and leave you to find a notary yourself, which costs a morning.
- Whether the state fee is quoted separately. An apostille sold as one number hides whether you are paying 30 GEL or 150 GEL of government tariff.
Red flags
- One all-in price with no breakdown between translation, notary and state fee.
- Any promise that a foreign authority will accept the result. No Georgian agency controls that decision.
- Vagueness about the billing unit. Ask what counts as a page and whether a half-empty page is billed as a full one.
- No written turnaround. Same day is real for one short certificate and fiction for a forty-page contract.
- Reluctance to say where your originals are being held while the apostille runs.
When you do not need to pay for this
Plenty of Georgian institutions accept documents in English without any translation, particularly banks used to foreign clients and private clinics. Ask before you order anything.
You also do not need an agency for the apostille. Any Public Service Hall will take a Georgian-issued document over the counter and apostille it at the published tariff, and the state itself offers translation into a foreign language at 30 GEL a page. If you are in Tbilisi, have time, and can bring a Georgian speaker, doing it yourself removes the agency fee entirely.
Pay for a provider when the document has to leave Georgia, when a power of attorney is involved, when several documents must arrive apostilled on the same day, or when you are already abroad and cannot queue in person. That is where the fee buys something you cannot easily replicate.
For what happens after the paperwork clears, see our lists of immigration lawyers in Tbilisi and company registration agents.
