How to Get a Criminal Record Certificate in Georgia and Prepare It for Use Abroad (Apostille and Translation)

In this article we briefly go through each stage and show where people lose the most time. The facts have been checked against the official pages of the Service Agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA Service Agency) and the data of the Hague Conference as of October 2026. Government timelines are the agency's timelines and may change, so check them again before you apply.

The article is about a certificate issued in Georgia. If it is the other way round and you have a certificate from a foreign country that has to be submitted to a Georgian authority, see foreign police certificate translation.

Which certificate you need

The MIA Service Agency issues several types of certificate, and the receiving authority often asks for a specific one:

• The certificate of criminal record shows information on a person's criminal record and whether they are wanted. This is the one most often requested for visas and employment;
• The certificate of an expunged and/or lifted criminal record;
• The certificate of a person's convictions shows in which years and under which article the person was convicted, regardless of whether the criminal record has been expunged;
• The certificate of a criminal record for sexual offences.

If the embassy's or employer's instructions say "full record", "complete criminal history" or "including spent convictions", an ordinary certificate may not be enough. Find this out before you apply, because neither an apostille nor a translation can fix a certificate of the wrong type.

Step 1. Requesting the certificate

The certificate is issued by the MIA Service Agency. You can apply:

• at any of the agency's service centres or at a Public Service Hall;
• online, on the agency's website or in the SERVICE AGENCY app, after registering.

You need an identity document and a receipt for payment of the fee. According to the agency, the certificate is ready in 3 working days as standard, or in 1 working day with the expedited service. A link to the finished certificate arrives by text message, in electronic form.

If you are abroad, another person can obtain the certificate on your behalf, with your written consent or a power of attorney. A power of attorney executed abroad must itself be certified in a way that will be accepted in Georgia: at a Georgian consulate, or with a local notary plus an apostille and a Georgian translation.

Step 2. Apostille or legalization

The rule is set by the destination country:

• Apostille - for countries party to the Hague Apostille Convention of 1961. As of June 2026, the Convention has 130 parties, including every EU country, the USA and the United Kingdom;
• Consular legalization - for countries that are not party to the Convention, for example the United Arab Emirates. After certification on the Georgian side, the certificate is also certified by the destination country's consulate;
• Neither - for countries of the 1993 Minsk Convention, for example Armenia and Kazakhstan.

If you are not sure of a country's status, check the Hague Conference list of contracting parties or the receiving authority's instructions. Some authorities ask for an apostille even when a treaty exempts the document from it. The final word always belongs to the recipient.

Step 3. The apostille

The apostille is placed by the same agency that issued the certificate, and not by the Public Service Hall, as people often think. According to the agency, the standard term is 5 working days, or 1 working day with the expedited service. The expedited service does not apply to legalization, so allow more time if you are going to an Arab country. An apostille can also be requested on a certificate issued electronically.

Step 4. Translation and notarization

The translation is done after the apostille and covers both the certificate and the apostille text. The notary certifies the translator's signature. The language is set by the destination country and authority. With an electronic certificate, send the translator the PDF file and not a screenshot, so that the QR code and the verification data stay legible.

Give the translator a copy of your passport too. Your name and surname must be written in Latin letters in the translation exactly as in your passport. Even a one-letter difference is enough for an embassy to question whether the documents belong together.

At TARGMANEBI, a criminal record certificate translation, including the apostille text, is ready the same or the next day. Details: criminal record certificate translation.

Which language to translate the certificate into

The language is set by the receiving country and authority, not by the translator. For the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland, the certificate is translated into English. For Germany and Austria, as a rule into German; for Italy into Italian, for Poland into Polish, for the Czech Republic into Czech. International organizations and some employers accept an English translation regardless of the country.

If the instructions do not state a language, ask the recipient before you order the translation. An English translation that a German-speaking authority does not accept means a new translation and a new notarization.

What the receiving authority checks

An embassy or immigration service compares the certificate with the rest of your documents. So before you submit it, check for yourself that:

• your name, surname and date of birth are the same in the certificate, the translation and your passport;
• your personal number in the translation matches the original digit for digit;
• the apostille number and date also appear in the translation;
• the certificate's date of issue falls within the period the recipient allows.

The electronic certificate: what you need to know

Most certificates are now issued electronically, including when you applied at a service centre. The certificate has a QR code that lets anyone check that it is genuine on the agency's e-certificate verification page.

So keep the file exactly as you downloaded it from the link in the text message: do not crop it, do not convert it into an image and do not compress it. When printing, use a good-quality printer so that the QR code is easy to scan with a phone. If the code on the printout is blurred, the translator and the notary may be unable to verify that the certificate is genuine and may ask you to print it again.

If the certificate contains an entry

A certificate is not always "clean", and that does not change the rules of translation. The translator translates every entry in the certificate in full and unchanged: the article number, the date of the judgment, the type of sentence. Omitting or softening any part makes the translation unusable, and in the eyes of an embassy it amounts to submitting false information, which may become grounds for a visa refusal.

If a criminal record has been expunged or lifted, check whether your certificate reflects this and, if needed, obtain the corresponding certificate as well. To find out how a particular country will assess an entry, consult an immigration lawyer. We handle such documents in strict confidence.

Timeline

• Issuing the certificate - 3 working days as standard, 1 working day expedited (the agency's term);
• Apostille - 5 working days as standard, 1 working day expedited (the agency's term);
• Translation and notarization - at TARGMANEBI, the same or the next day.

In standard mode the package is ready in about two weeks, and with the expedited service in a few days. According to the agency, the certificate is valid for 15 calendar days from the date it is produced, while foreign authorities set their own periods, often from 3 to 6 months.

So count backwards from your appointment date. If you get the certificate too early, it may have expired by the day you submit it and you may have to repeat all three stages. If you get it too late, you may not manage to get the apostille before the appointment.

The five most common mistakes

1. Translating before the apostille. The apostille page does not make it into the translation, and the package has to be certified again;
2. The wrong type of certificate. For example, an ordinary certificate where the full history is required;
3. A certificate obtained too early. The translation does not extend the certificate's validity;
4. A screenshot instead of the PDF. The QR code and the verification data cannot be read;
5. A spelling of the name that does not match the passport.

The difference between an apostille and legalization is described in detail in the article apostille or legalization, and the list of work visa documents in the article work visas for the USA and the Schengen area.

Frequently asked questions

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