A translation bureau in Khoni - TARGMANEBI's service for a municipality where emigration's second wave has already arrived: not of leaving but of returning. Someone from Khoni who worked fifteen years in Greece or Italy comes home with service there, pension contributions, often a foreign spouse and children born abroad - and discovers that all of it has to be proved in Georgia with separate documents. Those documents are in a foreign language and are accepted with a notarized Georgian translation.
Alongside the returning paperwork, ordinary flows come from Khoni too: powers of attorney and consents from those still abroad; school certificates for applicants to Kutaisi's university; foreign-language texts for guest houses on the Okatse road. The scheme is the same for everyone - a photo from Khoni, translation and certification in Tbilisi, paper by courier to Khoni or Kutaisi.
Foreign service and pensions - what we translate for returnees
Years worked abroad are not automatically visible to the Georgian pension system, while a foreign pension fund carries on corresponding with someone back in Georgia in its own language. Each direction has its own group of documents:
Foreign service - into Georgian
- Employment contracts and employers' certificates year by year
- Pension insurance extract (EFKA, INPS, Deutsche Rentenversicherung)
- Tax declarations and payslips
- Work permits and residence cards to confirm the periods
- Certificate from the foreign pension fund on accumulated contributions
A foreign pension - from Georgia
- Annual proof of life certificate, with an apostille
- Certificate of residence and family status
- Georgian bank details and an account certificate
- Replies to the fund's questionnaires in its language
- Power of attorney for a representative before the fund
The fund's letters - for information
- Decision granting or refusing a pension
- Contribution history and calculation
- Requests for additional documents
- Notices of deadlines and changes
- Drafts of appeal letters from Georgian
Most of a fund's letters need no certification - the person simply has to understand what is being asked and by when. We translate such letters for information, quickly and cheaply, and prepare the reply in the fund's language where needed. What has to be submitted to an authority - service certificates, a proof of life certificate - is notarized and apostilled. For regular clients in Khoni we prepare the annual certificate in the same transliteration, in one day.
A foreign spouse and children born abroad
The second part of returning is the family. A foreign spouse needs residence in Georgia, and for that their passport, a criminal record certificate from their country of citizenship, the marriage certificate and proof of income are translated into Georgian with notarization. The birth certificate of a child born abroad goes to the Public Service Hall with an apostille and a Georgian translation for citizenship and a passport; school records and report cards go to the Khoni school and the resource centre to determine the class; the vaccination card goes to the clinic. Throughout that package the child's name, written in Latin or Greek letters in the foreign documents, has to return to one and the same Georgian form - we agree that at the order and keep it in every document afterwards.
A foreign qualification in Georgia
Anyone who acquired a trade abroad - an Italian carer's certificate, a Greek cookery diploma, a German trade certificate - wants it recognised on returning to Georgia, or simply wants to show it to an employer. The foreign diploma and certificate are translated into Georgian with notarization, while the recognition procedure is carried out by the educational quality centre; our part is a translation in which the trade and the qualification level are carried across in the terms of the Georgian system.
Okatse, Kinchkha and the tourism business
The Okatse canyon and the Kinchkha waterfall in the Khoni municipality are Imereti's most visited natural sites, and guest houses and cafes are multiplying in the villages of Gordi and Zeda Gordi. For them we translate hotel descriptions for booking platforms, visitor rules for the canyon, route texts, menus and contracts with Kutaisi tour operators - into English, Russian, Polish and other languages, without certification. Some of those businesses are started by returning emigrants - and their foreign experience often shows in the platform text.
Languages in orders from Khoni
The geography of returning repeats the geography of leaving: Greek and Italian come first in pension and family documents, German and Polish for service records and qualifications, English for tourism and universal documents. Spanish, French and Dutch appear in foreign spouses' papers, Russian and Ukrainian in tourism and older documents; Turkish, Czech, Arabic and Chinese are rare from Khoni.
The process for a returning family
Everything you have, at once
Send photos of the foreign documents together, even if you do not need them all yet - by WhatsApp or by email to info@targmanebi.ge. That way we fix the transliteration identically from the start.
What is for submission and what is for understanding
We sort out which document goes to an authority notarized and which is simply for you to understand, for information. That often halves the cost of the package.
Translation and comparison
A Greek, Italian or German direction translator does the work, and the editor compares the names against the Georgian passport and against each other. On an apostilled document, the apostille page is translated too.
Paper in Khoni
You receive the file at once; the certified package comes by courier to Khoni or Kutaisi. Submitting it to the authority is your job, but we will tell you what goes where.
Price and turnaround
A client in Khoni pays no more than one in Tbilisi. In a returning family's package the price is set by how many documents are for submission (notarized, often apostilled) and how many are only for understanding (for information, cheaply); it is exactly that distinction that saves the most. A certificate with notarization is in your hands in two to three days, a multi-page service extract goes by volume, a fund's letter for information takes one day. A returning family's case is followed by TARGMANEBI's owner - Mariam Zumadze, sole trader (ID 30601010853) and a lawyer, for whom pension and residence terminology is a profession rather than a dictionary; an error by her team is corrected free of charge.
One last piece of advice for returnees: while you are still abroad, obtain every certificate that will be hard to get later - the employer's service certificate, the pension fund extract, the child's complete school record, the vaccination card - and have the apostille affixed there and then. Requesting those documents from Georgia takes months; translating them, once you hold them, takes days.
Back in Khoni from abroad with foreign service, a pension, a spouse's residence or a child's school to sort out? Send us photos of the documents - we will tell you what needs a notarized translation and what only needs to be understood, and prepare it without a trip to Kutaisi.
Call: 501 113 200Frequently asked questions - returning to Khoni
I worked twelve years in Greece. Will that service count towards a Georgian pension?
That is for the pension agency to decide and the answer depends on international agreements; our part is to prepare the EFKA extract, the contracts and the certificates in Georgian, with notarization and the periods carried across exactly. After the agency replies we translate any further document required in the same terminology.
The Italian INPS writes to me every year asking me to send a certificate. Which certificate, and how?
Normally a proof of life certificate, obtained from a Georgian authority or a notary, apostilled and translated into Italian. We translate the INPS letter for information so that you know exactly what they want and by when, and prepare the certificate in one to two days.
My spouse is Greek and we live in Khoni. What gets translated for residence?
The passport, a criminal record certificate from Greece with an apostille, the marriage certificate (apostilled if it is Greek) and a document of income or support - into Georgian, with notarization. The name is written identically in every document; we prepare the package in one go.
My child was born in Italy and now has to enrol at a Khoni school. What does the school need?
The birth certificate with an apostille and a Georgian translation (first for the Public Service Hall, for citizenship and a passport), the Italian school's certificate and report cards to determine the class, and the vaccination card for the clinic. We agree the Georgian spelling of the child's name from the start and keep it in every document.
The German Rentenversicherung extract is 20 pages. Do I have to translate all of it?
For submission to an authority, normally yes, notarized; for your own understanding, no - an information translation of the contributions table and the summary is enough. Tell us the purpose first and we will choose; that often halves the cost.
I have opened a guest house near Okatse after fifteen years working in Italy. I want the text in Italian too.
English, Russian and Italian from one source, in one order - for Italian guests that is often decisive. Prices, conditions and place names are written identically in all three, and no certification is needed.
Translation bureau in the other cities of Imereti
A returning emigrant's package is prepared the same way from anywhere in Imereti; in Khoni that flow is simply the most visible. The other towns' pages carry the local accents and the delivery options.