Translation Bureau in Poti

A translation bureau for Poti - TARGMANEBI's service for a city where a document one day late means demurrage. Cargo moves through the port of Poti on a chain of documents, from the bill of lading to the customs declaration and the consignee's waybill, and that chain runs in three or four languages: the shipowner's, the charterer's, customs' and the receiver's. When something in the chain stalls - cargo damaged, a vessel arrested, a crew due for change - the documents are needed in hours, and their terminology belongs to international maritime law rather than ordinary commerce.

Beside the port, Poti has three more faces. A Free Industrial Zone holds foreign companies whose registration, licences and staff papers exist in two languages. It is a seafarers' city, where crewing companies and the maritime college work with English-language documents every day. And there are the seafarers' families, whose calendar is measured in voyages. Kutaisi is an hour and a half away, Tbilisi four and a half, but a port document rarely needs paper at all - the courier comes to Poti weekly while the file comes back in hours.

Cargo at the port - from bill of lading to claim

The everyday documents of a port forwarder and agent fall into three groups, each demanding a different speed and a different terminology:

In maritime translation the terminology is the language of international conventions and standard forms - Incoterms, the standard clauses of a charter, the wording of demurrage and despatch - and many terms stay in their English form even in a Georgian text, because that is how customs and the courts know them. This work goes to a translator with a maritime profile, while cargo quantities, container numbers and sums are checked separately with the editor: at a port one wrong digit means a container held.

Crew and seafarers - changes, contracts, qualifications

Poti is a maritime city in both directions: crews of foreign vessels change here, and Georgian seafarers leave from here for the world fleet. At a crew change a foreign seafarer's documents are translated into Georgian for the border and port authorities - the seaman's book, the contract, the medical certificate, repatriation papers - while in the event of illness or an incident the Poti clinic's report and invoice go into English for the shipowner and the P&I club. For a Georgian seafarer, the maritime academy or college diploma, certificates of competency, medical certificate and service record book are translated into English for the crewing company, and the foreign contract and salary certificate into Georgian for the bank. Maritime ranks, certificate codes and vessel types are checked against the international standard.

The Free Industrial Zone - a foreign company in Poti

Most companies registered in Poti's Free Industrial Zone are foreign-owned, and their document flow runs both ways: the founder's foreign company extract, articles and power of attorney into Georgian for registration; the zone licence, Georgian articles, banking and tax documents into the founder's language; residence papers for foreign managers and specialists into Georgian; employment contracts bilingually; zone regulations and customs rules in a language the investor actually reads; and contracts with Georgian suppliers and hauliers. A company like that keeps one terminology base and one manager for years, and every new document is prepared with the same names and designations, from the registration to the annual report.

Poti families

A seafarer's family has a document calendar of its own: the father is six months at sea and a power of attorney stays with the mother; a child applies to the maritime academy in Batumi; a grandmother retires on a Soviet-era port service record; and when the father comes back from a voyage, the foreign contract and payslip are needed in Georgian for the bank. In Poti those papers are handled in the same bureau as the bills of lading - by a different translator, but with one transliteration, so that the surname is spelled identically in the seaman's book and in the child's school certificate.

Languages in orders from Poti

Because of the port, English is an everyday working language in Poti - the international language of maritime documents - followed by Turkish and Russian, the languages of the ferries, the Black Sea lines and the traditional markets. Ukrainian and Polish follow grain and container flows, Chinese the Free Zone companies and the container lines, Arabic the Gulf investors and shipowners. German, Dutch and French appear with the European lines, and on family documents Italian, Greek and Spanish; Czech is rare from Poti.

An interpreter at the port

A vessel survey, a customs inspection, a master's sea protest before a notary, a court hearing on a ship arrest, a medical examination of a crew member, a Free Zone company negotiating with a supplier - those are the occasions when an interpreter is needed in Poti, often within a few hours. An interpreter who knows maritime terminology goes to the port, the notary or the court by prior arrangement; for a multi-day arbitration or court case one and the same interpreter is assigned, already familiar with the file.

A process on the port's rhythm

Price and turnaround

An order from Poti and an order from Tbilisi are on the same price list. A maritime page costs more than an ordinary certificate, because the terminology and the checking of figures take longer; in exchange a port document almost never needs a notary or an apostille, so that cost does not arise here. The "within hours" regime has a surcharge of its own, applied only at your request and visible in the invoice in advance. As a guide: a bill of lading and an invoice - hours; an SOF and a survey - a day; a charter party and an arbitration file - by page count; a seafarer's package with notarization - one to two days; a Free Zone company registration - a week. Cooperation with a forwarder, an agent or a zone company is set out in a contract: ready-made forms, a shared glossary and one invoice a month, signed on our side by the bureau's owner, sole trader Mariam Zumadze (ID 30601010853). The details of a ship arrest case go nowhere from us, and an error of ours is corrected the same day at no charge - at a port there is no other way.

Frequently asked questions - translation in Poti

Translation bureau in the other cities of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti

Poti is the port, Zugdidi the regional centre, Senaki the railway and the base, Khobi the port's back yard; the rest of Samegrelo and Mestia have accents of their own. Choose your city.