Translation Bureau in Sighnaghi

A translation bureau for Sighnaghi - TARGMANEBI's service for a city where a foreign visitor can go from tourist to spouse in a single day. The Sighnaghi wedding house is known all over Georgia for registering couples without advance booking or a long wait. That simplicity comes with one condition: if one partner does not speak Georgian, an interpreter has to attend the registration, and the foreign partner's documents have to be submitted in Georgian, with notarization.

That is where the first and most frequent case in our Sighnaghi work begins. But Sighnaghi does not end with weddings: Bodbe Monastery, the town walls and the view over the Alazani valley bring a constant stream of tourists, and hotels, restaurants and wineries need materials in foreign languages. Local families need papers connected with relatives abroad. All of these cases go to one number: 501 113 200.

Marrying a foreign national in Sighnaghi - which documents are translated?

The wedding house asks the foreign partner for several documents, and every one of them needs a Georgian translation. The list varies slightly by country, but the core is the same:

The most common problem is the certificate of marital status: some countries do not issue it and use a notarial declaration or a consular certificate instead. Which document will be accepted is decided by the wedding house; so when you send photos of the documents, tell us the spouse's citizenship and we will tell you whether the package is sufficient.

An interpreter at the wedding house

At the registration the interpreter has two roles: conveying the procedure to the foreign partner in a language they understand, and signing the record to confirm that the partner understood what they were agreeing to. Our interpreter comes to Sighnaghi at the agreed time - evenings and weekends included, because the wedding house works non-stop - and, if you wish, stays for the celebration too: to interpret the toasts, the wedding traditions and conversation with the guests. English, Russian, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Turkish and other languages are available.

A marriage certificate abroad - translation and apostille

After the wedding, the most frequent order is preparing the Georgian marriage certificate for the foreign spouse's country: an apostille is placed on the certificate, then it is translated into the spouse's language and that translation is notarized too. Some countries accept a translation only from a sworn translator on their own territory - in that case people take just the apostilled original and have it translated there. We will tell you before you order which route is right for your country, so you do not pay for an unnecessary procedure. The apostille and certification are done in Tbilisi; the courier collects the original from Sighnaghi, or the couple brings it in themselves before flying out of Tbilisi.

Prenuptial agreement, surname and a child's citizenship

For a mixed couple, life after leaving the wedding house carries on with documents. A prenuptial agreement, if the couple wants one, is drawn up in a bilingual format - Georgian and the spouse's language in parallel columns - so that both sign one and the same text and no dispute arises later in either country's courts. When a surname changes, the new passport and ID documents are translated for the foreign spouse's country, and if the Georgian spouse has taken a foreign surname, its transliteration has to be the same in every later document - we check that separately.

When a child is born, both countries require their own registration: the Georgian birth certificate, with an apostille and translation, goes to the foreign parent's consulate for citizenship and a passport, while a certificate for a child born abroad goes, with a notarized Georgian translation, to the Public Service Hall in Georgia. The child's name has to be spelled the same way in both certificates, in both parents' passports and in the marriage certificate, so one translator handles the whole package and keeps a table of names.

Hotels, wineries and tourism texts

Inside Sighnaghi's walls there are dozens of family hotels, restaurants and wineries, and in Bodbe and Nukriani there are wine tours. For them we translate hotel descriptions for booking platforms, menus and wine lists, tour programmes, websites and social media copy, contracts with tour operators and house rules for guests. Such texts are prepared without certification, and the emphasis is on style: a menu in English should sound like a restaurant, not a word-for-word rendering. For wineries there is a separate line of export documents - contracts, invoices, certificates and label text.

For wineries, Sighnaghi and Bodbe create one more particular situation: many foreign couples hold their wedding in a winery or a wine hotel, and guests take wine home from Georgia. That gives rise to two types of document - an event contract with the couple, with the menu, wine, amount and cancellation terms written out in two languages, and a small export package when a guest takes a few cases of wine along or has them shipped. We prepare both from the winery's standard template.

Everyday orders from Sighnaghi families

Beyond its tourist profile, Sighnaghi is an ordinary Kakhetian municipality, with family members working abroad and young people leaving to study in Europe. From that come translations of certificates, statements, school certificates and diplomas, medical reports, powers of attorney and bank statements - with notarization and, where needed, an apostille. The process is remote: you send us a photo, we translate and certify, and you receive the original by courier in Sighnaghi.

Languages in orders from Sighnaghi

Because of weddings and tourism, the languages most often needed in Sighnaghi are English, Russian, German, Italian, French and Spanish - citizens of these countries marry here most often. Turkish, Ukrainian, Polish, Greek, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch and Czech are available as well.

Price and deadlines

Translation of the foreign spouse's passport and certificate with notarization is normally ready in one or two working days; in an urgent case - when the couple is marrying tomorrow - it can be done the same day if you send the documents in the morning. The interpreter's fee depends on the length of the assignment and the journey to Sighnaghi, and is agreed in advance. The timeline for the marriage certificate apostille and translation depends on the country that will receive the document. In every case the price is by agreement, and we name the final amount as soon as we have seen the documents. The service is provided by sole trader Mariam Zumadze (ID 30601010853), with an office in Tbilisi at 118 Davit Aghmashenebeli Ave.

Frequently asked questions - translation and weddings in Sighnaghi

Translation bureau in the other cities of Kakheti

The Sighnaghi wedding house serves the whole of Kakheti, and so does our service - every municipality in the region. Choose your city and see which documents are most in demand there.