Getting Married in Georgia - Legal Requirements
There are many great reasons to get married in our beautiful country but probably the main plus is a simple and easy process of marriage registration with the minimum legal requirements. What you basically need is just valid passports (in certain cases translated to Georgian and notarized), 2 persons as witnesses and, in case of a remote service, a Power of Attorney issued and notarized in your country. If you were married previously you need to have a divorce document and in case you, the couple, have a mutual child, you must provide that certificate too.
The main requirements
To register your marriage in Georgia you need to hold valid passports of you (bride and groom) and have at least two persons with their passports/ID to witness your marriage. A marriage is registered in Public Service Hall (PSH) of Tbilisi or other cities of Georgia and the marriage license is available on the same day, upon the approval of your marriage.
Passport/ID documents in Latin letters are accepted by PSH in most cases, but it’s always better to have them translated to Georgian and notarized in advance to avoid any confusion with some language-specific letters. Translation/notarization services are widely available here and it takes about 2-3 days to have them ready for the further submission to PSH.
Submit your documents remotely
You may want to present the necessary documents to PSH in advance, before the actual day of your wedding either yourself, or remotely, with the help of your wedding planners. Please note that the papers must be presented maximum two months prior to the wedding day.
In this case a marriage certificate will be ready on the day of your wedding, and you may take the certificate from PSH yourself, or in case of a ceremony, a PSH officiant will hand this license to you during the ritual.
Document requirements: you must write a POA on behalf of your wedding planner in English and have it notarized before posting it to Georgia. Copies of your and your witnesses’ passports must be also notarized and apostilled (apostille is required for the list of countries) and included in the documents. After your wedding planner receives the papers, he/she will add their ID document as well and will present all papers to PSH on the appointed day.
The preferable date of the wedding will be registered and the marriage license will be ready on that date.
Submit the documents in person
Whether you plan travel to Georgia before your wedding day (during preceding 2 months) or want to have an official ceremony in PSH (the service provided by the organ), on a desired date of wedding, you can book an appointment in PSH online and bring all the necessary documents to the Hall on the day of the appointment. You, the couple, must be accompanied by at least 2 witnesses and have all the documents listed in previous part of the blog (translated and notarized copies of passports). Your documents will be accepted by an operator and will be approved shortly so you’ll be able to get the marriage certificate shortly, within the next few hours or sooner (in case all is right with the documents).
You may want to have an official ceremony in the special wedding hall organized in PSH, so an officiant will read the speech in Georgian and handle you the marriage certificate during the ceremony.
Marriage Certificate and its Further Translation/Validation
Please note that the Certificate is issued in the Georgian language and names of husband and wife are written in Georgian. As you may want to have the certificate translated and validated according to your country’s legal requirements, you can leave the document in PSH and have it translated (and apostilled) in English, Russian or other language of your preference.
Translated document is available on the same day (for 200 GEL), on the next day or within the next one week, for corresponding amount of money.
Please note that the above-described procedures are standard and there might be some exceptions for certain countries. Please contact us through e-mail or social media to discuss your individual case and get prepared for you Big Day accordingly.