The Public Service Development Agency has been actively digitalizing civil status acts over the past few years.
During this process, several cases have been identified showing that Georgian citizens have had identity documents and other documents with a name that differs from the handwritten record of a civil status act. For instance, the name “Sherif” is mentioned in a record of a civil status act (birth record) and all documents since school age have been in the name “Shota” for the same individual. Such inconsistencies mainly occur in civil status act records registered in the 1950s or earlier.
Accordingly, individuals with a similar situation are adult or older and their desire is to retain the name they had during their school and university years, which is recorded in their marriage certificates, birth certificates for their children, diplomas and employment records. They have two legitimate options: they can either obtain all the documents under their legitimate name, as recorded in the civil status act record and which they have recently discovered, or they may need to change their name and legally acquire the name they have used throughout their life. This latter option, the most preferable for a citizen, entails significant financial costs.
Therefore, during the Minister of Justice’s next visit to the relevant authorities, as a result of an examination of the concerns of citizens, it was decided that citizens should be allowed to retain the name that has been part of their identity for several decades. Accordingly, by decree of the Minister, those Georgian citizens who were born prior to 1959 and who have been using a name other than their officially registered name for the past ten years will be once exempt from paying the fee for changing their name, as specified in their identity documents (55 GEL). They will also be exempt from the cost of obtaining an identity card, which is required at the time of making these changes (34 GEL). This amounts to a total benefit of 90 GEL for these citizens.
The effect of this Decree does not extend to individuals whose data inconsistencies are caused by a change in name upon the request of the individual.
The Decree issued by the Minister of Justice took effect on October 1 and will remain in force until October 1, 2025.
