The Public Service Development Agency of the Ministry of Justice in Georgia has launched a new, innovative service – Electronic Apostille. The goal of this project is to enhance the accessibility of services for citizens through the use of modern technologies. To ensure that documents issued in Georgia are recognized as valid abroad, they must be certified with an apostille. Therefore, apostille certification is one of the most in-demand services. Even today, apostille services are conducted in a single step, involving the certification of documents with apostilles by a single entity – the Public Service Development Agency. The Public Service Development Agency verifies the authenticity of signatures, the authority of signatories and the validity of seals on over 100 different types of documents issued by governmental agencies, medical institutions and educational establishments.
A document certified in accordance with this procedure can be used in the territory of any one of the 119 member-states of the Hague Convention of 5 October Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents. Currently, electronic apostilles have been implemented in 18 states (Spain, Belgium, Austria, Estonia, the United States of America, Argentina, Bahrain, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Latvia, New Zealand, Moldova, Slovenia, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Bulgaria, and Brazil), with Georgia joining their ranks. The remaining 100 states that are members of the Hague Convention are gradually implementing the electronic apostille system. With the introduction of electronic apostille services in Georgia, it will become easier to submit documents certified with an apostille from Georgia in the aforementioned 18 countries. Before the introduction of electronic apostilles for submitting documents abroad, applicants were required to make hard copies of electronic documents and present them to the Agency for apostille certification. However, thanks to this change, applicants now have the opportunity to use modern and innovative technologies to save time, efforts and certify documents with electronic apostilles from anywhere in the world from the comfort of their homes. Additionally, the use of electronic apostilles on documents enhances the reliability and security of those documents.
The citizen will receive the completed document via the official websites (www.my.gov.ge and http://apostille.cra.ge/) or by e-mail. It is worth noting that the issuance of documents in hard copy form will continue and, upon request, a form to issue/receive a document certified with a hard copy of apostille will still be available. The electronic Apostille program was implemented with the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the British Government. In order to enhance and simplify the availability of services for applicants, LEPL Public Service Development Agency of the Ministry of Justice has made virtually all services available remotely through modern technologies. New, highly-demanded remote services have been introduced alongside existing ones and their geographical coverage has been extended – those remote services which until now could only have been accessed by individuals abroad are now accessible to anyone in Georgia.
