How to Get Married in Georgia (the Country) as a Foreigner in 2026: Documents, Costs, and Where to Celebrate

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Georgia (the country) lets two foreigners marry in a day, for free, with two witnesses. Here is exactly what to bring, what changed in 2026, what the apostille costs, and how to turn the paperwork into a weekend in the mountains.

Why couples come to Georgia to marry

Georgia, the country between the Black Sea and the Caucasus, has quietly become one of the easiest places in the world for two foreigners to get legally married. Citizens of more than 90 countries enter visa-free, neither of you needs to be a resident, the civil registration is free, and it can be done on the day you walk in. The certificate carries an apostille that Hague Convention countries recognise, so the marriage is valid at home.

This is a practical guide written by a venue in the Adjara mountains, Glamping Tago, so the last section is about celebrating with us. The legal part applies wherever in Georgia you plan to marry. Rules do change (2026 brought a new one, below), so treat this as a checklist and confirm the current list with the Public Service Hall before you fly.

Who can marry in Georgia

• Both partners must be 18 or older, legally competent and not currently married.
• Two foreigners can marry each other; a foreigner can marry a Georgian citizen. No residency, visa category or minimum stay is required beyond legal entry.
• Georgia recognises marriage between a man and a woman only. Same-sex marriages are not registered.
• Close relatives cannot marry (the usual prohibited degrees apply).

Where to register: the Public Service Hall

Civil marriages are registered by the Public Service Development Agency at its Public Service Halls (also called the House of Justice) and at the "wedding houses" in the larger cities. The three halls foreign couples use most:

Any hall registers any couple, so choose the one closest to where you will celebrate.

Documents to bring

• Passports, valid, for both of you. Names must appear in Latin letters.
• Notarised Georgian translations of both passports. Translation bureaus sit next to every hall and do this in about an hour; bring the originals.
• Proof of legal entry: the entry stamp in your passport or a residence permit.
• If either of you was married before: the divorce decree or the former spouse's death certificate, apostilled (or consular-legalised for non-Hague countries) and translated into Georgian.
• Two witnesses of any nationality with valid ID. They only need to be present at the signing; friends, family or, if you come alone, people a local planner arranges.
• A certificate of no impediment is not, as a rule, asked for by the Georgian side when two foreigners marry. Some countries want one for later recognition, so check what your own civil registry expects.
• New from 1 January 2026: health and accident insurance. Foreign couples registering a marriage must show a policy covering their whole stay, with a minimum cover of 30,000 GEL (about 10,000 USD). It can be issued by a Georgian or a foreign insurer, in English or Georgian, on paper or electronic, and must state the parties, the territory, the insured risks, the limits and the validity period. A normal travel insurance policy from home usually qualifies once you check the cover amount.

The procedure, step by step

1. Arrive, translate, insure. Have the passport translations notarised (same day) and your insurance certificate printed.
2. Go to the hall with your witnesses. You fill in a joint application on the spot. Staff check the passports, translations and, since 2026, the insurance.
3. Sign. Standard registration is free and takes two to three hours at the hall. You leave with the Georgian marriage certificate.
4. Optional ceremonial registration. For 150-250 GEL, booked in advance, the hall performs a short ceremony in a decorated room instead of the counter. Registrars can also come to a venue for an outdoor ceremony that is legally binding; the fee depends on the location and the agency that arranges it.
5. Apostille. For the certificate to count at home, the Ministry of Justice apostilles it. Fees by speed: 20 GEL on the 8th working day, 40 GEL on the 4th, 70 GEL on the 2nd, 100 GEL same day. Order it right after signing if you fly out soon.
6. At home. Take the apostilled certificate (plus a certified translation into your language if required) to your civil registry to record the marriage.

What it costs

• Registration: free.
• Passport translations with notary: roughly 30-60 GEL per document.
• Apostille: 20-100 GEL depending on speed.
• Ceremonial registration: 150-250 GEL.
• Insurance: whatever your travel policy costs; a 30,000 GEL cover is standard for European policies.

So the legal part of a Georgian wedding comes to well under 500 GEL (about 170 USD) if you do it yourselves. Agencies sell "registration packages" from around 450 USD, which buys you the translations, witnesses, queue-free booking and a car; worth it if you land and want to marry the next morning without a word of Georgian.

Timing

Two foreigners with clean paperwork can land on Monday morning and hold a valid Georgian marriage certificate by Monday afternoon. Realistic planning: one working day in the city for translations and registration, then travel to the venue. If you want the apostille before you fly home, add the working days for the speed you paid for, or ask a planner to collect it and post it.

Halls work Monday to Friday and Saturday mornings; check the hours of your branch, and avoid Georgian public holidays (Easter week in April or May, 26 May, 28 August).

Where to celebrate afterwards

The certificate takes an afternoon. The wedding is the part your guests remember, and Georgia gives you three very different backdrops within a few hours of the halls:

• Kazbegi and Gudauri, 2.5-3.5 hours north of Tbilisi: hotel weddings with Mount Kazbek in every photo. Best from June to September, weather turns fast above 2,000 m.
• Kakheti, 1.5-2 hours east of Tbilisi: wine estates and lake resorts, the largest capacities in the country.
• The Adjara mountains, 2 hours from Batumi: green valleys, alpine meadows and the only region where a tent wedding weekend with every guest sleeping on the property is possible.

At Glamping Tago, in Village Tago above Khulo, you register in Batumi in the morning and are on the ridge by the afternoon. The whole camp is yours for the weekend: twelve Lotus Belle tents and a nine-bed dome sleep up to 33 people on site, the family guesthouses in the village below take the rest, and we host weddings of up to 100 guests. Vows in the forest clearing or on the valley overlook, the feast under the open wedding tent, sauna and campfire in the evening, a local planner for the day itself. Season 1 April to the end of October; high-season dates book six to twelve months ahead. Our full comparison of the mountain regions, with beds, drive times and prices, is in Mountain wedding venues in Georgia, 2026.

Send your date and guest count to wedding.glampingtago.ge and Anastasia replies within a day with availability and a real estimate. If you want the registrar to come up the mountain, say so; we know who to call.