The Public Service Development Agency, the office that actually registers marriages in Georgia, publishes something in its own requirements that surprises most American couples. Registration at one of its territorial offices or at a Public Service Hall branch, without special ceremony services, is free of charge. No license counter, no county clerk, no statutory notice period to sit out.
What the agency does ask for is narrower than you would expect, and stricter in one place than couples plan for. Both of you present in person. Two adult witnesses in the room. Proof that you are in the country lawfully. And if either of you was married before, a document proving that marriage ended, in a form Georgia will accept, which is the one part of this that takes months rather than minutes.
We photograph and film elopements across the Caucasus, from the Gergeti ridge above Stepantsminda to the stone towers of Ushguli, and this question arrives in almost every first message. Below is the chain as the agency sets it out, the order to work through it, and the small things that decide whether the paperwork takes one afternoon or a second trip.
Two passports, two witnesses, one office
Two foreign citizens can marry in Georgia. You both attend in person at a Public Service Hall, a territorial office or a Wedding House, both aged 18 or over, with two adult witnesses and proof of lawful stay. Basic registration without ceremony services is free of charge. A prior marriage must be proven ended, apostilled and translated into Georgian.
Georgia is simple except for one document bottleneck
For two Americans who have never been married, this is about as straightforward as legal marriage abroad gets. You need valid passports, each other, two adults willing to stand alongside you, and a morning. There is no residency requirement and no citizenship requirement, and the agency’s published conditions concern who you are and what you can prove rather than how long you have been in the country. Americans have a wide runway here too: the US Department of State advises that US citizens may enter, reside, work or study in Georgia without a visa for up to 365 days.
If either of you has been married before, the difficulty rating moves from straightforward to fiddly. Not difficult, but slow, because the document has to travel: a certified copy from the US county or state that holds the record, an apostille from that state’s authentication office, then a Georgian translation certified in front of a notary here. None of those steps is hard on its own. Together they are the reason we ask about prior marriages in the first week of planning rather than the last.
One structural point to know early. The agency defines marriage as a voluntary union of a man and a woman, so same-sex couples complete the legal step at home and hold the ceremony itself in Georgia. That route is covered further down, and it is a good one, not a compromise.
We are photographers and filmmakers, so the legal decision is not ours to make. Rules change and circumstances differ, so confirm the detail with the Public Service Development Agency or your own consulate before you book flights.
The Georgian marriage file, in the order it works
Work down this list rather than across it. Each item depends on the one above it, and the third item is the only one with a long lead time.
- Valid passports for both of you. The agency is entitled to accept a foreign passport without a Georgian translation where the passport carries a Latin transliteration of your personal details. Entitled, not obliged, which matters and is covered below.
- Proof that you are in Georgia on legal grounds. Foreign citizens are asked for this at the counter. Carry the passport you actually entered on and keep the entry record in it intact.
- If either of you was married before: proof that the earlier marriage ended. Order the certified copy from the issuing US authority first. Then apostille it in the state that issued it. Then have it translated into Georgian and notarized. Three offices in three countries in sequence, so start here.
- A joint written application, filed at the office. Filing can be done by a representative holding proof of authority, but the registration itself cannot: marriage through a representative is not permitted.
- Two legally capable witnesses of full age, present at registration. They bring their own identity documents.
- Proof of payment of the service fee, if one applies. Plain registration at an office is free. A fee is payable when the registration comes with ceremonial surroundings or takes place outside the building, and it is paid in lari when you submit your documents.
- After the wedding: the certificate, translated and apostilled. You will be handed a Georgian-language certificate. A Public Service Hall handles the translation and the apostille, and Georgia issues an electronic apostille for civil records including marriage certificates as well as the paper version.
Turn the Georgian ceremony date into a six-week-to-morning calendar
The real minimum, for two people with clean paperwork and passports in hand, is a single trip measured in days rather than months. The comfortable minimum, and the one we work to, is roughly four months from first message to registration day, and six if a divorce document has to cross an ocean. The extra weeks are not spent on the marriage. They are spent on the light, the road, and the season.
| Time before the date | What is happening |
|---|---|
| Six months | Only if one of you was married before. Certified copy ordered from the US authority that holds it, then sent for apostille to that state’s authentication office. |
| Four months | Region and registration office chosen. Kakheti and Sighnaghi read very differently from Kazbegi in the same week of the year, and the drive from Tbilisi to Stepantsminda alone is around three hours on the Georgian Military Highway. |
| Six weeks | Georgian notarized translations arranged. Witnesses confirmed by name. Office opening days checked against the Georgian public holiday calendar. |
| The week you land | Joint application filed in person, both of you present, service fee paid at submission if one applies. Registration date and place confirmed by the office. |
| Registration day | Both of you, two witnesses with identity documents, certificate issued in Georgian. |
| Before you fly home | Certificate translated and apostilled at a Public Service Hall. |
Fees and processing times quoted here were correct at the time of writing and are worth re-checking with the office that issues them.
Small things the Public Service Hall will not bend on
This is the section we wish someone had written for us the first time. None of it is dramatic. All of it is the difference between one visit and two.
The passport translation is a permission, not a promise
The agency is entitled to accept your passport without a Georgian translation when the personal data appears in Latin transliteration. Read that as an allowance the office may use, rather than a rule it must follow. Couples who arrange the notarized translation anyway have never regretted the hour it cost.
Both of you have to be in the room
A representative can lodge the application with proof of authority. A representative cannot be married on your behalf. If one of you is arriving on a later flight, the registration date is built around the second arrival, not the first.
The witnesses are a planning item, not a detail
Two legally capable adults must attend and be able to identify themselves. Couples eloping to Georgia alone often reach this line late and start improvising. Decide early who they are, and if the answer is nobody yet, say so in your first message to us so it gets solved on paper months ahead.
The Georgian calendar is not the American one
Registration offices close on Georgian public holidays, and several of them are not on an American planner’s radar: Orthodox Christmas on 7 January, Independence Day on 26 May, Svetitskhovloba on 14 October, Giorgoba on 23 November. We check the office days before we lock a ceremony hour, because a closed counter moves everything else.
Your names are about to be written in Georgian
The certificate is issued in Georgian, and your names are transliterated into it. Look at that spelling at the counter, while someone who can fix it is standing in front of you, rather than at home three weeks later. The same goes for the translation you order afterwards. Ask whichever authority will receive the document back home whether it wants the paper apostille or accepts the electronic one.
Pay when you submit, and keep the receipt
Where a service fee applies, because you have chosen ceremonial surroundings or a registration outside the building, proof of payment forms part of the file. It is paid in lari at submission and travels with the application.
If you want us to shape a Georgian day around the office hours, the light and the drive rather than fitting the day around whatever slot appears, Send Us a Message with the month you are considering.
When the marriage is signed at home and the ceremony happens in the mountains
A ceremony held on a ridge, in a Kakhetian vineyard or on the black sand near Batumi carries no legal weight by itself. Registration is what creates the marriage. Once you separate those two things in your head, a lot of planning pressure disappears, and one of the best days we film in Georgia becomes available to you.
The route is simple. You complete the legal marriage at home, at whatever counter is nearest and least interesting, on a Tuesday, in ten minutes. Then you fly to Tbilisi and give the ceremony itself the whole day: your own words, your own hour, no registrar’s diary, no translated documents, no office. This is the standard route for same-sex couples, and it is also the route many opposite-sex couples pick once they realize the paperwork can be lifted out of the trip entirely.
Practically, what changes is small. You still choose a place, a time and a shape for the day. What disappears is the office visit, the witnesses requirement, and the need to build a timeline around a building. What does not change at all is how the day looks on film. You can see how these days are put together in our published elopement stories and films, and the ceremony-only days sit right alongside the legal ones because on the ridge there is no difference between them.
If you want the marriage to be Georgian on paper as well, that is entirely possible and we plan those too. Registration offices operate well beyond Tbilisi, with Mtskheta, Sighnaghi, Kutaisi and Batumi among the towns that hold them, and the fee schedule itself provides for registration outside the building. Whether a registrar will travel to a specific spot is arranged with that office in advance rather than assumed, which is exactly the kind of thing we confirm before it becomes a timeline.
What we build around the Georgia day, and what only you can sign
We plan the day around the constraints, not against them. That means holding your date against office availability rather than hoping, setting the ceremony hour where the light is worth standing in, building real travel time into the timeline instead of optimistic travel time, and carrying a weather alternative for every location. Permit research and logistics guidance are part of every experience we run, along with destination and location design and a timeline built for that specific valley. Team travel is included worldwide, so flights and accommodation for the people we send are not a line item you negotiate.
We are not lawyers and we do not file your paperwork. You sign, you attend, you hand over the passports. What we do is make sure the hour you are standing at that counter is not the hour the Gergeti ridge is at its best, and that the drive between the two was measured rather than guessed.
There is one practical advantage to the way we work that matters on a registration day. Photographer and filmmaker come from the same team and arrive together, so the office hour and the mountain hour can both be covered properly without anyone doubling back or a second vendor learning the plan on the morning. In a country where the legal moment and the beautiful moment often happen ninety minutes apart, that is worth more than it sounds. Aerials run where they are legal, safe and appropriate, confirmed before we plan the film around them.
Highlights reach you five days after the day itself, with the full gallery or film in three weeks. Coverage runs from one full day with a single photographer or filmmaker up to multi-day work across several regions, and the shapes and starting figures all live on our pricing page. If you are earlier in the process than that, our guide to planning an elopement covers the fundamentals, and the destination guides go region by region.
Common questions
Can two Americans get legally married in Georgia?
Yes. Two foreign citizens can register a marriage in Georgia. Both of you must be 18 or over, attend in person, bring two adult witnesses, and show that you are in the country on legal grounds. Neither of you needs Georgian citizenship or residency.
Do we have to live in Georgia first or give notice in advance?
No residency is required, and the agency’s published conditions set out age, capacity, documents and witnesses rather than a waiting period. What governs your timing in practice is the office’s own schedule and whether your documents are complete when you file.
How long does getting married in Georgia actually take?
With clean paperwork it fits comfortably inside one trip. We plan to roughly four months from first message to registration day, mostly so the season, the light and the drive are chosen rather than inherited, and six months if a divorce document needs an apostille first.
We are eloping alone. Where do the two witnesses come from?
The requirement is two legally capable adults of full age who can identify themselves at registration. It is a solvable problem and a common one, but it is solved in advance, in writing, with the office involved, rather than in the lobby on the day.
Is a Georgian marriage certificate accepted back in the United States?
The certificate is issued in Georgian, and you will want it translated and apostilled at a Public Service Hall before you fly home. Ask the authority that will actually use it, whether that is a state office or an immigration file, which format it accepts.
What if one of us has been divorced?
You need a document proving the earlier marriage ended. Order the certified copy from the US authority that holds it, apostille it in the state that issued it, then have it translated into Georgian and notarized. Start this six months out.
Can we be legally married outdoors in Georgia?
The fee schedule provides for registration with ceremonial surroundings and for registration outside the building, so it is contemplated rather than exceptional. Which locations a given office will travel to is settled with that office in advance, and we build the day only once it is confirmed.
Can same-sex couples marry in Georgia?
The registering agency defines marriage as a union of a man and a woman, so the legal step happens at home. The ceremony happens here, and it is the same day we would film either way: same locations, same hours, same coverage, no paperwork inside the trip.
Start with the month, then the date
Georgia is not one climate. Ushguli’s high road opens later in spring than most planners expect, so early-season days are built around Mestia and the lower Svan valleys, while Kazbegi holds its best light into late September and Kakheti carries the harvest through October. The month you choose changes the paperwork not at all and changes the day entirely, which is why we start there rather than with the office.
Tell us the window you are considering, whether one of you was married before, and what you want the day to feel like. Everything between us happens in writing, so you can read, think and reply when it suits you. We reply within 24 hours with an initial brochure, then a tailored proposal, and planning begins once the contract is signed and the 30 percent retainer is paid. Dates are currently open across 2027, 2028 and 2029 now.
Check Your Date and tell us which valley you have been looking at.