Treatment in Georgia from Azerbaijan: entry, insurance, language and documents

What does a citizen of Azerbaijan need to enter Georgia?

Government Resolution No. 255 of 5 June 2015 approves the list of countries whose citizens enter Georgia without a visa and may stay for one full year. Azerbaijan is on this list, and the e-visa portal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs likewise shows no visa requirement for holders of an Azerbaijani passport. The latest amendment to the list dates from February 2026.

In practice this means that a plan covering the operation, recovery and a follow-up appointment fits comfortably within the one-year period, and the visa extension problem that troubles patients arriving on an e-visa does not affect you. A C4 medical visa and a notarised invitation from a clinic are only needed by patients whose country is not on the visa-free list. To explain the purpose of your visit at the border, a dated letter in English from the clinic is enough, and we request it from the clinic for you.

A companion enters under the rules that apply to their own passport. If a family member holds a different citizenship, their regime has to be checked separately; the rules for all the main countries are brought together in a single table on our visa and entry page.

How to get here: land border or flight?

This depends not on Georgian rules but on a decision by Azerbaijan. Since 2020 Azerbaijan has kept its land borders closed under a ‘special quarantine regime’, and according to news agencies the regime was extended until 1 October 2026. We have not been able to verify in an official source what happened after that date, so we prepare the plan in two versions and recheck the current situation before a ticket or transport is booked.

If the land crossing is still restricted, you will most likely have to fly to Georgia. We do not publish flight schedules, because they are set by the airlines and change often; check current flights with the airline or your ticket seller. Our part begins once your arrival date is known: meeting you at the airport, a wheelchair or a specially adapted vehicle if needed, and your first visit to the clinic. This service is described on our airport pick-up and transport page.

The journey home adds one more condition: after an operation, it is the treating doctor who decides when you can fly. That is why the return ticket is bought with a flexible date, or after the doctor has given an assessment.

Mandatory insurance: what requirements must your policy meet?

Since January 2026 the Law of Georgia on Tourism has required visiting tourists to hold mandatory health and accident insurance, and a patient who comes for treatment counts as an ordinary tourist for the purposes of the law. Under Government Resolution No. 602, the sum insured must be at least GEL 30,000, the cover must include every day of the visit, including the days of arrival and departure, and the policy may also be issued by a foreign insurance company. The policy may be checked at border control.

The most common mistake made by travellers from Azerbaijan concerns language. The rules require the policy to be in Georgian or English, so a document drawn up only in Azerbaijani or Russian does not meet the requirement. Ask your insurer for an English version, or buy your policy from a company that issues it in English. The second issue is currency: if the sum is stated in manats or dollars, make sure it is clearly above GEL 30,000, because we could not find a rule on the conversion rate in the regulation, and being close to the threshold is a risk.

Remember that this policy is for entry. Travel insurance does not, as a rule, cover a planned operation or treatment: it is useful if something happens that is unrelated to your treatment. Which exclusions to read before you sign is explained in our insurance guide.

Which language will you speak with the doctor?

At a clinic in Georgia you can communicate with the doctor in Azerbaijani, Russian or English through an interpreter. We choose the interpreter to suit the task: for the consultation, the pre-operative discussion and discharge, sometimes remotely. The Law of Georgia on Patient Rights gives foreigners in Georgia the right to medical care, but it does not expressly provide for a right to an interpreter; the closest provision is Article 19, under which a doctor must take the patient's ability to understand into account when giving explanations. That is why the language question has to be settled before you arrive, not in the clinic corridor.

Two points need particular attention. The first is written consent: before an operation, chemotherapy or a blood transfusion you sign a document that may be drawn up in Georgian, and the interpreter must take you through it in full before you sign. The second is the spelling of your name. The Azerbaijani Latin alphabet contains letters such as ə, ğ, ı, ş and ç, and your name may be entered differently in the clinic's system. Ask the clinic to enter your first name and surname exactly as they appear in your passport, so that the invoice, discharge summary, insurance policy and apostille all match. The terms of the interpreting service are described on our medical interpreter page.

Which documents should you bring from Azerbaijan, and what needs translating?

The clinic draws up the treatment plan and a preliminary quote on the basis of your records, so we need them electronically before you travel. Medical documents issued in Azerbaijan are usually in Azerbaijani or Russian; for the Georgian clinic we translate them into English or Georgian, depending on the language the particular doctor works in. When translating, we pay special attention to doses, laboratory units and reference ranges.

• Passport and insurance policy in English or Georgian, with an electronic copy as well.
• Discharge extract or discharge summary from your last hospital stay; in Azerbaijani it is often called ‘çıxarış’ or ‘epikriz’.
• Imaging studies: CT, MRI or X-ray on disc or as files, together with the radiologist's report; the report on its own is often not enough for the doctor.
• Test results from recent weeks, with units and reference ranges.
• List of medicines with the international non-proprietary name and dose, because brand names differ from country to country.
• List of allergies and previous operations, including any problems with anaesthesia, if there have been any.

You bring personal medicines in under customs rules: for ordinary medicines you are not asked for a medical document as long as you have no more than ten standard packs, while a narcotic or psychotropic medicine may only be brought in as a 31-day supply, with a prescription and a doctor's certificate translated into English and certified by the authority empowered to do so in Azerbaijan. If you take such a medicine, start preparing these documents several weeks before you travel; the details are on our medicines page, and the full packing list is in our ‘What to bring’ guide.

How will you pay for your treatment?

Payment for the operation and the hospital stay goes to the clinic's account, not ours; the invoice is issued with your passport details. You pay our coordination fee to us separately, in the amount we set out in the contract before work begins; if any clinic pays us for working with it, we tell you before you make your decision. The clinic may quote the price in lari or another currency, so ask which currency the invoice will be issued in and who bears the conversion costs.

Whether you can pay with an Azerbaijani card or by bank transfer depends on two parties: what the clinic accepts and what your bank allows. Before you travel, check with your bank whether payments abroad are enabled on your card, what daily limit applies and how many days an international transfer takes. We confirm the payment method with the clinic in writing before you arrive, and we cannot promise any particular method in advance. If the clinic asks for a deposit, pay it only to the clinic's own bank details, and keep all payment confirmations together in one folder. The full structure of the budget is explained in our guide to costs and payment.

How will you get your documents for home, and do they need an apostille?

At discharge the clinic usually issues the discharge summary in Georgian or English. You request additional copies, such as the operation report or the descriptions of tests, from the clinic in writing: you have this right under Article 17 of the Law of Georgia on Patient Rights, and under the Law of Georgia on Personal Data Protection the clinic has 10 working days to prepare them. We send the request before discharge, so that the documents are ready by the day you leave.

For your doctor in Azerbaijan we translate the documents into Azerbaijani or Russian, whichever suits them better. If a document is needed by a government body, an employer or an insurance company, they may ask for an apostille. Azerbaijan has been a party to the Hague Apostille Convention since 2 March 2005 and Georgia since 14 May 2007, so a Georgian medical document does not need consular legalisation for Azerbaijan: an apostille is enough. Documents from a medical institution are certified with an apostille by the Public Service Development Agency, an agency of the Ministry of Justice that serves the public at Public Service Halls, and such a document does not need to go to a notary first.

Ask the receiving body two things in advance: whether an apostille is needed at all, and whether it will accept a translation made in Georgia or requires one certified in Azerbaijan. We obtain the apostille you need for Azerbaijan from the Agency on your behalf as part of our apostille service, and the Azerbaijani or Russian translation is done by our medical translators; the full package of documents for home is described on our documents page.

Follow-up care at home

Once you are back, your own doctor continues your treatment, so they need the full picture: what was done, which medicines you were prescribed, when the follow-up test is due and which signs mean you should contact them urgently. Ask your Georgian doctor to list the medicines in the discharge summary under their international names, so that you can find the same active substance at a pharmacy in Azerbaijan. If a follow-up consultation is planned in Georgia, we can arrange it remotely or as a second visit; which format is appropriate is for the treating doctor to decide.

The Embassy of Azerbaijan in Tbilisi: when will you need it?

The Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Georgia is located in Tbilisi, at 4 Vakhtang Gorgasali Street. According to the embassy's official page, the consular section's telephone number is +995 32 224 30 04; calls are answered Monday to Friday from 14:00 to 16:00, and documents are accepted by appointment. Contact details may change, so check the embassy's website before you get in touch.

Patients usually need the embassy in two situations. The first is a lost or damaged passport: the embassy's website lists a certificate for return to the Republic of Azerbaijan as a separate service. The second is a notarial act, for example a power of attorney by which you entrust a family member at home with handling matters on your behalf, if your treatment takes longer than expected. A power of attorney notarised in Georgia may also work, but it will need an apostille and a translation; which route is simpler for you we can assess as part of our legal help.

What does Solidaroba.ge do, and what does it not do?

Solidaroba.ge is not a clinic, does not provide treatment and is not connected with the state Solidarity Fund. We provide coordination: we receive your records, translate them, send them to licensed clinics in Georgia, compare their replies in a single format and plan your arrival, interpreter, accommodation and return home. The diagnosis and the treatment plan are set by the treating doctor. We could not find a public register that patients can use to check a clinic's permit, so we ask the clinic for its permit or licence documents and check them. A full description of our services is on the coordination page; contact us on +995 501 113 200 or +995 501 113 200.

Frequently asked questions from patients coming from Azerbaijan