Treatment in Georgia from Israel: entry, insurance, Hebrew documents and the return home

Which rule applies to you: Israeli citizen or Israeli resident?

Two situations need to be kept apart here. If you are an Israeli citizen, you are covered by Government of Georgia Resolution No. 255 of 5 June 2015, whose list includes Israel: you do not need a visa and can stay in Georgia for up to a full year. If you live in Israel but are a citizen of another country, the rule for your passport country mainly applies, but Government Resolution No. 256 of the same date offers an additional option: a foreign national holding a valid Israeli visa or residence permit enters Georgia visa-free and can stay for 90 calendar days in any 180-day period. That visa or permit must be valid on the day you cross the border.

Ninety days can sometimes be tight for lengthy treatment and rehabilitation, and Georgia has no separate type of residence permit for medical treatment. For such patients, we ask the doctor for the full schedule before arrival and compare it with the days allowed. If you hold dual citizenship, we recommend entering and leaving the country on the same passport, and giving the details of that passport to the clinic and on the policy and the invoice. The rules for other countries are gathered on our Visa and entry page.

Travel, fitness to fly and airport pick-up

Israel and Georgia do not share a land border, so in practice you will fly. We do not publish information about flights and schedules: they depend on the airlines and change often. Before buying a ticket, find out two things: whether the return date can be changed, and on what terms the airline carries a passenger who has recently had surgery. After an operation, your treating doctor decides when you are fit to fly, and some airlines ask for a doctor's letter for this, which we request from the clinic in English.

We meet you at the airport, with a wheelchair or an adapted vehicle if needed, and take you straight to your accommodation or the clinic. The details of this service are on our Airport pick-up and transport page, and choosing an apartment or hotel near the clinic is described under our Accommodation service.

Israeli insurance: what it covers and what it does not

A patient coming from Israel needs to keep two separate questions apart. The first is the requirement for entering Georgia: since the beginning of 2026, every tourist must have a policy covering health and accidents, for at least GEL 30,000, for the whole visit, including the days of arrival and departure. An Israeli travel policy can meet this requirement if it is issued in English or has an English version; a document only in Hebrew is not enough, because the rule requires Georgian or English.

The second is paying for the treatment itself. A travel policy usually excludes planned treatment. If you have a supplementary plan from your health fund or a private health policy, ask the insurer in writing whether it covers planned treatment abroad, whether prior approval is needed and which documents it requires for reimbursement. We pass the list you receive on to the clinic so that the invoice and the medical report are issued in English and in the form your insurer needs.

How to read the terms and exclusions of a policy is explained in detail in our insurance guide.

Hebrew, Russian or English: which language will you speak at the clinic?

We provide an interpreter for Hebrew, as well as for Russian or English. Some patients talk to the doctor in English themselves, while an older family member prefers Russian or Hebrew, and using two languages during one visit is perfectly normal. Georgian law gives a foreign patient the right to treatment but makes no provision for a right to an interpreter, so we plan the language question before you arrive. Before an operation, chemotherapy or a blood transfusion, the law requires written consent, and we translate the form for you in full before you sign.

Hebrew is written from right to left, and names are rendered in Latin letters in different ways. So we ask the clinic to enter your name as it appears in the Latin field of your passport, and in our translations we give the name mentioned in your Hebrew documents in its passport form. If you keep Shabbat or religious holidays, or need kosher food, tell your coordinator from the start: we choose consultation times and accommodation with this in mind, while the date of the operation is set by the clinic and the doctor. More details on our Medical interpreter page.

Records in Hebrew: what to send and how they are translated

Medical documents issued in Israel are often in Hebrew, and some reports or laboratory results also contain English terms. The doctor at a Georgian clinic needs the whole text in English or Georgian, so we translate it in full, not just the diagnosis line. If your records are in your health fund's or hospital's online account, download them as PDF files: a screenshot often cuts off tables and signatures.

• The discharge letter from your most recent hospital stay, in Hebrew often called "סיכום אשפוז" or "מכתב שחרור".
• The latest specialist report on which you are basing your plan for treatment in Georgia.
• Imaging studies as files or on a disc, with the radiologist's report.
• Test results from recent weeks, with units and reference ranges.
• A list of medicines with the active substance and dose, because brand names may differ in Georgia.
• Your passport and policy in English, with an electronic copy on your phone as well.

Personal medicines go through Georgian customs under two rules. Ordinary medicines need no documents for up to 10 standard packs, but narcotic and psychotropic medicines are subject to strict conditions: no more than a 31-day supply, a prescription translated into English and a doctor's certificate, certified by the competent Israeli authority. If you take such a medicine, start on the paperwork early; the details are on our Medicines page, and the packing list is in our What to bring to Georgia guide.

Payment: shekels, lari and receipts for your insurer

You pay for the treatment directly to the clinic, against an invoice issued in your name. The clinic's price may be given in lari, dollars or euros, so ask which currency the invoice will be issued in and at what rate it is converted if you pay in another currency. Whether you can pay by card or by international transfer depends on the rules of the clinic and of your bank; ask your bank in advance about its fees and limits for payments abroad. We confirm the payment method with the clinic in writing before you arrive, but we cannot guarantee any particular one.

If you plan to claim reimbursement in Israel, you will usually need three documents: an itemised invoice, line by line, a receipt confirming payment and a medical report in English; ask your insurer for the exact list. The coordination fee is not part of the clinic's invoice: you pay it separately, under a written agreement with us, and if any clinic pays us, we will tell you before you make your choice. Every part of the budget is listed in our Costs and payment guide.

Documents for Israel: translation, apostille and follow-up treatment

To get copies of your records, the clinic needs a written request, as laid down in Article 17 of the Law of Georgia on Patient Rights, and under the Law of Georgia on Personal Data Protection the copy must be handed over within 10 working days. So we send the request well before discharge and ask for the discharge summary, the operation report and the imaging files. Results that are ready after you leave reach us electronically, and we translate them and send them to you.

Ask your doctor in Israel whether the English version is enough or whether they need a Hebrew translation; we prepare both. For official use, for example by an insurer, an employer or a state authority, an apostille may be required. Israel has been party to the Hague Apostille Convention since 14 August 1978 and Georgia since 14 May 2007, so consular legalisation is not needed. The apostille on a Georgian clinic's discharge summary is affixed by the Public Service Development Agency after it has checked the specimen signature and seal, and no notary is needed for this. Some Israeli authorities may require the Hebrew translation to be certified in Israel, so find this out in advance.

We take care of dealing with the Agency as part of our apostille service, the Hebrew or English version is prepared by our medical translation department, and the whole pack is put together by our Documents for home service.

Continuing treatment in Israel

Once you are home, your family doctor or specialist takes over your follow-up care. At your very first visit they should have the discharge summary, the operation report, the list of prescribed medicines with the active substance names and the schedule of follow-up tests. If the Georgian doctor agrees to a remote follow-up consultation, we arrange it with an interpreter, but what kind of follow-up care is needed is decided by the treating doctors, not by us.

The Israeli Embassy in Tbilisi and our role

According to the list published on the official website of the Georgian National Tourism Administration, the Embassy of the State of Israel in Tbilisi is at 154 David Agmashenebeli Avenue, telephone +995 32 255 65 00. Check the opening hours and the procedure for consular appointments on the Embassy's official channels before you go. A patient mainly needs the Embassy if a passport is lost or damaged; if you need to put a document in order for a matter you have left in Israel, ask the Embassy whether it performs such acts, or use a power of attorney notarised in Georgia, with an apostille and a translation.

We are not a medical facility, we do not act as doctors, and we have no connection with the Solidarity Fund of Georgia, a state organisation. Solidaroba.ge provides coordination: translation of your records, obtaining quotes from licensed clinics in Georgia, the interpreter, your arrival and your return. We request a clinic's permit documents from the clinic itself and check them, because we have not found a public register open to patients. The full description of the service is on the Personal coordinator page; contact us on +995 501 113 200 or +995 501 113 200.

Frequently asked questions from patients coming from Israel