Treatment in Georgia from Armenia: entry, travel, language and recognition of documents

Do Armenian citizens need a visa?

No. Armenia is on the list of countries granted a one-year visa-free stay by Government of Georgia Resolution No. 255 of 5 June 2015, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs e-visa portal also shows no visa requirement for Armenian citizens. This period lets you plan the operation, the hospital stay, rehabilitation and a follow-up visit all in one go.

Armenian citizens do not need a C4 medical visa or a notarised invitation from the clinic. We still recommend carrying a letter from the clinic in English stating the date and purpose of your visit: at border control it briefly explains why you have come, and it also helps to justify your dates when you book accommodation and buy insurance. If a companion holds another country's passport, check the rules that apply to them on our Visa and entry page, or leave this to us.

How do you get here from Armenia?

Armenia and Georgia share a land border, so you can also make the journey by car. According to the official website of the Georgian National Tourism Administration, the Sadakhlo road and rail customs checkpoint operates in Marneuli Municipality. Your mandatory insurance policy may be checked at the border, so keep it to hand, electronically or printed, together with your passport.

The advantage of travelling by road is flexibility: you move at your own pace, and a folder of medical documents, discs or a special cushion are not subject to baggage weight limits. However, a long car journey after an operation, just like a flight, needs your doctor's approval: your treating doctor decides when you can sit for that long and whether you need stops or other precautions on the way. If you would rather fly, check current flights with the airline, as we do not publish schedules. Whichever way you arrive, our airport pick-up and transport service arranges your pick-up and the journey to the clinic.

Which policy meets Georgia's requirement?

Article 12 of the Law of Georgia on Tourism and Government Resolution No. 602 of 2025 require every tourist, from 1 January 2026, to have health and accident insurance with a sum insured of at least GEL 30,000. An Armenian insurance company can issue the policy too, since the rule does not exclude foreign insurers, but the document must be in Georgian or English. A policy only in Armenian does not meet the requirement, and this is far easier to sort out when you buy it than at the border.

Check the dates as well: cover must run from the day you arrive up to and including the day you leave. If the doctor postpones your discharge or your clearance to travel, the policy must be extended too, so ask the insurer in advance whether it can be extended while you are in Georgia. Finally, travel insurance does not usually pay for a planned operation; our insurance guide shows you how to read the exclusions.

Armenian, Russian or English: how we handle language

At the consultation, before the operation and at discharge, an interpreter joins in Armenian, Russian or English, as you choose. Some patients speak Russian with the doctor easily but prefer complex medical explanations in their native language; that is natural, and we take it into account when choosing the interpreter. Georgian law does not give a foreign patient the right to an interpreter, so language support is part of the coordination, not an obligation of the clinic.

The Armenian alphabet matches neither Latin nor Cyrillic script, and the same surname can be transliterated differently in different documents, for example Hovhannisyan, Ovanesyan or Оганесян. Your name must be entered in the clinic's system, on the invoice and in the discharge summary exactly as it appears in the Latin field of your passport; otherwise a mismatch will arise when you claim reimbursement from your insurer at home or when an apostille is affixed. The interpreter will translate the informed consent you sign before the operation word for word before you pick up the pen. The terms of our language service are on the Medical interpreter page.

Which documents should you send before you arrive?

Medical records issued in Armenia are mostly in Armenian, and older documents are sometimes in Russian. The doctor at a Georgian clinic needs them in English or Georgian, so we do the translation before requesting quotes. At this stage an accurate medical translation is enough for the doctor; official certification usually becomes necessary only when a document is going to a state authority.

1. Collecting your records

   Your latest discharge summary, operation reports, CT or MRI files with the radiologist's report, test results from recent weeks and a list of medicines with the name of the active substance.

2. Translation and checking

   We translate Armenian and Russian text into English or Georgian and check units, doses and reference ranges against the original.

3. The clinics' replies

   We send the translated pack to licensed clinics in Georgia and ask for a quote and the clinic's permit documents.

4. Dates and travel

   Once the clinic gives a date, we check your policy, book accommodation and plan the journey by road or by air.

5. Bring the originals

   As well as electronic copies, bring the original discs and documents: the doctor may want to see them on site.

The customs rule for personal medicines is simple for ordinary medicines: up to 10 standard packs need no documents. Narcotic and psychotropic medicines, however, may be brought in only as a 31-day supply, with a prescription translated into English and a doctor's certificate, both certified by the competent Armenian authority. The details are on our Medicines service page, and the packing list is in our What to bring to Georgia guide.

Payment: what to check with your bank and the clinic

The Georgian clinic issues the invoice in your name, and you pay it directly, not us. The price may be given in lari while your savings are in dram, so build a small margin into your budget for exchange-rate movements, and if you pay in another currency, ask the clinic at what rate and on which day the amount is converted. Whether you can pay with an Armenian card, by international transfer or in some other way depends on the rules of the clinic and of your bank: we ask both sides in advance and send you their answer in writing, but we cannot promise a specific method beforehand.

Our coordination fee is agreed separately, in writing, before work begins, and if any clinic pays us, we tell you before you make your choice. Keep the receipts and the final invoice: you will need them at home if an Armenian insurance company or your employer reimburses part of the cost. The full list of costs is in our Costs and payment guide.

Is a medical document issued in Georgia recognised in Armenia?

For an Armenian doctor, "recognising" a document is not a formality: they read the discharge summary and continue your treatment, and a good translation into Armenian or Russian is enough for that. The question of formal recognition arises when a document is needed by a state authority, an employer, a court or an insurance company.

For that case there are two legal bases. The first is the Hague Apostille Convention: it has been in force for Armenia since 14 August 1994 and for Georgia since 14 May 2007, so an apostille affixed to a document from a Georgian medical facility replaces consular legalisation in Armenia. In Georgia, such a document is apostilled by the Public Service Development Agency, an agency of the Ministry of Justice, and no notarial step is needed for this.

The second basis is the Minsk Convention of 22 January 1993 on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal Matters. Armenia and Georgia are both party to it, and for Georgia the Convention has been in force since 11 July 1996. Under its Article 13, a document drawn up or certified in one party state within the scope of an authority's competence, in the prescribed form and bearing an official seal with the state emblem, is accepted in another party state without any special certification.

Also ask the authority whether it will accept a notarised translation made in Georgia or requires one made in Armenia. We arrange the apostille at the Agency through our apostille service, and the Armenian translation is handled by our medical translation team.

After you return: records and follow-up care

Before discharge, we ask the clinic in writing for copies of every document your doctor in Armenia will need: the discharge summary, the operation report, the histology result if one is expected, and the imaging files. Article 17 of the Law of Georgia on Patient Rights gives you this right, and under the Law of Georgia on Personal Data Protection a copy must be provided within 10 working days. Some results are ready only after you leave; in that case we receive them electronically, translate them and send them to you.

The distance is short, and the follow-up visit can be handled in one of two ways: by coming back to Georgia, or in Armenia with your local doctor, on the Georgian doctor's recommendation. Your treating doctor decides which option is safe. Either way, the discharge summary should list your medicines by their international names, so that you can find the same active substance at a pharmacy in Armenia. Your return pack is put together by our Documents for home service.

The Armenian Embassy in Georgia: how can it help?

The Embassy of the Republic of Armenia is in Tbilisi, at 4 Tetelashvili Street; the telephone number given on its official website is (+995 32) 295 17 23. According to the website, the Embassy provides consular services to Armenian citizens, including passport matters, notarial acts and consular registration. For a patient this matters if a passport is lost or damaged, or if you need to issue a power of attorney to a relative at home so that they can act on your behalf. Check the opening hours and appointment procedure on the Embassy's website before you go.

Solidaroba.ge cannot perform an embassy's functions; it is not a clinic and has no connection with the state Solidarity Fund. Our work is coordination: translating your records, collecting clinics' quotes, and planning your arrival, interpreter and accommodation. Diagnosis and treatment are decided by your treating doctor. What our service covers is set out in detail on the Personal coordinator page, and you can send questions to +995 501 113 200 or +995 501 113 200.

Frequently asked questions from patients coming from Armenia