Surrogacy in Georgia for Singles and Unmarried Couples: Pathways and Legal Risk

00　How to read this article: four evidence levels

Georgia's eligibility rules are not answered by the statement that “surrogacy is legal”. The Health Care Act, civil-status law and Justice Minister's Order No. 18 operate together. This article was checked on 2 September 2026 and provides public legal education, not advice on an individual case.

For a real programme, level ① is only the starting point. Level ② must be rechecked with the relevant authority; levels ③ and ④ identify risk but do not replace written legal advice.

Executive answer: five applicant groups have different positions

• Married opposite-sex partners: a statutory route exists if the marriage has lasted one year and Article 143, contract and registration requirements are met.
• Unmarried opposite-sex partners: a genuine cohabitation relationship during the most recent year can meet the family-status rule if proved to the notary; marriage is not compulsory.
• A single woman carrying the pregnancy: Article 141 expressly permits donor-sperm insemination for a single woman. IVF followed by her own pregnancy still presents a textual tension.
• A single woman using a surrogate: the current registration rules provide no ordinary single-parent route.
• A single man using a surrogate: there is likewise no ordinary single-parent route. A nominal female partner or invented marriage merely converts the barrier into document, parentage, consular and criminal risk.

01　Where the threshold sits: three legal layers and four deadlines

【① Law】Georgia has no standalone statute titled “Surrogacy Act”. The substantive basis is Article 143 of the 1997 Health Care Act; Article 30 of the Civil Status Acts Act authorises registration; and Article 19 of the Rules approved by Justice Minister's Order No. 18 of 31 January 2012 contains the operational eligibility and filing rules.

Order No. 18 defines a “couple” (წყვილი / tsqvili) as one woman and one man designated as the child's parents under the Article 19 contract. Article 19 requires one year of marriage or cohabitation during the most recent year, documentary proof before a notary, two-person parent combinations, exclusion of a donor or surrogate from registration as a parent, and an application from each of the two parents.

【④ Inference】Read together, those provisions contain no ordinary single-parent registration channel. Test every proposal against four moments.

02　Unmarried opposite-sex couples: genuine one-year cohabitation can qualify

【① Law】Article 19(1¹)(b) expressly recognises de facto cohabitation. An unmarried woman and man who genuinely cohabited during the latest year and can prove it to a notary can satisfy the family-status requirement. They must still meet Article 143, authenticity, registration and home-state nationality and consular rules.

Path A　Truthfully prove one year of cohabitation［available in the text］

Article 19(1²) lists an address-information card, an extract showing co-ownership of common-use property, a religious marriage certificate, and ends with “or other” (ან სხვა / an skhva). It is an open list. Foreign applicants may instead need home-state cohabitation or religious-marriage evidence, apostille or legalisation, and a notarised Georgian translation.

【②④】Foreign official guidance warns that Georgian authorities may closely examine third-country marriage documents. No public uniform standard explains what “other” evidence will be accepted. Present the proposed package to the responsible notary and obtain a written view before signing.

Path B　Submit false material when cohabitation is shorter［unlawful］

This article gives no method for falsification. A false marriage, cohabitation or official record can engage Criminal Code Article 362. A civil-status record may be annulled under Articles 86–89, including on the registry's own initiative. A later marriage or completion of the one-year period does not erase the earlier false declaration.

03　Single women: an express route is not a surrogacy route

Path C　Donor sperm and pregnancy carried by the woman［available in the text］

【① Law】Health Care Act Article 141 expressly includes fertilisation “for a single woman” (ან მარტოხელა ქალის განაყოფიერებისათვის). After birth, the childless couple or single woman is treated as the parent and the donor has no right to recognition as father. The woman gives birth herself, so maternity follows birth. Confirm the actual completion of certificate fields with the registry.

Path D　IVF and pregnancy carried by the single woman［grey area］

Article 143 speaks only of a “couple”, unlike Article 141. Article 19 of Order No. 18 is structured around a contract between a woman who gives birth as surrogate and a couple, yet its paragraph 6 is triggered when the medical certificate records IVF. Textual tension arises where the intended mother is herself the birth mother.

【③④】After the 2020 amendment, the Georgian Young Lawyers' Association announced a constitutional challenge, while press reporting attributed to the Justice Ministry the position that the order addressed surrogacy rather than IVF. No merits judgment has resolved the disagreement. Treat it as institutional uncertainty, not a guaranteed entitlement.

Path E　A single woman commissions surrogacy［no route in the text］

Every Article 19 contract combination uses a couple and paragraph 5 requires two parent applications. A single woman would need a man to enter the contract and registration with her, creating the same barrier faced by a single man. The sharpest tension is that absence of a uterus—the very condition named in Article 143(b)—may make surrogacy medically necessary, while the rules still demand a couple.

04　Single men: where five marketed approaches fail

The following identifies legal character, break points and consequences. It does not provide operational instructions for evasion.

Path F　A nominal female partner becomes the legal mother［unlawful and enduring］

Some market arrangements place a paid woman in the contract and birth certificate. Under Article 19 she must join the public notarial act before embryo creation; even the frozen-embryo exception requires her identity before transfer and in the pre-freezing certificate. She must then join the registration application within seven days after birth documentation is submitted.

Once registered, she has full parental rights and maintenance duties. A private “waiver” does not automatically terminate legal parenthood. The seven-day filing and later travel-document consents leave her with continuing power to withhold cooperation. A home state may also require DNA evidence or consent from everyone with parental responsibility.

Path G　A false third-country marriage certificate［unlawful］

An apostille authenticates the signature, capacity and seal; it does not prove the underlying marriage or cohabitation to be true. Georgian authorities can examine foreign documents. Use of a false official document can engage Article 362 and may also create liability in the issuing state.

Path H　False Georgian residence or property material［unlawful］

Order No. 18 Article 11(6) permits refusal where authenticity is reasonably doubted. Using a real registry mechanism to create a false cohabitation fact misleads the notary and registry; Civil Status Acts Act Article 93 also provides for responsibility.

Path I　Register the surrogate first and then acknowledge paternity［blocked by the text］

Article 19(4) prohibits registering a donor or surrogate as parent. A variation that hides IVF and seeks ordinary non-marital registration would require medical documentation inconsistent with the facts and offers no legal basis for the surrogate later abandoning the child. A false medical document can raise Article 362; child trafficking under Article 143² requires separate proof of that offence's transaction or exploitation elements and cannot be inferred from document fraud alone.

Path J　Move the programme to a third country［risk transfer, not proof of legality］

Some providers list single-men or LGBT packages under other countries. A sales page is not a legal opinion. The birth state's foreigner access, single-parent registration, parentage case law and the home state's documents must be checked country by country. Cross-border movement during pregnancy and a chain split across matching, retrieval, transfer, birth and registration also create medical and evidentiary gaps.

05　Six recurring market claims do not match the current text

The most consequential omission from a marketing page is not price. It is failure to say whose name appears in the mother field and who must sign at every deadline.

06　Five layers of legal risk

1. Georgian criminal law

Criminal Code Article 362 covers the making, acquisition, possession for use or sale, sale or use of forged identity and other official documents, seals, stamps and forms. The ordinary range includes a fine or up to three years; repeat conduct or substantial damage can attract three to six years. Article 180 addresses fraud. Article 143² carries a basic eight-to-twelve-year range for trafficking in minors, but its own elements must be proved. Article 182 addresses misappropriation or embezzlement.

2. Administrative registration

Articles 86–89 of the Civil Status Acts Act allow the registering authority to annul a civil-status record on application or on its own initiative, with investigation and a possible oral hearing. A birth certificate is not absolute immunity; nor does every defect inevitably cause annulment. Evidence and procedure determine the outcome.

3. Parentage and civil responsibility

The woman registered as mother has parental rights and maintenance duties. Her consent may affect exit documents, and the status can interact with marriage, existing children, tax and inheritance in her home state. The effect of any private waiver requires case-specific Georgian legal advice.

4. Consular and exit documents

Requirements depend on nationality. Australian guidance, for example, treats the birth mother as having parental responsibility for passport purposes and can require her consent, the original surrogacy agreement and identity material. Since 18 July 2025, the Chinese Embassy in Georgia has generally required Chinese citizens under 16 born in Georgia and applying for a first passport or travel document to use the Chinese Consul app and attend by appointment. Every nationality requires its own current written checklist.

5. Provider risk—the register fact has changed

【①】Georgia still has no unified standalone assisted-reproduction statute and providers remain subject to general medical licensing. But Health Minister Order No. 98/ნ, published on 29 December 2023 and effective 1 January 2024, established the Unified National Register of Activities Related to Assisted Reproduction. It is therefore inaccurate to say the register exists only in a bill. 【③④】Reported gaps in specialist clinical guidance, intermediaries and contract enforcement are separate questions from whether a register exists.

Kinderly also has an official prosecution result. On 30 June 2026, Georgia's Prosecutor's Office reported that Tbilisi City Court sentenced two Kinderly Georgia founders to ten years each, one in absentia, after finding group misappropriation exceeding GEL 2,060,006.5 under Article 182. Allegations about changing oocyte donors or altering records appear in media or industry accounts, not in the facts stated in that public prosecution notice.

07　Three questions for written advice from Georgian counsel

1. Can the contract and parent applications be completed by representative? Article 11 generally recognises notarised representation, but confirm how the responsible notary and registry apply that rule to the public notarial act and two parent applications in Article 19.
2. What “other” cohabitation evidence will be accepted? The open list has no public uniform discretion standard. Obtain a written view on foreign substitutes, apostille or legalisation, and translation.
3. How is the medical indication in Article 143(b) applied? The text says “the woman has no uterus”; industry usage is wider. Ask whether and how the health and registration authorities review this condition.

08　Six checks before signing or paying

1. Require the provider to cite Article 143 and Order No. 18 Article 19, not vague references to the Civil Code or a nonexistent Reproductive Health Act.
2. Obtain a written answer identifying who will appear in the mother and father fields.
3. List every obligation of the named woman before embryo creation or frozen-embryo transfer, at notarisation, within the seven-day registration window and during exit-document applications.
4. Review a de-identified birth-certificate sample from a completed matter, while recognising it does not guarantee approval in the new case.
5. Before contract and payment, obtain the home authority's current checklist for nationality, parentage, DNA, consents and travel documents.
6. Verify the provider's existence, registration, clinical licences, live caseload, escrow, source of carriers, direct communication and contingency ownership. Do not pay when accountability is unclear.

09　Three legal developments to keep watching

Constitutional case No. 1577 ended without a merits decision

Unmarried man Giorgi Gotsiridze challenged Article 143 and Article 19 in 2021. He withdrew on 12 March 2025; the Constitutional Court's First Chamber terminated the proceeding by ruling N1/4/1577 on 26 March, published 28 March. The Court did not decide constitutionality, so the restrictions remained unchanged.

Bill 07-2/299/10 is still not current law

The government bill registered in June 2023 would make major changes, including access limited to Georgian citizens and recognition of single women and men as prospective parents. Parliamentary records keep it in the legislative process, and Parliament granted a further 90-day extension in June 2026. It cannot support a current programme. If revived, it could simultaneously widen access for singles and close it to foreigners.

The bill's register provision predates Order No. 98/ნ. A national register now exists by ministerial order, so current analysis must distinguish that register from the bill's wider regulatory system. The bill also does not jointly recognise a same-sex couple as a couple.

The Article 143(b) medical indication remains uncertain in practice

The text says “the woman has no uterus”. Providers commonly describe a wider pregnancy contraindication, but public authority guidance, case law and verified data remain insufficient. Strict textual enforcement would affect more than single applicants.