TranslatingCertificates
Certificates we translateeach and every day
- From the cradle to the grave:
Introduced in postindustrial England, the welfare state was put in place to ensure the populace. One of the prices the people had to pay was a certain amount of paperwork. The authorities need to know who they are to ensure, after all.
Bureaucracy only works with the necessary certificates and documentation. In our experience, the following certificates and documents concerning civil status require translating the most:
- Birth certificate
- Excerpt of the birth registry
- Marriage certificate
- Excerpt of the family registry
- Partnership certificate
- Naturalisation certificate
- Death certificate
Within a lifetime, Many certificates are translated
If you think that’s the end of it, though, you may be mistaken. For example, imagine a same-sex couple in Frankfurt getting ready to adopt a child within planned parenthood proceedings. They will be stuck in the administrative jungle even before their child is born and has a birth certificate.
Now think about the other side of things. Sometimes, administration work just gets started with a death certificate – think about international inheritance cases! More often than not, certified translations are required in such matters.
And there are quite a few occasions that need to be registered officially: marriage, divorce, naturalisation, change of name, change of nationality, change of sex, registration of place of residence, and so on.
If you require competent support from a translation office for any of these, Schleicher Sprachservice is the right place for you!
Certified translation of certificates –Good to know
There are some things that are a bit tricky when preparing certified translations of certificates and require special attention. For example, when we translate from one writing system to another, such as from Russian to German.
Our certified translations are inseparably connected to the source text. This can be done with an eyelet, thread binding with a seal, among other options. We usually connect our translation to a copy of the source text. If you require it to be connected to the original certificate, just let us know and we will do so.
If your certificate is in the Latin alphabet, you can ignore this section. With other writing systems, such as the Cyrillic script, the following applies: Send us a copy of your passport or other identification document so we can take over the particular spelling used for your name. This is necessary because sometimes, names are not always spelled the same way. For example, Иванов may be spelled Ivanov or Iwanow. There is no right or wrong, so it is easiest to write it the way it is in your passport.
One exception, however, are civil status documents presented to German registry offices for the purpose of marriage. In this case, a transliteration according to ISO standards is necessary.
If a certified translation of a document prepared in Germany is to be used in a foreign country, an apostille or legalisation of the relevant document may be necessary. Whether an apostille or legalisation is required depends on the country it is for. If the country is part of the Hague Treaty Convention 12, an apostille is the way to go. Don’t worry, we know which countries those are. Apostilles are issued by the court by which the translator is authorised – we will get it for you for a small fee.
Otherwise, the more complicated way of legalisation may become necessary.
Do you have a certificate that needs translating?
We are happy to assist you!
Contact information
- Schleicher Sprachservice GmbH & Co. KGVilbeler Landstraße 25560388 Frankfurt am Main
- 06109 723531
- info@schleicher-sprachen.de
Business hours
Monday – Friday
9:00 am – 1:00 pm
3:00 pm – 6:00 pm