certified translation services

It seems to many that Certified Translation Services is simply about “certifying” a document.  However, not many would know that there are many ways that a certified translation services provider can “certify” your document after translation. The reason as to why there are many ways to providing certified translation services is due to the fact that different organizations require different kinds of certified translation services to be applied to different kinds of documents.

The simple rule to getting your document certified is to:

1)      Clarify with the person (who had required you to engage a certified translation services provider) and with whom you are handing your documents to.

For example:

a)      If it is an application for admissions to an overseas university that requires you to translate and engage certified translation services for your documents, then you would need to clarify with the admissions officer as to how he or she wants the certified translation services provider to certify your documents.

b)      If you need to submit translations of your personal documents which requires certified translation services to a bank officer for loans purposes, then you would need to clarify with the loans officer of that particular bank as to  how he or she wants the certified translation services provider to certify your documents

2)       Then convey the instruction to the  certified translation services provider

In the first example cited above with regards to University Admissions, different Universities of the same country may enforce different set of rules for accepting certified translated documents that has been done by a certified translation services provider. For example, both New Zealand Universities in Wellington and Auckland requires the translation to be certified by any certified translation services provider. However, the former University requires a copy of the original document with stamp ”Original Sighted” to be included in the certified translation services. 

In the 2^nd example cited above with regards to loans application, different banks require different types of certification to be done by a certified translation services provider. Usually, the Headquarters of the different banks would set realistic rules on a country by country basis as to how they want the certification to be done by a certified translation services provider. After all, they can’t turn away their customers simply because of certified translation services that can’t be done within the specific local country.

There may be many certified translation services providers who may claim to have the ulitimate authority to providing certified translation services within the country they are based and seem to know what you need even before you present your documents. However, a responsible certified translation services provider will listen first to the purpose of the certified translation services and then apply the appropriate certified translation services to your needs. 

The truth is the organization that is supposed to receive your documents with applied certified translation services has the ultimate say and authority over how your translated documents are to be certified. 

In my next article on certified translation services, I hope to provide more examples of certified translation services and share with you the differences between them. Meanwhile, I do hope that the above written article proves to be useful to you to some extent.