Birth certificates
Birth certificate translation
A document that visa, citizenship, passport and marriage processes all name. Translated into English in full — names, parents, registration numbers, stamps and seals — and delivered digitally, with a NAATI certification option at checkout for when the receiving authority asks for it.
Does your birth certificate need an English translation?
Answer a few quick questions and get your answer in 1 second.
Where it is asked for
The processes that name a birth certificate
These are quoted from the authorities themselves, so you can see the wording your document will be read against.
Partner visas
“Provide a birth certificate showing the names of both parents.” A translation that drops a parent’s name from a stamp or margin does not show what the checklist asks to see — ours translate the certificate in full, stamps and margin notes included.
Source: Home Affairs, subclass 820 checklist (last updated 10 August 2026)
Citizenship
Home Affairs asks for 3 documents that together show your birth name, date of birth and gender, your photograph, your signature and your address. It names a full birth certificate for a child 15 or younger, “showing parent’s details”, and where your date of birth has changed. On language it says: “Provide an English translation for all documents that are not in English.”
Source: Home Affairs, citizenship application requirements (last updated 24 July 2026)
Australian passports
The Passport Office asks for evidence of place of birth, and for non-English documents to be “translated in full and stamped by an accredited translator” — naming NAATI for translations done in Australia.
Source: Australian Passport Office, translation help (checked 18 September 2026)
What a careful job includes
Everything on the certificate, not just the names
Every field and marginal note
Registration numbers, issuing office, dates, and the amendments and annotations older certificates carry in their margins — all rendered in English, because the reader cannot ask the original what a skipped line said.
Stamps and seals translated
The stamps carry the authority’s name and often the registrar’s. We translate what they say rather than writing “[stamp]”.
Names matched to your passport
Where a name can be romanised more than one way, we follow the spelling in your passport, so your identity documents agree with each other.
Ordering for a visa or citizenship application and translating in Australia? Home Affairs’ wording points to a NAATI-accredited translator — choose the NAATI certification option at checkout. Thinking of translating it yourself? See what the checklist asks for from a translation you make yourself. Newly arrived on an eligible visa? Check the free government service first, remembering that it does not translate documents needed for a visa or citizenship application, and that Australian citizens are not eligible.
Pricing
The full price on screen before you order
Translation is $39.99 per page into English, delivered digitally. Add NAATI certification for $59.99 per page, prepared by a NAATI-certified translator with a digital stamp carrying a scannable QR code. A birth certificate printed on one side is one page; a back that carries text, a stamp or a seal is a second page.
Also need a marriage certificate translated? Applying for citizenship? Applying for an Australian passport? Marrying in Australia with foreign documents?
Step by step
How to get your birth certificate translated into English
The whole process runs from your phone, and the original never leaves you. Here it is in order, starting with the two cases where you may not need to order at all.
Before you start: two cases where you may not need us
If your visa is on the eligible list, permanent residence included, was granted in the last two years and is still valid, and you are in Australia, the government’s Free Translating Service translates up to 10 personal documents into English at no cost. Two limits matter here. Its eligibility page says “Document translations required for visa or citizenship applications, and documents issued by private citizens, are not eligible”, so it will not cover a visa or citizenship file. And most of its translations are an extract of up to 100 words rather than the whole document, with the finished file taking up to 30 calendar days. If your purpose and your deadline still suit it, use it. Who qualifies for the Free Translating Service sets out the test.
If a translator in your home country already made an English version, look at what is on it. Home Affairs does not ask translators outside Australia to be accredited; it asks for their full name, address and telephone number, and their qualifications and experience in the language, all in English. A translation that carries those details may already do the job, so keep it. A translation you or a relative made yourselves is different: it has no translator’s credential to show, and the credential is what the checklist asks about. Can you translate your own documents? goes through both cases.
Find out who will read it, then choose Standard or NAATI certification
The three processes quoted at the top of this page each describe the translation they want to see. The partner visa checklist asks for a certificate showing the names of both parents. The citizenship application asks for an English translation of every document that is not in English, carrying the translator’s full name, address and telephone number and their qualifications and experience in the language, and it names a full birth certificate for a child 15 or younger and where a date of birth has changed. The Passport Office asks for documents translated in full and stamped by an accredited translator, and names NAATI for translations done in Australia.
Where the wording in front of you points to a NAATI-accredited translator, choose the NAATI certification option when you order: the translation is then prepared by a NAATI-certified translator and carries their certification statement and digital stamp. Standard, the second option at checkout, is a translation with no statement or stamp, for when nobody has asked for certification. If you are unsure which you need, ask the office receiving the translation.
Photograph the certificate, margins and back included
Lay it flat, hold your phone square above it, and take one photo per page with all four corners in the frame, in colour, with the flash off. Older certificates carry amendments and annotations in the margins, and a note there is often the very detail the reader is looking for, so keep the whole page in the shot rather than trimming to the printed box. If the back carries print or a stamp, photograph it too. A clean scan, or the PDF the issuing office gave you, works as well as a photo. The order page takes images and PDFs up to 10MB, one per page, and if the longest edge of a photo is under 1000 pixels it flags it before you pay. How to photograph your document shows what a usable photo looks like.
Build the order online, with the full price on screen
The order page asks one question per screen: the language the certificate is in and English; your email address, entered twice; the document type, where you choose Birth certificate; the number of pages, counting each side that carries text; your photos, one per page; Standard or NAATI certification; and how soon you need it, with the estimated arrival date shown against each speed. You can order up to 4 pages online. The running total updates with every choice, we add nothing at checkout, and payment is taken securely by Stripe. A confirmation email with your order number follows.
Tell us the spelling of your name, if the certificate is in another script
A name already in Latin letters is copied across as printed. A name in another script has to be romanised, and the translation follows the spelling in your passport, so that your identity documents agree with each other. Send that spelling through the contact page with your order number before work begins; nothing is added to the price for it. Dates in another calendar are converted, with the original kept beside them in square brackets. Which spelling of your name goes on the translation explains the rest.
The translation arrives by email as a PDF
Normal delivery is within 3 days and is included. Urgent is 12–24 hours, and ASAP is within 4 hours where available; each surcharge is shown on the order page. We do not deliver on Sundays: a delivery that would fall on a Sunday arrives on the Monday. What arrives is a searchable PDF that follows the layout of your certificate, so the two can be read side by side, with the stamps, seals and marginal notes translated rather than skipped. With the NAATI certification option, the same PDF carries the translator’s certification statement, their digital stamp with its QR code, and a stamped copy of your original. Nothing is printed or posted, but you can print it if an office asks for paper. What a certified translation looks like walks through each page.
The same steps for any document, in more detail: how it works. Ready to send yours? Order online; the full price is on screen before you pay.
Common questions
Questions about translating a birth certificate
The honest answer is that it will not carry what the checklists ask for. They ask about the translator’s credential, not their fluency: Home Affairs’ wording for translations done in Australia points to a NAATI-accredited translator, and a translation you or a relative make here has no credential to put on the page. A translation made overseas is read differently. Home Affairs does not ask translators outside Australia to be accredited, only that their full name, address, telephone number, and qualifications and experience in the language appear on the translation, in English. If a translation from home already carries those details, keep it. Can you translate your own documents? quotes the checklist wording.
No. A photo is enough, and nothing is printed or posted at any stage, so the original stays with you. Take one clear photo of each page with your phone, or use a scanner, keep the margins in the frame, and include the back if it carries print or a stamp. Images and PDFs up to 10MB are accepted, one per page, and if a photo is too small to read the order page flags it before you pay. How to photograph your document shows the photo we need.
You choose the speed when you order. Normal is within 3 days, Urgent 12–24 hours, and ASAP within 4 hours where available. These are estimates, and the order page shows the estimated date for each speed before you commit. We do not deliver on Sundays: a delivery that would fall on a Sunday arrives on the Monday. The clock starts when you place the order. If a photo cannot be read, it pauses until a clearer one arrives. If the certificate has more pages than you paid for, we contact you before work starts: you can pay for the extra pages, and a new window starts once that payment is confirmed, or cancel for a full refund. How long a translation takes covers what moves each window.
A searchable PDF, by email, following the layout of your certificate so the two can be read side by side, with the stamps, seals and marginal notes translated. With the NAATI certification option the same PDF carries the translator’s certification statement, their digital stamp with its QR code, and a stamped copy of your original. The QR code opens NAATI’s own records and states whether the stamp is valid, and the stamp shows the translator’s practitioner number, which anyone can look up in NAATI’s public directory. How to check a NAATI translator shows both checks.
It depends on what the English leaves out. On a bilingual certificate the English column is often shorter than the local one, a later amendment may appear on the local side only, and seal text and registry notes often stay in the original language. An apostille or legalisation stamp in English confirms that the certificate or a signature on it is genuine; it does not put the contents into English. Tell us through the contact page what English is already on yours, and we will say whether anything needs translating before you pay. Documents already partly in English has more.
It may not, and translating it cannot change that, because a translation shows only what the certificate shows. Home Affairs’ citizenship page asks for a “full birth certificate showing parent’s details” for each child in the application, and, where an applicant’s date of birth has changed, “a full birth certificate that shows your parents’ names”. If your extract leaves the parents out, ask the registry that issued it whether a full certificate is available, and have that one translated instead, so you pay for one translation, not two. Citizenship document translation covers the rest of the file.
Yes, and Home Affairs names records like these where a birth certificate cannot be provided. The partner visa checklist asks instead for the identification page of a “family book showing the names of both parents”, a government identification document, a court-issued document that proves your identity, or a family census register. Its citizenship page, for a change of date of birth, names “a family or household registration document”. We translate Japanese koseki extracts, Korean family relation and basic certificates, and the pages you choose from a Chinese household register, each translated page priced as one page. Ask the office which record it wants in place of a birth certificate.
Only if the Passport Office asks for it and it is not in English. An adult born overseas usually gives a citizenship certificate instead, and needs a birth certificate only where that certificate does not show gender or place of birth. Where one is needed, the Passport Office asks for documents “translated in full and stamped by an accredited translator”, or on the letterhead of a government agency that uses NAATI translators, such as TIS National. A free-service extract may not be a full translation, and TIS National says “Australian citizens are also not eligible for this service.” Passport application translation has the rest.
In New South Wales, yes, if it is not in English and is among the documents you give your celebrant. With the Notice of Intended Marriage, NSW asks for “a passport or an official birth certificate”, and says “foreign language certificates and documents must be translated into English by a National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters accredited translator.” Queensland’s registry, for its marriage services, asks for “a certified copy of the original document” and “a translation by a translator certified by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters”. We have not verified other states and territories, so ask your celebrant. Marrying in Australia with foreign documents has more.
Not for the Australian processes this page quotes: none of their wording mentions a notary, and we do not notarise. Certified copies are a separate question, and the answer depends on how you apply. For the online partner visa, the checklist says “You do not need to have any documents certified”. A paper citizenship application is different: Home Affairs says “Get all documents certified”, English translations included, by a person who is an Australian citizen, works in a designated occupation and is not related to you. That step is yours to arrange. With the NAATI option, the certification statement in the PDF is the translator’s own.
No. The translation carries no expiry date. What can leave it out of date is the certificate. If the registry has since issued a fresh copy or added an amendment or correction, or you now hold a full certificate where the old translation was of a short extract, the translation no longer matches the document you hand over, and anyone comparing the two can see it. In that case, have the current certificate translated.
A certificate printed on one side is $39.99, plus $59.99 if you add NAATI certification, with Normal delivery included. Three things change that total. A back carrying text, a stamp or a seal counts as a second page. An apostille or legalisation certificate attached to it is counted the same way, one page for each side that carries text. And Urgent adds $49, or ASAP $99 where available, once per order rather than per page. The order page shows the full total before you pay.
Yes. Punjabi, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Urdu are all on the order page. Certificates issued by Municipal Corporations, Nagar Palikas and Gram Panchayats change format with the state and the decade, and older ones are often partly handwritten, so photograph the whole page in colour, margins included. Where a word cannot be read, it is marked [illegible] rather than guessed. A name in Gurmukhi or Devanagari can be romanised more than one way, so send the spelling in your passport through the contact page with your order number. Hindi to English translation and Punjabi to English translation cover other documents.
Yes. On the order page, choose English under Translate from and Italian, or another listed language, under Translate to; with the NAATI option, the job goes to a translator certified in that direction. Before you order, ask the consulate or office abroad whether it accepts a translator certified in Australia, and whether it wants an apostille on the certificate first. Apostilles on Australian documents come from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, not from us. If one is wanted first, get it before you order and send it with the certificate. If no certified translator can be found for the pair, the order is refunded in full.
NAATI stopped issuing accreditation in 2018, so a form that asks for a “NAATI accredited translator” today means one who holds current NAATI certification. That is who prepares the certified option: a NAATI-certified translator for your language direction — a Certified Translator or Certified Advanced Translator, or a Recognised Practising Translator where NAATI does not test the language. Their practitioner number is on the translation and you can check it in NAATI’s online directory.
Photograph each side that carries print or a stamp, margins included. Then, on the order page, choose the language and the Birth certificate document type, enter the number of pages, upload the photos, and pick NAATI certification or Standard and how soon you need it. The translation arrives by email as a searchable PDF.
Sources checked 18 September 2026: Australian Passport Office, translation help; TIS National, Free Translating Service eligibility; NSW Government, getting married in NSW; Queensland Government, translating documents (page last updated 19 February 2026); Home Affairs, subclass 820 checklist (page last updated 10 August 2026) and citizenship application requirements (page last updated 24 July 2026).