Worked example
Three languages, one partner visa file
A birth certificate in Vietnamese, a divorce decree in Spanish, police certificates from two countries, and a checklist that wanted all of it in English. (Illustrative example. The people and the file are made up, to show how the published rules apply. It is not a customer story and not a testimonial.)
Published 4 September 2026 · Official Translation
Partner visa: does your document need translating?
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The situation
Take an onshore partner visa application. The applicant was born in Vietnam, has been married and divorced in Spain, and has lived in both countries long enough to need police certificates from each. The Australian partner goes through the checklist with a highlighter and counts eleven pages that are not in English.
What the checklist says
The subclass 820 checklist is unusually direct. “Have all documents translated into English. Provide original and translated documents in your application. Translators in Australia must be accredited by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters.” For the birth certificate: “Provide a birth certificate showing the names of both parents”. For the earlier marriage: “If you have previously been married, widowed, divorced or permanently separated, provide divorce documents, death certificates, separation documents or statutory declarations.”
And one sentence that saves a trip to a justice of the peace: “You do not need to have any documents certified” for the online application. Colour scans of the originals, plus translations. That was the whole ask.
What we would send
The Vietnamese birth certificate, translated in full with both parents’ names exactly as the certificate carries them, the wording on the red registry seal translated, and the handwritten entries read and translated. The Spanish divorce decree with the court, the case number, the parties and the effective date, and the two surnames kept in the order the decree uses so the name chain stays intact. The two police certificates with the result wording carried across word for word, the issuing authority, the reference numbers and the dates, because the checklist notes police certificates are valid for twelve months for immigration purposes.
All of it with the NAATI certification option, since the translation is being done in Australia and the checklist says translators in Australia must be accredited by NAATI. Each translation carries the translator’s certification statement and NAATI stamp, with their name and practitioner number, which anyone can check on NAATI’s directory.
What a translator can control
Consistency. Eleven pages, three languages, one applicant, and her name spelt the same way on every page, matched to her passport. The checklist asks for the original and the translation together, so anyone reading the file can compare them. That is a translation job as much as a language job. Questions about whether the file meets the visa requirements are for a registered migration agent.
The documents the partner visa checklists name, with the quotes: partner visa document translation.