Citizenship applications
Citizenship document translation
Becoming an Australian citizen means proving who you are with documents from the country you were born in. If any are not in English, Home Affairs asks for a translation. We translate them in full, deliver digitally, and offer NAATI certification — the option to choose when translating in Australia.
Citizenship: does your document need translating?
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Which documents
The identity documents a citizenship application asks for
The application asks you to show who you are, where you were born and how your name became what it is today. Home Affairs asks for 3 documents that together show your birth name, date of birth and gender, your photograph, your signature and your current residential address.
A birth certificate
Home Affairs names a full birth certificate in two places: for each child 15 or younger in the application, “showing parent’s details”, and where your date of birth has changed, “a full birth certificate that shows your parents’ names”. If the certificate that goes in your file is in another language, the translation shows every field, stamp and margin note. More on birth certificate translation.
Passport or national ID
A current passport or identity card with your photograph. Many passports carry English alongside the local language, but stamps, endorsements and observation pages often do not. We translate those pages too.
Name-change and marriage documents
If the name on your birth certificate is not the name you use now, the application asks for the link: a marriage certificate, a divorce order, a deed poll or a court name-change record. Each is translated so the chain of names reads clearly.
What Home Affairs says
Translation, translator details and paper versus online
Translate anything not in English
Home Affairs’ citizenship page is short on this point: “Provide an English translation for all documents that are not in English.” The same rule covers every document in the file.
Source: Home Affairs, citizenship application requirements (last updated 24 July 2026)
Who should translate it
“All documents not in English must be translated into English. Translators in Australia must be accredited by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters.” Its citizenship page adds that every translation should show the translator’s full name, address and telephone number, and their qualifications and experience in the language, in English.
Source: Home Affairs, popular questions (page last updated 16 September 2026)
Online or on paper
Applying online? You submit the documents and their translations with the application. Applying on paper? There is one more step: the documents, translations included, need to be certified.
What a careful job includes
Translations that follow the document, field by field
Names spelt one way, everywhere
A citizenship file often holds several documents naming the same person. We keep every name spelt consistently across all of them, matched to the passport where one exists.
Every stamp, seal and annotation
The wording on registry stamps, apostilles, margin notes and later corrections is translated, and the translation follows the layout of the document as closely as it can. A translation that skips them is a translation of a different document.
Translator details with NAATI certification
With the NAATI certification option the translation is prepared by a NAATI-certified translator and carries their name, practitioner number, certification statement and digital stamp with its QR code. The Standard option carries no statement or stamp.
Translating in Australia for a citizenship application? Home Affairs’ wording points to a NAATI-accredited translator — choose the NAATI certification option at checkout. NAATI translation in Australia explains what that option includes.
Before you pay
The free government service does not cover citizenship files
Permanent residents and some visa holders can have up to 10 personal documents translated free by TIS National’s Free Translating Service. Its eligibility page rules out this use: “Document translations required for visa or citizenship applications, and documents issued by private citizens, are not eligible.” It may still cover other personal documents, so it is worth checking what you qualify for.
What it offers
“Permanent residents and eligible visa holders can get up to 10 personal documents translated into English for free.” Those 10 cannot include the documents you lodge with a citizenship application, which its eligibility page rules out.
The time limit
“Your visa must be granted in the past 2 years, and still valid (not cancelled or expired).” If your visa was granted earlier than that, the free service is closed to you entirely. Meeting the window does not open it to a citizenship file either — it decides only whether you can use the service for documents outside one.
Source: TIS National, Eligibility
After you become a citizen
That ends once you become a citizen: “Australian citizens are also not eligible for this service.” Documents you need translated later — for an Australian passport application, say — fall outside it.
Source: TIS National, Eligibility
Check whether you qualify for the free service for documents outside your citizenship file.
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. Order your citizenship documents together and the names are kept consistent across them.
Only need the birth certificate translated? Sponsoring a partner too? See partner visa document translation.
Questions
What people ask about translating documents for Australian citizenship
Three, plus proof of any name change. Home Affairs asks for 3 documents that together show your birth name, date of birth and gender, a photograph, your signature and your current residential address, and for “official evidence of any change of name”. Only documents not in English need translating. An Australian driver licence and an electricity bill both appear in its examples, and neither needs a translator. That can leave a single foreign document to translate, such as a birth certificate. Choose your three before you order, so you pay only for pages that go in the file.
Home Affairs names alternatives. For a change of date of birth it asks for a full birth certificate that shows your parents’ names, and if you cannot give one, “a family or household registration document” or “any other collection of documents issued to you prior to your arrival in Australia that collectively confirm your identity from birth”. Any of these not in English needs an English translation. A household register can run to several pages, and every side carrying text, a stamp or a seal counts as a page. The order page takes up to four pages; for a longer register, send an enquiry and we quote first.
Home Affairs asks for any one of three kinds: “an official (non-commemorative) marriage or divorce certificate”, change of name documents from an Australian registry “or the relevant overseas authority”, or other official documents that show links between the names you have been known by. Note the word non-commemorative. A decorative keepsake certificate is not official proof of marriage, so have the official certificate translated. If your name changed more than once, include a document for each change. Marriage certificate translation and divorce certificate translation explain what each translation includes.
Yes, where they are not in English. For each child aged 15 or younger in your application, Home Affairs asks for a full birth certificate showing the parents’ details, a passport or travel document, evidence of any change of name and a photograph. It also asks for any parenting orders, and for adoption documents where a child was adopted. Each non-English document is translated in full, the same as yours. The order page takes up to four pages per order; a document longer than that goes through an enquiry, and we quote before you commit.
Yes, if you need one and it is not in English. Home Affairs asks for an overseas penal clearance certificate if, since turning 18 and while holding a permanent visa, you spent 12 months or more outside Australia in total and 90 days or more in any one country, or if the Department requests one. New Zealand citizens on a Special Category visa have a separate rule on the same page. Home Affairs requests the New Zealand check itself, and the Australian police check for applicants 16 or over. A foreign certificate is translated in full, result wording and reference numbers included; see police certificate translation.
For a translation made in Australia, Home Affairs’ wording ranges from “should” to “must”, depending on the page. The citizenship by conferral page says “you should use a translator accredited by” NAATI, while the citizenship by descent page says “you must use” one.
For a translation made overseas the test is lighter: Home Affairs’ subclass 820 checklist says translators outside Australia “do not have to be accredited”, so long as each translation shows their full name, address and telephone number, and their qualifications and experience in the language, in English. Accredited is the older word for what NAATI now calls certification; NAATI accredited or certified explains the change. Our NAATI option is prepared by a NAATI-certified translator.
Search the NAATI Online Directory for a translator certified from your language into English. The direction matters, because each NAATI certification covers one direction, and a citizenship file needs translations into English. The other route is our NAATI certification option: the order goes to a translator certified for your language direction, who signs the certification statement and applies their own digital stamp. Either way, you can check the name on the statement afterwards; how to check a NAATI translator shows how. Language not on the order page? Ask us first.
Possibly, because a translation carries no expiry date. Check that it shows what the citizenship page asks for: the translator’s full name, address and telephone number, and their qualifications and experience in the language, all in English. If it was made in Australia, that page also says “you should use a translator accredited by” NAATI. Check too that it covers the document you are lodging now. A reissued certificate, or a marriage or divorce since your visa, needs its own translation.
Yes, both. Home Affairs says “You must submit both the original document (non-English) and the translated document.” For an online application, its citizenship page asks you to scan all your original documents in colour, and to save a document of more than one page as one file. Our translation arrives as a PDF, ready to attach beside that scan. Keep the paper originals safe after you lodge: Home Affairs says it “may ask for extra documents or original documents”.
No, and a paper citizenship application can need both. A certified translation is the translator’s own work: with our NAATI option, a NAATI-certified translator signs a certification statement and applies a digital stamp with a QR code. A certified copy is a later check by someone else, who compares a copy with the original and writes or stamps that it is a true copy, adding their signature, name, occupation, phone number and the date. An online application takes scans of the originals instead. For a paper application, Home Affairs lists “non-English documents” and “English translations” among the documents to certify.
Someone who is an Australian citizen, is not related to you by birth, marriage or de facto relationship, and works in an occupation on Home Affairs’ list. The list includes a justice of the peace, a police officer, and a licensed or registered pharmacist, nurse or legal practitioner, among others. Paper is the exception: Home Affairs names it for people who, for example, do not have a current or expired passport or other travel document, have not travelled in or out of Australia since July 1990, or are eligible for a fee exemption. Our translation is a PDF, so ask the certifier first whether they will certify a printout.
The cost follows pages, not the application: $39.99 a page, plus $59.99 a page if you add NAATI certification. Each side carrying text, a stamp or a seal is a page, so a one-page birth certificate is one page and an identity card printed on both sides is two. Normal delivery is included, and the full price is on screen before you pay. The order page takes up to four pages per order; a longer document, such as a household register, is quoted through an enquiry before you commit.
Yes. Home Affairs asks for “all requested documents lodged with your application”, and says that without English translations of non-English documents, “this may delay your application”. Normal delivery is within 3 days, included in the price. Urgent is 12–24 hours for $49 an order, and ASAP is within 4 hours for $99 an order where a translator for your language is available. All three are estimates, so leave a margin. We do not deliver on Sundays: a delivery that would fall on a Sunday arrives on the Monday. A document over four pages is quoted by email first, so allow time for that step as well.
On Home Affairs’ processing times page, updated 15 September 2026, 90% of citizenship by conferral applications are processed within 5 months, and 90% of approved applicants have the opportunity to attend a ceremony within 6 months of approval. Those figures change, so check the page when you apply. Part of the time is in your hands. Home Affairs lists “whether you have given us a complete application, including all the supporting documents” among the factors that affect processing, and that includes an English translation of every document not in English.
No. Home Affairs says “The test is conducted in English only.” It assesses your English language skills as well as what you know about Australia, and a score of 75% or more, with all 5 questions on Australian values correct, meets the language requirement. What you can read in your own language is the preparation material: the official booklet, Australian Citizenship: Our Common Bond, is available “in English and a range of community languages”. Some applicants have only an interview. Our service covers the documents in your file, not the test.
Sources: Home Affairs, citizenship application requirements (last updated 24 July 2026), and its citizenship by descent, processing times and citizenship test pages; subclass 820 checklist (page last updated 10 August 2026) for the wording on translators outside Australia. Checked 18 September 2026.