Can you translate your own documents? What the checklist asks for

The subclass 820 partner visa checklist says this about translation: “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.”

Notice what the third sentence leaves out. It says nothing about how well the translator speaks either language, and nothing about whether they are related to you. It asks whether a translator working in Australia is accredited by NAATI. You can be perfectly bilingual and still have nothing to put on the page that answers it, because fluency is not a credential you can print.

So the honest answer for a birth certificate you or a relative translate here is that the result does not carry what the checklist asks for. That is not a comment on your English. It is a description of what is missing from the page: the name and credential of a translator NAATI has certified, which is what a NAATI translation carries.

First, the Free Translating Service, with one catch. TIS National puts it plainly: “Permanent residents and eligible visa holders can get up to 10 personal documents translated into English for free.” Its eligibility page is just as plain about what the service will not cover: “Document translations required for visa or citizenship applications, and documents issued by private citizens, are not eligible.”

So it is worth using for the papers you need for work, study or settling in, rather than for the visa file itself. The visa exclusions run the same way: “Tourist visa holders and working holiday visa holders are not eligible for the Free Translating Service. Australian citizens are also not eligible for this service.” Our page on Free Translating Service eligibility sets out the visa test and quotes the time limits.

Second, certified copies. It is easy to spend an afternoon with a justice of the peace having photocopies stamped before uploading them. The 820 checklist says of the online application: “You do not need to have any documents certified”. The question it puts is about who translated the document, not whether a copy has been witnessed. Check that line on the checklist for your own visa before you book the afternoon.

If you are eligible for the free service and the document is not for the visa file, use it. If the translation from home already carries the translator details the checklist lists, all in English, keep it. We would rather say both of those things here than sell you a page you do not need.

If neither applies, and you are in Australia with a document the checklist wants in English, choose the NAATI certification option at checkout. The translation is then prepared by a NAATI-certified translator and carries their certification statement and stamp, the thing a translator in Australia can put on the page that you and your cousin cannot. Standard, our other option, is a translation without a certification statement or stamp, so it does not show the credential the checklist asks about. The papers without a page of their own, court orders, powers of attorney and name-change records among them, are on our official document translation page, and every document we translate is listed on certified translation services.

If anything about your situation is unusual, ask Home Affairs first and order second.