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PDF or hard copy? Where a printed translation is enough, and where to ask first

Everything we send arrives as a PDF. Whether printing it is enough depends on who is reading it, and the honest map has gaps in it.

Published 4 September 2026 · Official Translation

The short answer: you get a PDF

Every translation we deliver arrives by email as a searchable PDF. We do not print, post or courier anything, and nothing is signed in ink. With the Standard option there is no stamp at all. With the NAATI option, the translation is prepared by a NAATI-certified translator and carries their certification statement and stamp, and that stamp is normally the digital kind, with a QR code on it. We set out that option on NAATI translation in Australia.

So whether a printed PDF will do depends on who is reading it, and some of them have said what they want and some have not. An online lodgement takes a file, not a sheet of paper. Counters vary: one state names the digital stamp on its own page, one publishes nothing either way, one says originals without saying what that means for a translation, and one takes translations from four named sources only, none of which is us.

If the office you are dealing with has already told you it wants a wet stamp or a handwritten signature, we are not the right supplier, and we would rather say so before you order than after.

What a digital stamp is, and why NAATI made one

For a long time a translator’s stamp was a rubber stamp and a signature. NAATI’s practitioner identification page explains what changed: “From March 2023, NAATI released digital identification options for certified practitioners. Practitioners can choose to use either a physical translator stamp or ID card, or the digital option.”

The digital stamp is not a picture of the rubber one. NAATI says: “If you are presented a NAATI digital ID card or see a NAATI digital stamp on a translated document, it will contain a QR code which can be scanned to verify the credential.” Where a physical stamp carries the translator’s signature, NAATI’s page on DFAT requirements says the digital one carries the words “Digitally Authenticated by NAATI” instead.

That is the point of it. The check moves from judging a signature by eye to scanning a code and seeing who the translator is. The translator downloads and applies their own stamp; we never hold one. To see how the stamp and statement sit on the page, read what a certified translation looks like.

Lodging online? The file you upload is what they read

A partner visa is lodged online, and the Home Affairs checklist for the subclass 820 visa tells you how to prepare the file: “Scan or photograph all documents (English and non-English) in colour”. There is no counter and no envelope. The translation you upload sits next to a colour scan of the original, and both are read on a screen.

The same checklist, in its instructions for the online application, says: “You do not need to have any documents certified”. That line is not about who translates: the same checklist says translators in Australia must be accredited by NAATI, so the certified-documents line on its own does not decide whether you choose Standard or the NAATI option. What the checklist says about who may translate is quoted on our partner visa document translation page.

For this kind of lodgement the question barely arises. A paper translation would have been scanned into a PDF anyway. Ours simply starts that way, and with the NAATI option the QR code arrives intact.

At a counter, what has each state actually said?

South Australia comes closest to describing our format. Its page for drivers on an overseas licence lists who may translate, and the first entry is one “translated by a National Accreditation Authority for Translators & Interpreters Ltd (NAATI) approved translator”, either “stamped and signed by the translator” or carrying “a NAATI digital stamp (QR code)”. The same page says originals only. So the digital stamp is a form that page names. Our page on driving in South Australia on an overseas licence has the full list.

Queensland is the one we will not guess about. The Transport and Main Roads (TMR) transfer page says “All documents must be originals” and that photocopies and certified copies are not acceptable. It never mentions digital, PDF or printed translations, so nobody can tell from the page whether that sentence reaches a translation at all. Other websites state it confidently both ways. We will not. If you are transferring a licence, ring TMR before you order; our licence translation for Queensland page says the same, and why.

Victoria has simply not said. VicRoads’ page on converting an overseas licence says that if your licence is not in English “you must have it translated by any NAATI accredited translator or the country’s consulate in Australia”, and publishes no position on printed digital translations either way. If it matters to your appointment, ask VicRoads on 13 11 71 first. VicRoads’ own wording is quoted on licence translation for Victoria.

New South Wales is a different problem, and not a printing one. Service NSW’s transfer page says Transport for NSW only accepts translations from four named sources, and adds: “You must provide the original translation document. Photocopies are not accepted.” We are not one of the four, so a translation for a NSW licence transfer is not work we can do, printed or otherwise. Licence translation for NSW explains who the four are.

How to carry a digital translation to a counter

The practical job is to give the person at the counter the best chance of reading it and scanning it.

Print in colour and at full size. NAATI’s guidance says the QR code “needs to be 2cm x 2cm if resized” and that for readability it recommends “7cm wide as a minimum size” for the stamp. Do not shrink two pages onto one sheet, and do not let the print settings scale the page to fit.

Keep the PDF on your phone as well, so there is a second copy and a screen the code can be scanned from if the print is poor. And carry the original document. A translation travels with your licence or certificate; it never replaces it.

State by state: licence translation for Queensland, licence translation for Victoria, licence translation for NSW, and driving in South Australia on an overseas licence. Lodging online: partner visa document translation. What the stamp and statement look like on the page: what a certified translation looks like.

Sources, checked on the date shown: