Marriage certificate translation

Photograph it, order online, and the English translation comes back as a PDF by email. On the order page, upload a clear photo or scan of every side with printing, a stamp or a seal on it, including the back and any apostille. Choose Standard, or NAATI certification if the office reading it has asked for a certified or NAATI translation, then a delivery speed. If the names are in another script, send both spouses’ passport spellings through the contact page with your order number before work starts, as which spelling of your name explains. The certificate itself stays with you.

The translation is $39.99 a page, and NAATI certification adds $59.99 a page. The number that matters is the page count. Every side with printing, a stamp or a seal on it counts, so a certificate with registration stamps on the back is two pages, and so is one with an apostille sheet attached. Normal delivery, within 3 days, is included. Urgent adds $49, and ASAP adds $99 where a translator for the language is free. Either surcharge is charged once per order, not per page. All three times are estimates, and the order page shows the estimated date for each speed. We do not deliver on Sundays: a delivery that would fall on a Sunday arrives on the Monday. The total is on screen before you pay.

Usually, yes, if any of it is not in English: the partner visa checklists, the Passport Office and the divorce court each ask for an English translation. English headings do not help when the names, dates and places under them are in another language, and a registry seal or margin note in the local language still needs translating. If every word, stamps included, is already in English, ask that office before you order, because you may not need us at all. Documents already in English covers mixed-language certificates.

You can write one, but the certificate is evidence about you both, so either of you would be vouching for your own paperwork, usually with no translator’s credential behind it. Being bilingual does not change that. The offices that usually receive a marriage certificate each say who translates: the partner visa checklists say “Translators in Australia must be accredited by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters”, the Passport Office asks for documents “stamped by an accredited translator”, and the divorce court wants an affidavit from the translator. Translations made overseas are judged differently, as translating your own documents explains.

The certificate and its English translation, both. The Home Affairs partner visa checklists say “Provide original and translated documents in your application” and “You do not need to have any documents certified”, so a clear colour scan of the certificate goes in with the translation, not a certified copy. On who translates, they say “Translators in Australia must be accredited by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters”. For a translation made here, choose the NAATI certification option at checkout. Partner visa document translation lists the other documents the checklists name.

A translation, and a sworn statement from the person who made it. The Federal Circuit and Family Court says the translator “must complete an Affidavit Translation of Marriage Certificate”, attach a copy of the original certificate and the translation, and set out “their qualifications to make the translation”. The affidavit must be “sworn or affirmed before a Justice of the Peace or a Lawyer” and filed at the same time as the Application for Divorce. An online order delivers a translation as a PDF and does not include that affidavit, so ask us before you order and we will tell you plainly whether we can help. The translator’s affidavit for a divorce walks through the court’s form.

Your own certificate sets the format: the translation follows its layout as closely as it can, so an officer can match each field and seal to the original. We do not supply a blank template, and one filled in at home has no translator standing behind it. A word that cannot be read is marked [illegible] and a signature [signed]. With NAATI certification, the same PDF also carries the translator’s certification statement, their digital stamp with its QR code, and a copy of your certificate stamped by them. You receive a searchable PDF, not an editable Word file. What a certified translation looks like shows each part.

You do not need anywhere nearby: the service runs online, with no office to visit and nothing to post. That suits an overseas marriage certificate, which the Attorney-General’s Department’s guidelines for celebrants say “may not be easy to replace if lost”. You photograph it, upload the images, and the certificate stays at home. If you would rather someone came to you, we visit in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Logan for A$80 on top of the translation price, photograph the certificate with you and hand it straight back. Clause 2 of our terms sets out that fee and what happens if a visit is cancelled. The contact page explains how to book a visit.

Yes. Urdu is on the order page with Arabic, Persian, Dari, Pashto, Punjabi, Bengali, Sinhala, Tamil and many more, all at the same per-page price. Names on these certificates have no single English spelling, so tell us how each spouse’s name appears in their passport and the translation follows it. Where the certificate prints its own Latin-letter spelling, that is kept and the passport form is added in square brackets. For a language that is not listed, contact us and we confirm we can cover it before you pay anything. Arabic to English translation shows how names and Hijri dates are handled.

Often, yes. The translation has no expiry date, so it can go into a later application as long as the certificate has not changed. A translation matches the certificate it was made from: if the registry has since reissued yours or added a note in the margin, that version needs translating afresh. Check the option you chose, too. The Passport Office asks for documents “stamped by an accredited translator”, and a Standard translation carries no stamp. We keep your finished translation and re-send it free whenever you ask.

Sometimes, but its rules shut out visa and citizenship applications and divorce affidavits. TIS National’s Free Translating Service lists marriage records among eligible documents, for holders of an eligible visa granted in the past two years who are in Australia, and says “Australian citizens are also not eligible”. It also says “Document translations required for visa or citizenship applications, and documents issued by private citizens, are not eligible”, and “Translator affidavits for family court or other legal purposes are not available”. Most of its translations come in “an extract summary format of up to 100 words”. Free Translating Service eligibility sets out the tests.

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.