The wording
NAATI accredited, or NAATI certified?
One of these words is current and the other stopped being issued in 2018; a third, approved, was never a NAATI status at all. All three are still typed into search boxes and still printed on government pages. Here is what each word means, what NAATI says about companies that use them, and how to check any translator’s credential yourself.
NAATI’s own words
What NAATI certifies, and what it does not
NAATI publishes guidance on how its name may be used. Three sentences from it settle the argument.
It certifies people, not paper
NAATI says: “NAATI does not certify translations. We certify the translators who do translation work.” So no document is certified by NAATI; what exists is a document a NAATI-certified translator signed and stamped.
No company holds it
NAATI again: “Organisations and companies cannot state that they are certified by NAATI. NAATI only certifies individual translators and interpreters.” That covers every agency badge you will meet, ours included.
The one sentence left to a business
What NAATI does allow is this: “Organisations and companies may state that they engage NAATI-certified translators and interpreters.” That sentence is the whole of our claim.
Source: NAATI, use of the NAATI name and logo (checked 13 September 2026)
And NAATI endorsed? We never use that phrase about ourselves either. NAATI certifies individual practitioners, not businesses, so nothing of that shape is a status you could look up about a company. What the practitioner does sign and stamp is shown in what a certified translation looks like.
The phrases
Six phrases you will see, and what each one really is
Accreditation stopped being issued in 2018 and certification took its place: a credential that belongs to one practitioner, covers one direction of one language pair, and lapses unless it is renewed. Everything below is a variation on that.
| The phrase | What it actually is |
|---|---|
| NAATI accredited translator | The pre-2018 wording, kept alive by habit and by forms nobody has revised. Behind it stands an ordinary certified practitioner, nothing rarer. |
| NAATI approved translator | Never a NAATI status. The word comes from state road-authority pages describing a list, not from NAATI describing a credential. |
| NAATI qualified translator | Everyday shorthand, not a NAATI term. What NAATI issues is certification, held in one direction and renewed on a cycle. |
| NAATI accredited agency, NAATI certified agency | Not available to anyone. NAATI states that organisations cannot say they are certified by it, so a badge of this kind is a company’s own invention. |
| Sworn translator | A court-appointed title in much of Europe and Latin America (traductor jurado, beeidigter Übersetzer). Not an Australian credential: offices here ask about NAATI. |
| NAATI-certified translator | The current and accurate description. One named person, one language direction, and a stamp carrying a practitioner number anybody can look up. |
Where that leaves us. None of the first five describes this business, and no translation company can honestly claim them. What a NAATI certified translation is covers the credential itself, and our main page on NAATI translation in Australia covers what you receive.
Their wording, not ours
Why official pages still print the older words
Several official pages still carry pre-2018 language. We quote them because you will meet them, not because we adopt them.
Victoria
VicRoads’ licence conversion page still carries the older word. It says that where a licence “is not in English, you must have it translated by any NAATI accredited translator or the country’s consulate in Australia”. Their wording, from before the change.
Queensland
Queensland keeps the old vocabulary too. Its guidance for people driving here on an overseas licence says “The National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) has a list of approved translators.” In current language, that list is NAATI’s register of certified practitioners.
Home Affairs
The subclass 820 checklist uses the old word in reverse: translators outside Australia “do not have to be accredited”. What it asks instead is that the translation name the person who produced it and set out their qualifications, and that “These details must be in English”.
Sources: VicRoads, convert an overseas licence; Queensland Government, driving on an overseas licence; Home Affairs, subclass 820 checklist (all checked 13 September 2026)
Read the intent, not the vocabulary. Each is reaching for the same person: a practitioner whose NAATI credential is current in that direction. The state-by-state wording sits on driver licence translation, Victoria and Queensland. Each state’s word, side by side: what NAATI, certified and official mean for a licence.
Check it yourself
Two public routes to any translator’s credential
You do not have to take a website’s word for its own standing, this one included. Both checks are public and work on anyone’s translation.
Scan the stamp
Point a phone at the code on the stamp and NAATI answers, not the translator and not us. Where the code has printed too small or too faint to read, the 32-character identifier underneath does the same job typed in by hand.
Look the person up
NAATI also lists the practitioners it certifies where anyone can search them. Take the name from the certification statement, find it, and check that the direction on the record matches your document. Searchers call this the accredited translator list; it is the same thing under the current name.
Source: NAATI, practitioner identification and the NAATI Online Directory (checked 13 September 2026)
Which word is on the stamp matters less than whether the credential was live. That is the check to run, and it works the same on our translations as on anybody else’s. How to check a NAATI stamp walks through what a lapsed credential looks like when you scan one, and what a certified translation looks like covers the date printed beside the stamp.
Before you order
Two things worth settling before you pay anyone
The old phrase on its own proves nothing either way. These two questions decide more.
- Whose credential is it, and which way does it run? Ask for the name of the practitioner who will sign, and the direction their certification covers. Someone certified from English into Arabic is not automatically certified from Arabic into English, and a company name gives you nothing to look up.
- Is there a free route to try first? Permanent residents and eligible visa holders may qualify for the Commonwealth Free Translating Service instead. Check who is eligible and when we will tell you not to order.
Where we stand: a translation is $39.99 a page, and choosing certification puts a further $59.99 a page on it, which buys a NAATI-certified translator’s name and stamp on the result. What a NAATI translation costs breaks it down, the order page totals it before you pay, and ask us first if you are unsure what your office wants.
Questions
Questions about the wording
Habit, and search traffic. Accreditation was the right word until 2018, and it is still what people type, so a business that drops it loses readers looking for exactly that phrase. It does not make the company accredited: what NAATI issues attaches to a person, so the honest version of the badge names the practitioner who will sign.
A translation prepared by a practitioner whose NAATI certification is current for your language direction. That is the thing the form is after; its wording predates the change, and no separate class of translator sits behind the older term. Where the form also sets rules about originals or hard copies, ring the office before you order.
No. NAATI is the credentialling body, not an employer and not a translation service. It tests practitioners and records who holds which credential; the translating is done by independent professionals, engaged directly or through a business like ours. NAATI does not see your document, does not check it and does not sign it. The name on your certification statement belongs to a person who is answerable for that page, which is why you can look them up and why we can only say that we engage NAATI-certified translators. How to check a NAATI stamp shows what the record holds.
Not on the word alone. Calling yourself NAATI accredited is usually an out-of-date phrase rather than a false claim, and careful businesses still carry it. Judge what sits behind it. Ask who will sign your translation, whether their certification covers your language direction, and whether the finished PDF will carry a stamp you can scan. A business that answers all three is offering something checkable; one that will only repeat the badge is not.
No, it is one more informal phrase, and qualification is not a NAATI status. What a practitioner holds is a credential in a named language direction, and which kind of credential depends on whether NAATI tests that pair at all: Certified Translator is the tested credential; Recognised Practising is granted without a test, only where no test exists, and for those languages it is the NAATI credential a translator can hold. What a NAATI certified translation is sets the two apart. Neither the phrase on a website nor the name of the credential tells you as much as the direction and the expiry date, and you can read both for yourself.
Notarising is a separate step. A notary public witnesses signatures and certifies copies for use overseas, and does not vouch for the language work; the translator does. For a visa or citizenship application, Home Affairs says: “Translators in Australia must be accredited by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters.” Its answer on translations does not mention a notary. We do not notarise, and it is not a step we arrange. If an office has asked for a notarised translation, ask it what the notary is meant to attest. Apostille, notary or translation sets out who does what, and in what order.