Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
NAATI translation in Canberra
Order from anywhere in Canberra, with no office to visit: photograph your document, order online, and the translation arrives by email as a PDF. NAATI certification is an option, prepared by a NAATI-certified translator, one of the three sources Access Canberra names for a licence translation.
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Driving in the ACT on an overseas licence?
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In their own words
What Access Canberra says
Quoted rather than paraphrased wherever we have the exact words, so you can see the wording your translation will be read against. Each source says when we checked it.
Visiting the ACT on your own licence
“If you have a full licence from another country and are only visiting the ACT (not living here), you don’t need to get an ACT driver licence.” Access Canberra says a visiting driver should have an International Driving Permit, and the same page also lists “an overseas licence not in English, with an official English translation”. Keep the licence with you whenever you drive; a translation or a permit goes with it, never instead of it.
Source: Access Canberra, drivers with licences from overseas (checked 18 September 2026)
Who may prepare the translation
“You need an official English translation from one of these places”: an embassy or consulate, the Department of Home Affairs, or “A translator who is certified by NAATI”. Our NAATI option is prepared by a NAATI-certified translator, so it matches the third item on that list; our Standard option, which carries no stamp, does not.
Source: Access Canberra, drivers with licences from overseas (checked 19 September 2026)
Already here without a permit
A permit comes from home, not from Australia. The Australian Automobile Association, which issues permits here, says: “Only Australian driver licence holders can apply for an IDP in Australia. If you hold an overseas driver licence you must apply for a permit in the country that issued your licence.” If you are already in Canberra without one, the translation is the alternative the ACT itself names.
Source: Australian Automobile Association, International Driving Permits (checked 18 September 2026)
Moving to Canberra
The same Access Canberra page, on permanent residents: “As a holder of a permanent visa you will be able to continue to use you overseas licence for 3 months after which you must hold an ACT Driver Licence”.
For the change itself: “If your driver licence is not written in English, you must also bring an official English translation from one of these places:” an embassy or consulate, the Department of Home Affairs, or “A translator who is certified by NAATI (a group that approves translators in Australia).” Our NAATI option matches that third place, so choose it for an ACT licence too.
Source: Access Canberra, drivers with licences from overseas (checked 21 October 2026)
Driving without a translation or permit. In the ACT, a visitor’s exemption from holding a local licence applies while the licence is held with a permit or an official English translation. Without either, police can issue a $279 fine for not producing the document, or a $750 fine for driving unlicensed, and a court can impose up to $3,200, more for a repeat offence. Amounts checked 21 September 2026; the ACT raises its on-the-spot amounts each 1 July. Every state side by side: driving without a licence translation: the fine in each state.
Sources: Road Transport (Driver Licensing) Regulation 2000 (ACT), s 94 and s 100; Road Transport (Offences) Regulation 2005 (ACT), infringement amounts; Road Transport (Driver Licensing) Act 1999 (ACT), s 31; Legislation Act 2001 (ACT), s 133, the $160 penalty unit (checked 21 September 2026)
Not a licence? For a visa or citizenship application the rule is national, the same in Canberra as anywhere else in Australia. Home Affairs: “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.” See citizenship document translation.
Source: Home Affairs, translating documents (page last updated 16 September 2026, checked 18 September 2026)
Access Canberra’s list says who translates, which fits how NAATI works: it certifies translators, not translations (NAATI accredited or certified?). For driving or hiring a car in the ACT, choose the NAATI option. The full rules are on driving in Canberra on an overseas licence, and how each state words it is in NAATI, certified or official? A rental company applies its own licence terms on top of the ACT rule; renting a car in Australia on an overseas licence sets out what the major rental companies’ terms say.
Ordering from Canberra
No office to visit, and no counter to queue at
From anywhere in the ACT
Photograph every page, front and back, and start your order from home, work or a hotel room. The full price is on screen before you pay, in Australian dollars, and we add nothing at checkout. Up to 4 pages online; a longer document is priced by email first.
Three delivery windows
Normal delivery is within 3 days and is included. Urgent is 12–24 hours, and ASAP arrives within 4 hours where a translator for your language is available at that moment. All three are estimates. We do not deliver on Sundays: a delivery that would fall on a Sunday arrives on the Monday. Each surcharge is shown on the order page.
Translation prices start from $19.99 AUD per page; the full price, including the NAATI option and the delivery speed, is shown on the order page before you pay.
If an office wants paper
Nothing is printed or posted. The PDF prints on any printer, and on the NAATI option the translator’s digital stamp carries a QR code that can be scanned from paper. Where a printed copy is enough, and where it is not, is in PDF or hard copy?
Canberra time and Brisbane time. You can call, text, WhatsApp, email or order 24/7. Only the estimated dates on the order page and the Sunday rule run on Brisbane time, and Queensland has no daylight saving. The ACT does. From the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April, Canberra is one hour ahead of Brisbane, so midnight in Brisbane is 1am in Canberra. The rest of the year the two cities share the same time.
Driver’s licence Birth certificate Marriage certificate Citizenship documents Academic transcript Degree certificate Police certificate NAATI translation, ordered online
NAATI translations don’t expire
NAATI’s own FAQ says it in three words: “Translations don’t expire.” Translate once, keep the PDF and use it again while your document stays the same.
This applies to our NAATI option, available on the order page. A renewed or reissued document needs a new translation, and each office sets its own requirements; tell us who it is for and we’ll check what they ask for. Do NAATI translations expire?
Common questions
Questions about ordering from Canberra
No. We are a Brisbane-based online service in Queensland with no shopfront in Canberra, and you do not need one: photograph the document, order online, and the translation arrives by email as a PDF. If the office you are dealing with wants a printed copy, print the PDF; on the NAATI option, the translator’s stamp and QR code print with it.
You choose one of three speeds when you order, and each delivery time is an estimate, not a fixed arrival time. Normal is within 3 days, Urgent 12–24 hours, and ASAP within 4 hours where a translator for your language is available. We do not deliver on Sundays: a delivery that would fall on a Sunday arrives on the Monday. Urgent and ASAP are priced on the order page. The order page shows the estimated dates against each one before you commit, worked out on Brisbane time; from the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April, Canberra is one hour ahead of Brisbane. See how delivery times are worked out.
Access Canberra lists “an overseas licence not in English, with an official English translation”, and names three places that translation can come from: an embassy or consulate, the Department of Home Affairs, or “A translator who is certified by NAATI”. Choose the NAATI certification option, prepared by a NAATI-certified translator; it is also the one to choose for hiring a car in Canberra. Standard is a translation with no statement or stamp, for when nobody has asked for certification.
Choose the NAATI option. For changing to an ACT licence, Access Canberra says: “If your driver licence is not written in English, you must also bring an official English translation from one of these places:” an embassy or consulate, the Department of Home Affairs, or “A translator who is certified by NAATI (a group that approves translators in Australia).” Our NAATI option is prepared by a translator certified by NAATI, the third place on that list. A permanent visa holder can drive on the overseas licence “for 3 months after which you must hold an ACT Driver Licence to drive in the ACT.” Driving as a visitor is a different rule, set out above, and the NAATI option is the one to choose there too.
Yes, for documents and for driving as a visitor: the order runs online, so it works the same on either side of the border. One thing changes, because Queanbeyan is in New South Wales. If you live there and are transferring an overseas licence to a NSW one, Transport for NSW “only accepts translations from” four named sources, and we are not one of them, so we do not sell translations for a NSW licence transfer. Which of the four applies to you is on licence translation for NSW.
Ordering from somewhere else? NAATI translation in every Australian state and territory.