NAATI certified translation
NAATI translation in Australia, ordered online
A NAATI-certified translator puts your document into English, signs a certification statement and applies a digital stamp whose QR code the receiving office can scan. It comes back by email as a PDF. Translation is $39.99 a page, certification a further $59.99 a page, and delivery within 3 days is included.
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The distinction
What a NAATI translation is, and what it is not
NAATI certifies the translator, not the document.
A credential held by a person
A NAATI credential sits with one person and one language direction — never with a document, and never with a company. Choose certification and a NAATI-certified translator prepares your file, signs it in their own name and stamps it. What a NAATI certified translation is goes further.
Old words on current forms
Two words follow this subject around: accredited and approved. The first is a retired NAATI term, the second was never one at all. What counts is not the adjective but a live credential held by the person who signs. NAATI accredited, or NAATI certified? takes the vocabulary apart.
What arrives
What is in the PDF, and what the office can check
One file, by email, built to be read beside your original.
The translation, in the shape of the original
The translation follows the layout of your original as closely as it can, so the two can be read side by side. Nothing is dropped: the wording on a seal is translated or the seal is marked in square brackets, and handwritten notes and the fine print on the reverse are translated too. How that differs from a machine: Google Translate or ChatGPT for official documents.
A statement with a name on it
A named NAATI-certified translator sets out what they translated and stands behind it — that is what an office means when it asks who did the work. There is a worked example in what a certified translation looks like.
A stamp anyone can check
The stamp carries the practitioner’s number and a QR code; scanning it confirms the credential. If a printout refuses to scan, the 32-character identifier under the code can be entered by hand instead. How to check a translator runs both checks.
The Standard option carries none of that. No statement, no stamp, no QR code, at $39.99 a page. The two sit side by side under certified translation services. Either way nothing is printed or posted: you upload a photo or PDF up to 10MB a page and your original stays with you. How it works shows each screen.
Price and speed
What a NAATI translation costs, and how fast it arrives
Both options are priced per page, and we add nothing at checkout.
| Option | What the PDF carries | Price per page |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | A full translation that follows the layout of the original as closely as it can, with nothing signed or stamped. | $39.99 |
| NAATI certified | Everything in Standard, plus a certification statement from a named NAATI-certified translator and their scannable stamp. | $39.99 plus $59.99 |
Counting is by the side. If a side shows print, a stamp or a seal it counts, so a licence card is two, and a card with certification comes to $199.96. The driver licence translation page explains why the reverse is not optional, and a Korean licence read field by field shows what sits on each side. A birth certificate is usually one page, and a document already partly in English may need less translating than you expect.
| Delivery | Arrives | Added to the price |
|---|---|---|
| Normal | within 3 days | Included |
| Urgent | 12–24 hours | $49 once per order |
| ASAP | within 4 hours | $99 once per order |
The surcharge is charged once on the order, whatever the page count, and both options are offered at the same speeds. The clock starts when payment clears; ASAP needs a practitioner in your direction free to begin at once. We do not deliver on Sundays: a delivery that would fall on a Sunday arrives on the Monday. How long a translation takes covers what else moves the clock. The order form takes up to 4 pages; for anything longer, or a language it does not list, send an enquiry for a price first. What a NAATI translation costs, line by line builds an order up from the page count.
In their own words
What Australian bodies actually say about translations
Quoted, with the source under each. None names this business, and where a rule shuts us out we say so.
NAATI, on companies like ours
Its guidance on the use of its name is blunt: “Organisations and companies cannot state that they are certified by NAATI. NAATI only certifies individual translators and interpreters.” What we may say is that we engage NAATI-certified translators.
Source: NAATI, Use of NAATI Logo, Trademark & Other Logos (checked 13 September 2026)
Home Affairs, on translators outside Australia
Abroad the test is lighter. On the subclass 820 checklist, a translator outside Australia does “not have to be accredited”, but the file must give their name, address and telephone number, their qualifications and their experience, and “These details must be in English.” Doing it yourself is a separate question: translating your own documents.
Source: Home Affairs, subclass 820 document checklist (checked 13 September 2026)
Home Affairs, on the images you send
The same checklist sets the standard for pictures: scans and photos “must be clear enough to read. If a document is more than one page, save it all as one file.” Photographing a document shows how.
Source: Home Affairs, subclass 820 document checklist (checked 13 September 2026)
TIS National, on the free service
The Commonwealth runs one that costs nothing: “Permanent residents and eligible visa holders can get up to 10 personal documents translated into English for free.” Who qualifies sets out the four tests.
Source: TIS National, About the Free Translating Service (checked 13 September 2026)
TIS National, on what it returns
Two limits matter. “Most translations are provided in an extract summary format of up to 100 words.” And: “Within 30 calendar days following the application’s approval, the completed translation will be available to download.”
Source: TIS National, About the Free Translating Service (checked 13 September 2026)
Service NSW, on a closed list
Convert an overseas licence in New South Wales and only four named organisations may have done the translation. The prepare-your-application page shuts the rest out: “Translations obtained through any other means are not acceptable.” Licence translation for NSW names the four.
Source: Service NSW, transfer an overseas driver licence, and the NSW prepare-your-application page (checked 13 September 2026)
When not to order
When a NAATI translation is the wrong purchase
Three cases where we would rather lose the sale. Before any of them, work through six questions that settle whether you need certification.
You qualify for the free service
Four tests must all be true; two catch most people out: “You need to be onshore (in Australia) to access the service.” And: “Your visa must be granted in the past 2 years, and still valid (not cancelled or expired).” Citizens are outside it, and so is anyone here on a tourist or working holiday visa.
Source: TIS National, Free Translating Service eligibility (checked 13 September 2026)
You are transferring a licence in New South Wales
We are not on the accepted list and cannot be: the list names organisations, not credentials, so holding NAATI certification does not put an independent translator on it. Ordinary document translation in NSW is untouched.
You are in the Northern Territory
We do not sell a translation for the Northern Territory, for a transfer or for driving. The Territory restricts licence translations to translators authorised within it, and we are not among them. For visitors it points to a permit instead: “you must apply for an international driving permit if: your overseas licence is not written in English”. A permit comes from the country that issued your licence — the Australian Automobile Association says only Australian licence holders can apply for one here — so arrange it with your home issuer, and the Territory’s page says to do that before you travel.
Source: NT.GOV.AU, driver licence rules for new NT residents and visiting drivers (checked 13 September 2026), and Australian Automobile Association, International Driving Permits (checked 18 September 2026)
One thing we do not know. Queensland’s transfer page insists on originals and is silent about digital files, so whether a printed one passes at the counter is unresolved: ring the office first. When we will tell you not to order collects the rest.
Questions
What people ask about the NAATI option
Yes, and at the same price. You upload photographs, pay by card and the PDF arrives by email. Your window opens when the card is charged, not at the start of an Australian working day, and the order form puts a dated estimate beside each speed before you pay, so read that date in your own time zone. We do not deliver on Sundays: a delivery that would fall on a Sunday arrives on the Monday.
No, and Australia has no sworn translators. Elsewhere a translator swears an oath before a court and is listed by it; here practitioners are certified individually and sign their own work. Where a form asks for a sworn translation, the nearest equivalent is one prepared by a NAATI-certified translator: ask the body whether that will do.
No. The translator is assigned after you order, because availability in your language direction changes hour to hour. What you can rely on is the finished PDF: it names the practitioner and carries their stamp, and both can be checked against NAATI’s public records in about two minutes.
A NAATI credential is an Australian one, and an office abroad may want a sworn translator in its own country instead. The stamp still names a traceable practitioner and carries a checkable code. Ask before you order.
NAATI is the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters, which describes itself as Australia’s national standards and certifying authority for translators and interpreters. It assesses translators and interpreters and issues credentials to the individuals who meet its standard. The name is older than the system it runs today: NAATI says its Certification System “commenced in January 2018 and succeeded the accreditation system that was in operation from 1977 – 2017”. That is why NAATI now speaks of certification rather than accreditation.
No. NAATI’s own FAQ answers it in one line: “No. NAATI does not provide translation or interpreting services.” It credentials practitioners, and each one then works for themselves or through an agency or other organisation. To find one yourself, NAATI’s website has a public online directory of practitioners who hold its certification or recognition. Or order here and choose the NAATI certified option, and your translation is prepared by a translator who holds NAATI certification for your language direction.
No. NAATI certifies translators, not translations, so it issues no certificate for a document, and we do not issue one either. The nearest thing is the translator’s certification statement, in which a named NAATI-certified translator gives their credential and language direction and stands behind the work. On the NAATI certified option it sits in the same PDF as the translation, with the translator’s stamp. Standard carries no statement, so choose NAATI certification when you order. What a certified translation looks like shows what the page carries.
That depends on who receives it. Asked whether the stamp must go on every page, NAATI’s FAQ tells translators: “Ask your client what their requirements are.” NAATI does publish a detailed list for translations submitted to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for legalisation: among other details, the stamp must show the practitioner ID, the language and type of certification, the translator’s name and a date, and “The information above must be contained on EVERY translated page.” A copy of the original, signed or stamped by the translator, goes with it. NAATI recommends that format for all work, and our NAATI certified option follows it.
Not as far as NAATI is concerned: the translators we engage normally use the digital stamp, and the credential behind it is the same either way. From March 2023, NAATI says, practitioners “can choose to use either a physical translator stamp or ID card, or the digital option”. On the digital stamp, NAATI says, the signature panel is replaced by “Digitally Authenticated by NAATI” and “can be accepted without a physical signature”. Where a printed translation is enough covers taking it to a counter.
You can order one. German to English, French to English and Spanish to English are all on the order form, at the same price as every other language. Choose your language under Translate from and leave Translate to on English. Direction matters on the NAATI option, because NAATI’s FAQ says a digital stamp “is linked to individual credentials, which are in one direction only”. The stamp and the certification statement name that direction, so you can check that yours reads into English. Each order is placed with a translator who holds NAATI certification for that direction; if we cannot find one for your language, we tell you promptly and refund you in full.
The order form names nine common documents and has an Other official document choice for the rest, with NAATI certification available on each. The nine are a driver’s licence, a birth certificate, a marriage certificate, a passport, an academic transcript, a diploma or degree certificate, a police clearance certificate, a bank statement and a medical record. The document type does not change the price. Official document translation covers legal and government papers without a page of their own, such as court orders, statutory declarations and identity cards.
You do not need one nearby: the order runs entirely online, so the price and delivery speeds are the same anywhere in Australia, and the PDF comes back by email. If you would rather meet in person, in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Logan we can come to you for A$80 on top of the translation, photograph the document with you and place the order together; book a visit through the contact page. Location does matter for two licence cases we cannot serve: a New South Wales licence transfer, and licence use in the Northern Territory.
Submit it with your original document, not instead of it. For an online lodgement such as the subclass 820 partner visa, Home Affairs says “Provide original and translated documents in your application”, so upload the PDF as it arrived beside a colour scan of the original. If a counter wants paper, print it without shrinking the stamp: NAATI says QR codes “should be no smaller than 2cmx2cm to be readable by most phones”. Leave the statement and stamp untouched, because our terms do not allow either to be removed or altered.
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.
Order
Order a NAATI translation
Photograph each page, choose your options, and watch the total build.
Photograph every side separately, square on and in good light, with nothing cropped at the edges. Then choose Standard or NAATI certification and a delivery window. Payment is by Stripe, and the PDF returns to the address you give us.