Passport applications
Passport application document translation
When a document supporting your Australian passport application is not in English, the Passport Office asks for it to be translated in full and stamped by an accredited translator. We translate foreign birth certificates, citizenship papers and name-change documents into English, with the wording on every stamp and seal translated, and deliver them digitally, with NAATI certification available at checkout.
Australian passport: does your document need translating?
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Where it is asked for
What the Passport Office says about translations
Quoted from the authorities themselves, so you can see the wording your documents will be read against.
Australian passports
The Passport Office asks for non-English documents to be “translated in full and stamped by an accredited translator”, and names NAATI for translations done in Australia. The words in full are the ones people miss: a summary or extract does not fit that description.
Translating in Australia
Home Affairs gives the same direction for its own processes: “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.” A translation made overseas is not wrong for being made there; for one made here, the wording says to use a NAATI-accredited translator.
Source: Home Affairs, translating documents (page last updated 16 September 2026)
The documents it usually means
A passport application rests on proof of who you are and that you are an Australian citizen. If you were born overseas, that can mean a foreign birth certificate. If your name has changed since, a marriage certificate or change-of-name record bridges the two names. For a child, a parent’s citizenship or identity documents may be part of the file too.
What a careful job includes
Translated in full, with the stamps and seals
Every stamp, seal and endorsement
In full covers the ink as well as the print. The wording on registry seals, apostille stamps, marginal endorsements and handwritten notes is translated where it appears. A seal with no words is marked [seal], a signature [signed] and anything unreadable [illegible]. The person checking your application can then read what the registrar wrote.
Names spelt to match your other documents
A passport is checked against the documents that support it. Where a name can be written in English more than one way, we follow the spelling on the identity documents you already hold — an earlier passport, a citizenship certificate, a licence — so the file agrees with itself. Send us the spelling you use through the contact page, with your order number, straight after you order.
The translator’s details on the page
With the NAATI certification option, the translation is prepared by a NAATI-certified translator and carries their name and credential, with a digital stamp and a scannable QR code. The reader can see who did the work and what they are certified to do.
Ordering for an Australian passport application and translating in Australia? The Passport Office names NAATI for translations done here — choose the NAATI certification option at checkout. Our page on NAATI translation online shows what the PDF carries. The free government translating service is for eligible visa holders and permanent residents, not Australian citizens, so it will not usually help with a passport file. Check the eligibility rules if you are unsure.
Before you order
Three things that make the translation useful first time
Send a clear colour scan or photograph of every side that carries text, including any apostille or endorsement page. Send us the spelling of each name as it appears on your existing identity documents, through the contact page with your order number. And if a document has been amended — a later annotation, a re-registration — send the whole thing, because the amendment is part of what the Passport Office reads.
Pricing
The full price on screen before you order
Translation is $39.99 per page into English, delivered digitally. Add NAATI certification for $59.99 per page, prepared by a NAATI-certified translator with a digital stamp carrying a scannable QR code. Most birth and change-of-name certificates are a single page; count each side that carries text.
Translating citizenship documents as well? Need the passport itself translated?
Questions
What people ask about translating documents for a passport application
Not always. An adult born overseas gives the Passport Office an Australian citizenship certificate plus evidence of gender and place of birth, and its adult passport page says: “If you were born overseas and your Australian citizenship document does not show your gender or place of birth, you must provide your birth certificate. If you can’t provide your birth certificate, provide your foreign passport.” So read your citizenship certificate before ordering anything. If it is missing either detail and your birth certificate is not in English, that certificate needs translating in full; birth certificate translation shows what we carry across.
Two kinds, going by the translation help page its identity documents page links to for an “approved translation service”: a translation done in full and stamped by an accredited translator, or one from a government agency that uses NAATI translators, on that agency’s letterhead. For translating in Australia, it points you to NAATI to find a translator in your area rather than listing private providers. The agencies it names include TIS National, Multicultural NSW Language Services, Interpreting and Translating Services NT and South Australia’s Interpreting and Translating Centre. If you are overseas, the Australian embassy or consulate gives you a list of approved translation services in that country.
Only the ones that are not in English, since the Passport Office wants every document “in English or translated in full by an approved translation service”. Applying in Australia, most documents on its Category A, B and C lists are Australian, such as a state driver licence, Medicare card or utility bill. The foreign one it names there is a foreign passport, and many passports carry English alongside the local language. Applying overseas, the lists add foreign documents such as a residency identity card, a driver licence, or a national health or social security card. Translate any not in English in full, including the back if it carries text.
Only in set circumstances. The Passport Office accepts a foreign certificate only if you cannot get an Australian one because you were born overseas, live overseas, or married or entered the relationship overseas. It adds that you “must have become an Australian citizen before you entered the marriage or relationship”, and that “Foreign certificates must also be legalised.” If you were born in Australia and married overseas, it always asks for a name change certificate instead. Legalising the original is a separate step, and not one we arrange. A certificate not in English must also be translated in full; marriage certificate translation covers what that includes.
The Passport Office asks for the child’s “full and original birth certificate showing the names of the child’s parents and the child’s full name at birth”. Check that the foreign certificate carries both before you order, because a translation renders what the original says and cannot add a parent’s name that a short extract leaves out. If getting a birth certificate is genuinely impossible, each person with parental responsibility completes a B6 form, backed by documents such as a family book, a baptismal or other religious certificate, or a hospital record showing both parents’ names. Any of those not in English must be translated in full as well.
You may be able to, if they match the Passport Office’s wording: translated in full, and stamped by an accredited translator. A translation made in Australia by a NAATI-certified translator for a visa or citizenship file may already do both. A free TIS National translation falls under a separate line, since the Passport Office accepts letterhead translations from government agencies using NAATI translators and names TIS National. But TIS says most of its translations come in “an extract summary format of up to 100 words”. Check that yours is in full, covering every page and endorsement, and that the original has not been amended since.
The Passport Office says you can reuse them, in a line that sits in its advice for applying overseas. After saying the embassy or consulate checks your translated documents, its translation help page adds: “You can use your translated documents again for any future passport applications.” For a translation made in Australia, ask the Passport Office on 131 232 to be sure. An old translation will not cover a document amended or reissued since, or a new one such as a change-of-name certificate. If you lose the PDF, ask us with your order number: we re-send it at no charge unless you have asked us to delete it.
Usually not. The Passport Office says you do not provide citizenship documents when you renew, and a renewal needs your current passport, photos, the form and “any supporting documents requested by us”. Translation comes back in when you cannot renew. One renewal condition is that the passport already shows your current name, date of birth, place of birth and gender; others include your age when it was issued and its issue date. If yours does not qualify, you apply for a new passport with the full set of documents, including any linking an old name to a new one. Any of those not in English must be translated in full.
Not in a form the Passport Office describes. It asks for documents translated in full and stamped by an accredited translator, and a translation you write yourself, or one from a relative who is not an accredited translator, has no such stamp to carry, however good the English. A machine translation has the same gap. Where you can help is in checking the finished translation before you lodge: that each name follows the spelling on your Australian documents, and that dates converted from another calendar read as you expect. If you find an error, email us with your order number and we correct and re-issue the translation at no charge.
Normal delivery is within 3 days; Urgent is 12–24 hours for $49; ASAP is within 4 hours for $99 where a translator for your language is free. We do not deliver on Sundays: a delivery that would fall on a Sunday arrives on the Monday. Have the translation in hand before you lodge. The Passport Office says to allow at least 6 weeks, and its Priority (2 business days) and Fast Track (5 business days) services need an application that is complete, “including all supporting documentation”. Our windows are estimates rather than a fixed arrival time, so if you have a lodgement appointment or a flight booked, tell us before you order.
For interpreting, yes. The Passport Office says you can bring a family member or friend to interpret when you lodge, and if they cannot help, it can arrange an interpreter through TIS National, which it describes as “a free service by phone”; call 131 450 and book well in advance. That help is spoken, not written, so it does not translate your documents. The free document translating service is a different scheme, and TIS National says “Australian citizens are also not eligible for this service.” Who qualifies for the free translating service sets out the rest.
Both. The Passport Office says “When you lodge your application, you must bring the original documents”, and the translation sits alongside the document it describes. Our translation arrives as a PDF; with the NAATI option it carries the translator’s digital stamp and QR code. The Passport Office pages we checked do not say whether a printed copy of a digitally stamped translation is enough, so if that matters to you, ask the Passport Office on 131 232 before you order. Print in colour and at full size so the code still scans, and keep the PDF on your phone. PDF or hard copy explains the stamp.
No, the whole order can be done online. You photograph each side of the document, upload the photos on the order page, and the translation comes back by email as a PDF, so your originals stay with you for the day you lodge. The Passport Office points people in Australia to NAATI to find a translator in their area, and a NAATI-certified translator’s digital stamp can be checked by scanning its QR code wherever the translator is.
If you would rather meet face to face, we visit in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Logan for A$80 on top of the translation; translation services in Brisbane has the details, and the visit terms, including cancellation, are in clause 2 of our Terms & Conditions.
Spanish is on the order page at $39.99 a page, plus $59.99 a page with NAATI certification. Spanish-language certificates usually give each person two surnames, one from each parent, and the translation keeps both, in order, rather than dropping one to suit an English form. If your citizenship certificate shows only one, the translation still follows the original, so send us a note through the contact page with your order number and ask the Passport Office whether it wants anything more to link the two. If we cannot arrange the translation for your language, we tell you promptly and refund the order in full. Spanish to English translation has more.