Terms & Conditions

1. Who we are, and what these terms cover

Official Translation is a registered Australian business name (ABN 76 411 541 532), operating at officialtranslation.com.au. We translate official documents into English, and from English into the languages listed on the order page, and deliver them digitally. These terms apply to every order placed through the website, to any translation we agree to by email, and to any visit you book with us. Contact us any time at support@officialtranslation.com.au. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle your documents and personal information and forms part of these terms.

In these terms, “you” means the person placing the order; “your documents” means the images or files you send us to translate; “the translation” means the finished version we deliver.

2. The service

We translate official documents and deliver the translation as a PDF to the email address you give in your order. You choose one of two options at checkout:

• Standard — a translation without a certification statement, done by a translator or with AI translation tools. For certified or official purposes, choose NAATI certified.
• NAATI certified — a translation certified by a NAATI-certified translator, carrying that translator’s certification statement, NAATI stamp and credential number. Where the translator uses NAATI’s digital stamp, it carries a QR code you can scan to check the credential.

NAATI certification is held by individual translators, not by businesses. Where we say a translation is NAATI certified, we mean it was translated or reviewed, then certified and stamped, by a translator who held, on the day of the work, a current NAATI credential for the direction of your document (for example, Italian into English) and who is responsible for its accuracy. For most languages that credential is Certified Translator, which NAATI awards by examination and which is currently the only translator certification NAATI offers.

For a language NAATI does not test, the only NAATI credential is Recognised Practising Translator, which NAATI grants on training and experience rather than a test; where your language is one of those, the certified option is prepared by a translator holding that credential, and the certification statement and stamp say so. The translator’s practitioner number is on the translation and can be checked in NAATI’s online directory. Our pages quote several authorities’ own wording to help you choose, but the choice, and checking your authority’s current requirements, is yours.

In-person visits. In Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Logan you can book a visit for a fee of A$80, payable by card when we confirm the time. At the visit we photograph your documents with you, hand them straight back, and place your order with you at the price shown on the order page. The fee covers the visit only; the translation is a separate order, priced and delivered under these terms like any other, and clause 11 applies to that order, not to the visit fee.

We do not take your original documents away. To cancel or move a visit, email or text us. If you cancel at least two hours before the agreed time, or we cancel or cannot attend, we refund the fee in full. A cancellation with less notice, or a no-show, forfeits the fee, because the time and travel have been set aside for you. Your rights under clause 10 are not affected.

3. Languages

The order page lists more than 50 languages. We have translators on our panel for some of them, and for the others we arrange the translation order by order; if yours is not listed, choose “Other language” or contact us and we will confirm we can cover it before you pay anything. If we cannot arrange the translation for your language, or cannot find a translator who holds NAATI certification for it when you chose the certified option, we will tell you promptly and refund your order in full, including any certification or delivery-speed surcharge, whatever stage the order has reached.

4. Placing an order

You may order if you are at least 18 and entitled to provide the documents you upload. An order is made when you tick at checkout that you have read and agree to these terms, complete checkout and your payment is confirmed, and a contract on these terms exists from that moment.

We email you an order number as soon as your documents reach us, which is before you pay: it is how we identify your order, and on its own it does not mean an order has been made. We may decline an order before work starts (for example, where a document is not one we can translate, or where we cannot meet the delivery window you chose), in which case we refund you in full and tell you why.

You tell us how many pages your document has when you order, and getting that count right is your responsibility. A licence card is two pages — the front and the back (the order page sets this for you); for every other document, each side that carries text, a stamp or a seal is a page. A page is also a measure of how much there is to translate and certify: about 250 words. Most documents sit well inside that, and a licence, a birth certificate or a marriage certificate is one page a side.

Where a side carries more, it counts as one page for each 250 words or part of them, so a side of about 1,000 words is four pages. We count the words in your document, not in the finished translation. If your document has more pages than you paid for, whether because it has more sides or because a side runs past about 250 words, we contact you before work starts and ask for photos of any pages we do not have.

Your order is on hold until you pay for the extra pages at the per-page price on the order page, or agree a revised quote with us and pay it, and the delivery window starts again when that payment is confirmed. If you would rather not go ahead, tell us and we refund you in full. If it has fewer pages than you paid for, we refund the difference.

The order page takes up to four pages per order. For larger documents, email us: we will quote by reply, and a quote stays open for seven days. The website describes the service in general terms; the options and price you select at checkout set what you have ordered. This does not affect your rights if something we say on the website turns out to be wrong.

5. Price and payment

The full price is on screen before you pay and we add nothing at checkout. Prices are in Australian dollars and include GST; if you need a tax invoice, email us with your order number. Payment is taken securely by Stripe when you confirm your order; we never see or hold your card details.

If you pay from outside Australia, the Stripe payment page may show the price already converted into your own currency. You can switch to Australian dollars on that page before you pay. A converted price uses Stripe’s exchange rate, which includes a conversion fee that Stripe sets and keeps (Stripe states it is 2 to 4 per cent); we receive none of it.

If you pay in Australian dollars, there is no Stripe conversion fee. Either way, your bank may apply its own currency-conversion or international-transaction fee, which is outside our control. If we refund a payment made in another currency, Stripe refunds it in that currency at the original exchange rate, so a full refund returns what you paid.

Stripe emails you a payment receipt; we email you the order confirmation.

6. Delivery

Delivery windows run from the time you place your order: Normal within three days, Urgent within 12 to 24 hours, and ASAP within four hours where available. We do not deliver on Sundays: a delivery that would fall on a Sunday (Brisbane time) is made on the Monday. The times shown are indicative: they are the windows we work to, and we do our best to deliver within them, but they are estimates rather than a guaranteed moment of arrival.

On the certified option, your order is translated by a translator who holds NAATI certification for your language direction; a Standard translation is done by a translator or with AI translation tools. The time it takes can depend on a translator being available, and ASAP on one being free at that moment. If an order is going to miss its window we contact you as soon as we know.

If you have a fixed deadline, such as a car-hire pick-up, an appointment or a lodgement date, contact us before you order so we can tell you honestly whether we can meet it, and allow extra time. If we tell you we cannot commit to your deadline, or you order without telling us about one, the windows above are what we work to, not a commitment to that deadline. Your rights under clause 10 are not affected.

We deliver by email, and it is your responsibility to give a working address and to check your junk folder. If your document photos are not legible enough to translate, we pause the clock and ask you for clearer ones straight away; the window restarts when they arrive. The clock also stops while an order is on hold because of its page count, and a new window starts when your payment for the extra pages or revised quote is confirmed (clause 4).

7. Your documents and your responsibilities

You confirm that the documents you upload are genuine, that you are entitled to provide them, and that you will photograph or scan every page and both sides of a card. We translate what the document says; we do not check whether the original is accurate, valid or complete, and we are not responsible for a document that is not. You are responsible for telling us the correct spelling of names as they appear in your passport, and for checking the requirements of the authority you are preparing the translation for.

8. Accuracy, corrections and re-issues

Every translation is a true and complete rendering of the document you sent. Fields, notes and the wording on stamps and seals are translated. Anything that cannot be translated or read, such as a signature, a seal with no words or a smudged word, is marked in square brackets where it appears, for example [signed], [seal] or [illegible]. If you find an error, email us with your order number and we correct and re-issue the translation at no charge.

A translator will not change a translation to say something the original does not say; for a certified translation the translator is responsible for its accuracy and may decline a requested change on that basis, and declining such a change is not grounds for a refund. We re-send your finished translation on request at no charge. We keep your finished translation on file so we can re-issue it on request, for as long as our Privacy Policy describes.

9. Our guarantee

If there is an error in the translation, contact us with your order number and we correct and re-issue it at no charge. We arrange for your document to be translated and deliver it to you; we do not guarantee that any authority, office or company will accept it. Nothing in this guarantee limits your rights under the Australian Consumer Law.

How to claim under this guarantee. Email support@officialtranslation.com.au, or call or text +61 434 236 354, with your order number and what is wrong. You can raise an error at any time while we still hold your translation. We bear the cost of correcting and re-issuing it, and claiming costs you nothing. This guarantee is given by Official Translation, ABN 76 411 541 532, support@officialtranslation.com.au, +61 434 236 354. The benefits it gives you are in addition to your rights and remedies under the Australian Consumer Law.

10. Your consumer rights

Our services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. For major failures with the service, you are entitled: to cancel your service contract with us; and to a refund for the unused portion, or to compensation for its reduced value. You are also entitled to be compensated for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. If the failure does not amount to a major failure, you are entitled to have problems with the service rectified in a reasonable time and, if this is not done, to cancel your contract and obtain a refund for the unused portion of the contract.

In plain English, that means our work must be done with due care and skill, must be fit for the purpose you told us about, and must be delivered within a reasonable time. Nothing in these terms limits those rights.

11. Cancellations and refunds

If translation work has not yet started, email us and we cancel and refund your order in full. Once work is under way, the consumer-law remedies in clause 10 apply, and we also refund where clause 3, 4, 6, 9 or 15 says we will. Refunds go back to the payment method you used; Stripe typically takes a few business days to show them.

12. Translators

A translation on the certified option is always prepared and certified by an independent translator, engaged by us, who holds the NAATI credential described in clause 2. That translator may use AI tools to help, in line with NAATI’s position statement on the use of AI, and checks the whole translation against your document before certifying it. A Standard translation is done by a translator or with AI translation tools. Translators receive your document images and the order details needed to do the work; they do not receive your email address or phone number, and they are bound by confidentiality obligations. AI tools are used on your order only under settings or terms that stop your documents being used to train them. We remain responsible to you for the translation.

13. Confidentiality and intellectual property

Your documents are yours and stay yours. We treat them, and everything else you send us, as confidential, and we use them only to produce your translation, as described in our Privacy Policy. You own the translation we deliver and may use it for any lawful purpose; we keep the right to reuse our own templates, formats, glossaries and methods, none of which contain your information. You may not remove or alter a translator’s certification statement or stamp.

14. Our liability

If you are a consumer, your rights under the Australian Consumer Law (clause 10) come first, and nothing in this clause limits them. If we fail a consumer guarantee, you may be entitled to compensation for loss that was reasonably foreseeable.

Subject to that, we are not liable for loss we could not reasonably have foreseen when you placed your order, including loss from missing a deadline you did not tell us about before you ordered (for example a car-hire pick-up, booking, appointment, application deadline or flight, or the cost of rebooking); for loss caused by information or documents you gave us being wrong or incomplete; or for a decision of an authority or company about a translation that is accurate and complete.

Where our services are not of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use, our liability for failing a consumer guarantee is limited, at our option, to supplying the translation again or paying the cost of having it supplied again. Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any right or guarantee that cannot lawfully be excluded.

15. Events beyond our control

A delay or failure caused by an event outside our reasonable control is not a breach of these terms. Examples are failures of email, payment or hosting providers, internet outages, or a certified translator for your language direction becoming unavailable at short notice through illness, emergency or a similar cause when, despite our reasonable efforts, no other suitably certified translator can take the work in time. Where such an event affects your order we tell you as soon as we can, offer a new delivery time, and refund you in full if the new time does not suit you. This clause does not limit your rights under clause 10.

16. Complaints and disputes

If something is wrong, email support@officialtranslation.com.au with your order number and we will work with you to put it right; where the fix is a correction, we re-issue the translation as soon as we can. If we cannot resolve a dispute between us, you may contact the Queensland Office of Fair Trading or the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, or take the matter to a court or tribunal. These terms are governed by the laws of Queensland and the Commonwealth of Australia, and the courts and tribunals of Queensland have jurisdiction.

17. General

These terms, the options you selected at checkout and our Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between us for an order. If any part of these terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the rest continues to apply. If we do not enforce a term on one occasion, we may still enforce it later. You may not transfer your order to someone else without our agreement; we may engage translators and service providers to perform the work and remain responsible for it. We may update these terms; the new version appears on this page with an updated date, and the terms shown when you placed your order are the ones that apply to it.