What a Tigrinya document needs

Three things a Tigrinya document brings with it

Tigrinya shares a script with Amharic but not a language, and its documents come from two countries with different offices.

Same script, different language

Tigrinya and Amharic are both written in the Ge’ez script, so the two can look alike to anyone who reads neither. They are different languages, and the order page lists each on its own. Not sure which your document is in? Ask us first and we will tell you before you pay.

Eritrea or Tigray

A Tigrinya document may come from Eritrea or from the Tigray region of Ethiopia, each with its own offices and forms. The translation names the issuing authority exactly as printed, and a date given in the Ethiopian calendar is converted as a specific day, with the original kept beside it.

A name that carries a father’s

A Tigrinya name follows the given name with the father’s name, and records often add the grandfather’s. None of them is a family surname. The translation labels each part and spells it as your passport does, so a reader does not mistake your father’s name for your own.

Before you pay anyone

A free route, and its limits

The Free Translating Service

“Permanent residents and eligible visa holders can get up to 10 personal documents translated into English for free.” If you arrived in the last two years on a visa on its list and you are in Australia, ask it before anyone else.

Sources: TIS National, About the Free Translating Service and Eligibility (checked 19 September 2026)

What it will not do

“Document translations required for visa or citizenship applications, and documents issued by private citizens, are not eligible.” For a family visa file, the NAATI certification option is the one that matches Home Affairs’ wording for a translation made in Australia.

Source: TIS National, Free Translating Service eligibility (checked 19 September 2026)

Read the limits in full on who the Free Translating Service is for, and partner visa documents that need translation if you are building a partner visa file.

What a careful job includes

Every name, every date, every seal

Civil records

Birth, marriage and death certificates, with the registering office, the certificate number, and each seal and signature marked where it appears.

Identity and residence papers

Identity cards on both sides and residence or family registration papers, translated with every number copied digit for digit.

Church, court and school records

Church marriage and baptism records, court decisions, school certificates and transcripts. Text that cannot be read in the photo is marked in square brackets.

Choose the NAATI certification option for a translation prepared by a NAATI-certified translator, carrying their certification statement, NAATI stamp and credential number. See the birth certificate and marriage certificate pages for those documents.

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 and carrying their 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.

Delivery is by email and the order page shows the delivery options. Translating a licence only? Start at driver licence translation. Need a NAATI-certified translator? See how NAATI translation works. Other languages: Amharic, Arabic and Somali, or see every language we translate.

Driving on a licence in Tigrinya? Check your overseas licence in 1 second.

Tigrinya to English translation