Certification, Notarization and Apostilled Translation Services

Certified Translation

Many translations of documents need to be certified before they will be accepted as “true” translations by certain bodies like the Home Office in immigration or citizenship cases, for instance. Some insurance companies, education institutions and the Passport Agency also require that translations are officially certified.

We regularly translate and certify birth, death and marriage certificates, educational qualification certificates and other “official” documents. Just mention it at the time of requesting your translation, as there is a small additional charge for this service. If you have any questions or are unsure about what type of certification you will need, contact us we will do our best to clarify any doubts. Please note that we are only able to certify and notarize translations that have been completed by us.

Notarized Translation

Translated documents for use abroad usually need to be certified and signed by us in front of a Notary Public. The certified translation will then be stamped and signed also by the Notary Public. This is called a Notarized Translation and it differs from a standard certification, so please make sure you specify clearly which one you need. It is important that you check with the appropriate authority which type of certification they will accept, as it varies between bodies.

We regularly carry out Notarized Translations for businesses and individuals alike, from Annual Reports to Articles of Association. Please note that we are only able to certify and notarize translations that have been completed by us.

Legalization Service, or Apostille

Sometimes the authorities require some notarized documents to be further certified by the British and Commonwealth Office (FCO). This is what is called an Apostille. In some cases a further consular legalization is also required.

An Apostille is a certificate confirming that a signature or seal on a document is genuine. The process of obtaining an Apostille is called Legalization. The reason for legalizing a document issued in the UK is so that it will be recognized as genuine when used outside the UK. Some of the reasons why you might need an Apostille in a document are marriage abroad, the purchase of a property abroad or if your company is carrying out business abroad.

An Apostille is required before certain United Kingdom documents can be used overseas. It is usually required where overseas officials are not able to determine on first hand the authenticity of United Kingdom documents. Please note that having a document legalized does not mean that its contents are accurate, and it does not carry any sort of official approval by the FCO.

An Apostille is also a form of authentication issued to documents for use in countries that participate in the Hague Convention of 1961, as it abolished the requirement of diplomatic and consular legalization for public documents originating in one Convention country and intended for use in another.

Although many different types of documents can be legalized, the procedure and costs are always the same, regardless of the type of document. If the document bears an original signature, seal or stamp from a UK public organization or official, then the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) will in most cases legalise it.

These include registrars of births, deaths and marriages; solicitors or notaries public registered with the Law or Notaries Societies; doctors registered with the General Medical Council; veterinary surgeons; coroners, and members of the diplomatic corps (foreign diplomats) accredited to the UK.

In summary, the Legalization Office will attach an Apostille to: UK educational documents; UK birth, death, marriage and civil partnership certificates; UK Certificates of No Impediment (CNIs); Deeds Poll; some types of religious documents; UK court documents; Powers of Attorney; wills; affidavits and others.

We regularly carry out Notarized Translations which later require an Apostille, from Company registration documents to marriage certificates. Please note that we are only able to certify and notarize translations that have been completed by us.

List of Signatories of The Hague and European Conventions

Please bear in mind that a change of status of a country can affect treaty obligation, so always check with the relevant authorities what their current requirements are.

Consular Legalization

If the country where you are going to use your translated document is not party to The Hague Convention of 1961, authentication (or legalization) by the consulate of the country in question is often required.

In some cases, legalization by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Apostille) must be carried out before taking the document to the consulate, but sometimes the translated document can be taken directly to the consulate for legalization.

As the requirement for consular legalization varies from country to country, we advise you to contact the consulate, high commission or embassy of the country concerned to verify what it is that they require.

Testimonials

“My partner and I used Accent Consultants to get translations done in order to get married in Greece, as we did not use a travel agent to plan the day we ended up leaving ourselves quite short of time to get the documents translated, legalized and notarized.  Accent did a fantastic job of getting all the documents translated, legalized, notarized and back to us on a very short time scale.  Were it not for Accent we would not have been able to get married abroad and would have incurred significant cancellation costs for ourselves and the 30 guests who travelled with us.  The process was very straight forward, we sent the documents across and Accent did the rest, leaving us free to deal with all the other arrangements”.

Philip Butterfield

Area Facilities Manager