Certified Translation | Literary Translation | Editing | Proofreading

Do you require a Certified English Translation of any of the following? If so, I can help.

As of 2018, I am a Certified French to English Translator recognized by the American Translators Association as well as a Certified Spanish to English Translator recognized by the Society of Translators and Interpreters of British Columbia, Canada and the Ordre des traducteurs, terminologues et interprètes agréés du Québec. This means that I have the qualifications necessary to provide you with certified translations required by government authorities, legal entities and academic institutions among others.

A certified translation is an official translation of a document made by a translator who has passed a specific and very rigorous exam, whose passing rate is usually around 20% among those who try it. This means that it is a very special accreditation indeed. Not every translator is able to offer the services of a certified translator.

Certified translations are generally required by legal or government authorities, such as lawyers, notaries public, courts, consulates, the Immigration and Refugee Board, various Ministries and universities, for example, and these will enable them to issue passports or visas, to perform marriages or to approve applications to study at local schools, to name just a few. They are also necessary for immigration status approval, or even by the Canadian Revenue Agency to approve tax deductions if you are claiming income from working abroad. Certified translations are also requested by businesses and individuals.

Before submitting your Spanish to English certified translation enquiry, check with the authority requesting it whether STIBC certification or OTTIAQ certification is required or if either is acceptable and for French to English translation if ATA certification is required. In all my translation packages, I include a statement, wherein I declare that I am a Certified Translator from the language in the original document (Spanish or French) into English, that I am a member in good standing of the pertinent accrediting association, that I translated the attached documents and that the translations accurately reflect the contents and meaning of the originals. If required, and particularly in relation to documents required for a divorce, I can also add an affidavit signed and witnessed by a notary public as there are many notary offices around my area that I can go to for this additional service. I will add the notary public's fee to my invoice to you in this case.

Some of my clients tell me that the translation has to be notarized. This is actually a misnomer as the translation itself cannot be notarized. A notary public can only legally acknowledge, or notarize, the identity of the individual signing the certification statement.

In any case, you must present your original document in French or Spanish (or sometimes a copy authenticated by a notary public or lawyer) to the authority requesting it. It is advisable to study the rules of the entity requesting the certified translation. I will provide you with signed and stamped copies of the pdfs that you e-mail to me certifying that this is the copy that I have seen. I will then attach the certified translations to these copies and stamp and seal them with my certification stamp. In some cases, I am obliged to declare that I have seen the official document. That means you must bring it with you when you come to pick up the translation package so I can compare it with the pdf copy you sent me via e-mail.

Certified translations require much more scrupulous work than ordinary translations. As they are legal documents, they require 100% accuracy as the slightest mistake could have consequences. Not only does the time spent performing the translation usually take longer, the cost of the paper, ink and seal are also elements factored into the quotation. All of them explain the higher cost involved compared to ordinary translations.

After I provide you with a quotation, by counting the number of words in your document, or if there are many dozens of pages, by giving you a ballpark estimate of cost, I will require full payment, or at least a 50% deposit before commencing the translation work. If you require the paper (hard) copy as well as the digital one and are in the Vancouver area, I offer free pick up from my office at a mutually convenient time. If you are not in the Vancouver area, I can arrange to send you the translation package via regular mail or Canada Post Xpresspost by adding the cost of the envelope, postage, and post office delivery service to my final invoice. If you are in Quebec, UPS is another choice of courier service I offer. Please let me know in your initial request if you will need the hard copy to be sent to you.

For the majority of projects, payment is in advance via an interac e-transfer, which is the simplest and quickest method of payment and available all over Canada. If you are not in Canada, other options are available. For example, I can accept Euro and USD Western Union payments, which are fairly quick and have low fees - usually a percentage of my invoiced fee - or wire transfers, which take longer and have higher, but set, fees and end up being more economical than Western Union if the invoiced fee is large. Furthermore, if you are in the USA, I can accept Zelle payments but please let me know in advance if that is how you would like to pay as I will direct you to a different e-mail address for this purpose. I also offer PayPal and will factor in the PayPal fee in my quotation if you request this type of payment when you request a quote.

As for those rare requests I receive to certify translations that other people have made, well I could and would only do this if the translation was one hundred percent accurate, as counselled by the ATA, however, should there be anything in the other person's translation I differed with, I would not certify it. I am really only happy certifying translations that I have completed myself.

Finally, if I have not covered all of your queries about certified translations, feel free to e-mail me with your additional questions.