Visa Translation Services
Bank letters, employment confirmations, civil records, invitations and property papers, translated in full so a consular officer can read the whole application without a gap in it.
Upload or drop document to translate
Max. file size 1 GB
The sticker in the passport is rarely what needs translating
The document itself is short and largely self-explanatory to the officials who handle it. A Schengen foil is laid out in a fixed order: valid for, from, until, type, number of entries, duration of stay, place and date of issue, passport number, surname and name, remarks. An American foil carries a class such as B1/B2 or F1, a control number, the number of entries permitted, issue and expiration dates, and an annotation line. Both are printed with a machine-readable zone that any border system can parse.
Where a rendering is asked for, one distinction matters more than any other. The field naming an end date and the field naming a duration of stay are not the same thing, and collapsing them into a single phrase changes what the holder is permitted to do. The first says how long the document may be presented at a border; the second says how many days may be spent inside once admitted. Anything that merges them has introduced an error into the most consequential line on the page.
The real work, and the reason most people arrive on this page, sits underneath: the supporting pack that has to be filed with the application. That is where translation requirements are strict, where refusals originate, and where the volume of pages actually is.
What consulates actually ask you to submit in translation
The exact list depends on the category applied for, but the categories of evidence repeat across almost every immigration system:
Money and employment
Bank statements covering a set number of months, a letter from a bank confirming a balance, payslips, tax filings, a letter from an employer stating position, salary and approved leave, or company registration papers if the applicant runs a business.
Civil status records
A birth certificate for a child on the application, a marriage certificate for a spouse, or a divorce record where a previous marriage has to be accounted for.
Ties and intentions
Property deeds, rental agreements, university enrolment letters, letters of invitation from a host, and proof of accommodation booked for the stay. These are read to judge whether the applicant has reason to return.
Character and health
Police clearance certificates from every country of long residence, court records where an applicant has to disclose one, and medical examination results where the category requires them.
A related document that travels with almost all of these is the passport, and for anything crossing between legal systems an apostille is often attached before the pack is filed.
Every authority sets its own rule, and they are not interchangeable
A pack assembled to one country's standard is regularly rejected by another. Read the receiving authority's own instructions before paying for anything, and treat the summary below as a map of the shapes these rules take.
United States
Any document not in English has to be filed with a full English translation, together with a signed statement in which the translator certifies both that the translation is complete and accurate and that they are competent to translate from that language. The statement travels with the document. Our USCIS translation services page sets out what the certification contains.
United Kingdom
A certified translation has to state that it is accurate, carry the date it was made, and give the translator's full name, signature and contact details. The point of the contact details is that a caseworker can follow them up, so a translation with no traceable author does not meet the standard.
Canada
Translations are expected from a certified translator. Where none is available, the translation has to be accompanied by an affidavit sworn in front of a person authorised to administer oaths. Applicants and their family members are not permitted to translate their own documents, however fluent they are.
Schengen member states
The rule is set by the country you are applying to rather than by the area as a whole. Some accept English, some require the destination country's own language, and several will only take work from a translator sworn before a court in that country. Applying to two member states in the same year can mean two different standards.
Australia
Documents submitted from inside the country are expected from an accredited translator. From outside it, the translator has to give their full name, address, telephone number and their qualifications for translating that language pair, printed on the translation itself.
The four ways a pack gets sent back
- It is incomplete. Translating the transaction rows of a bank statement and skipping the header, the footer, the bank's address block and the small print at the bottom produces a document that is not a translation of the original. Caseworkers check for this specifically.
- It summarises. An employer's letter condensed into its main points is evidence of nothing. Every sentence has to be there, including the ones that seem irrelevant.
- Stamps and seals are missing. A round stamp across the corner of a page carries text, and that text is part of the document. So are handwritten marginal notes, registry numbers and the wording inside an official seal. Where something is illegible, the practice is to say so rather than to leave a silent gap.
- The name does not match the passport. A name written in Cyrillic, Arabic or Chinese has more than one defensible romanisation, and the only one that counts is the one printed in the machine-readable zone of the passport. Fix the spelling to that and note the variant if the original differs.
Machine translation is the right tool for reading a pack, checking that nothing is absent and preparing drafts before you commit. The version that is filed needs a human translator's signature on it, and the certification process explains how that is produced.
Pricing for an application pack
Choose Your Plan
Start with a 7-day trial for $2, then $14.99/month, or save more with annual billing
7-Day Trial
MOST POPULARthen $14.99/month after trial ends
- 7-day full access trial
- Trial limit: 10 pages or 3,000 words
- $0.005/word AI translation
- 120+ languages
- PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, IDML, TXT, JPG, PNG, CSV, JSON
- Team access & custom glossaries
- Email support
Monthly
POPULARRegular price $29.99, now 50% off
- 100 pages or 30,000 words per month
- $0.005/word AI translation
- 120+ languages
- Unlimited file storage
- PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, IDML, TXT, JPG, PNG, CSV, JSON
- Team access & custom glossaries
- Priority email support
Annual
SAVE 25%~$11.25/month, save 25% vs monthly
- 100 pages or 30,000 words per month
- $0.005/word AI translation
- 120+ languages
- Unlimited file storage
- PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, IDML, TXT, JPG, PNG, CSV, JSON
- Team access & custom glossaries
- Priority email support
Four steps for a consular file
Application packs are bulky and the deadlines are fixed, so the order below is built around doing it once.
Take the checklist from the consulate itself
Work from the list published by the post you are applying to, not from a general guide. It tells you which documents are wanted, how recent they have to be, and whether translations must be certified or merely legible.
Scan every page of every document
Both sides, including the reverse of a certificate and any page carrying only a stamp. A statement running to twelve pages is filed as twelve pages, and a missing sheet reads as a gap in the evidence.
Upload the batch and set the target language
Choose the language the receiving post works in, which is not always English. Processing the whole pack together keeps names, addresses and employer titles worded the same way from one document to the next.
Check names and dates against the passport
Read the output beside the originals with the passport open. Names, dates of birth and document numbers have to agree across the whole file, because a caseworker who finds one mismatch starts looking for others.
A short run through the upload, if it helps to see it before starting on a full pack.
Questions applicants ask
Do I have to translate the stamp already in my passport?
Usually not. Entry and exit stamps and the foil itself are read by border and consular staff as a matter of routine, and most checklists do not ask for them. Where an officer does request it, the point is normally a specific remark or annotation rather than the whole page, so ask which part they mean before translating the lot.
Can I translate my own documents if I am fluent?
Not for a filing. Several immigration authorities exclude applicants and their family members outright, on the reasonable ground that the person with an interest in the outcome should not be the one deciding what the evidence says. Use machine output to read and prepare, then have the filed version produced and signed by an independent translator.
How much of a bank statement has to be translated?
All of it. Headers, the account holder's address, the bank's own details, column titles, footnotes and the closing balance line all form part of the document, and a caseworker checking a partial translation against the original will see immediately that material is missing. Statements are also the bulkiest item in most packs, which is why volume pricing matters here.
My documents are in Arabic. Which spelling of my name should be used?
The one printed in your passport, specifically in the machine-readable zone at the foot of the photo page. Arabic, Cyrillic and Chinese names all admit several reasonable romanisations, and consistency across the file counts for more than which system is technically preferable. Where the original spells it differently, keep the passport spelling and note the variant.
Is a certified translation the same as a notarised or sworn one?
They are three different things and authorities ask for different combinations. Certification is the translator's own signed statement of accuracy. Notarisation adds a notary confirming the identity of whoever signed it, and says nothing about the quality of the translation. A sworn translation is produced by a translator formally appointed by a court or ministry, an institution that exists in many European and Latin American countries and not in the United States.
What if a document is partly illegible?
It is marked as illegible in that spot rather than guessed at. A translation that quietly invents a date under a smudged stamp is worse than one that flags it, because the caseworker has no way to know a guess was made. If a whole field cannot be read, ask the issuing office for a fresh copy before filing.
How much does a full application pack cost to translate?
Packs are larger than people expect, often 40 to 80 pages once bank statements are included. The $2 seven-day trial covers 10 pages or 3,000 words, which suits a first look. The Monthly plan at $14.99 covers 100 pages or 30,000 words, the Annual plan is $135 a year at about $11.25 a month, and anything beyond the plan allowance runs at $0.005 per word. A single upload can be up to 1 GB.
Read the whole file before you file it
Upload the pack, check that every page came across, and walk into the appointment knowing what the officer on the other side of the glass is going to read.
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