Certified Translation - The Faster, Cheaper Form, and Exactly When It Is Enough

What a certified translation contains

A certified translation from our office carries, on every page or on a certification page bound to the translation, the agency's stamp with its registration details, the translator's name, signature and language qualification, a declaration that the translation is a complete and accurate rendering of the attached document, the date, a reference number that lets a reader confirm the certification with us, and, for specialist documents, the qualification of the specialist translator - physician, engineer, lawyer, accountant - who made it. A copy of the source document is attached and referenced so that the reader can see what was translated. The certification is in the target language, or bilingual where the reader is a foreign authority, and the whole is delivered as a signed PDF for portals and email and, where paper is wanted, on our letterhead with wet stamp and signature, collected or couriered. It is the form the ISO 17100 translation standard and most countries' professional practice recognize as a certified translation, and it is what "certified translation" means when a foreign university, employer or consulate asks for one.

Who accepts a certified translation, and why

Readers who assess a document on its content rather than register it as a legal act accept a certified translation: universities and their admission portals at the application stage; scholarship bodies; employers and HR departments; recruitment agencies; insurers settling claims; hospitals and clinics reading a patient's records; landlords; airlines and border officers reading a child's consent; sports federations; certification and accreditation bodies reading quality documentation; tender committees at the bid stage for many tenders; customs offices for commercial documents; banks for compliance reviews in many cases; and the Schengen, UK, US and other consulates in Tbilisi for supporting documents in visa files, which accept certified translations of bank statements, employment letters and civil status documents and often accept English documents without translation. What these readers want is a professional's assurance of accuracy and someone to hold responsible, which the certification provides. What they do not need is the notary's confirmation of the translator's registered status, which is a Georgian legal formality designed for Georgian state bodies.

When a certified translation is not enough

Any Georgian state body receiving a foreign document - the Public Service Development Agency, the House of Justice, the Public Registry, the Revenue Service, the courts, the Service Agency, the National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement - requires a notarized translation, and so do Georgian notaries and most Georgian banks for account opening; foreign civil registries, immigration offices, courts, recognition bodies and licensing bodies generally require a notarized and apostilled translation or one by their own authorized translators; and a document that will be apostilled must be notarized first, since only a notarial act can be apostilled. The rule of thumb: if the reader will register the document, record it, adjudicate on it or license on it, it needs the notary; if the reader will read it, assess it or file it, the certified form serves. When a client is unsure, we ask which office will receive the document, and the answer is usually clear from the office's published requirements, which our language and document teams know.

Upgrading later without re-translating

A certified translation and a notarized one are the same text with different certification, and we keep every translation on file, so a certified translation can be notarized later - when a university admission turns into an enrollment that needs apostilled originals, when a visa file becomes a residence permit file, when an insurer's claim goes to court - by bringing the original to our notary, where the same registered translator signs and the notary certifies, at the notary's fee and without a second translation charge. This is why we recommend the certified form first for anything whose destination may change: it is delivered within hours by email, it costs less, and it loses nothing. The reverse is also true: a notarized translation serves everywhere a certified one would, so a client who already holds a notarized translation never needs a certified one of the same document.

Certified translation for foreign requirements

"Certified translation" means different things in different countries, and we produce the form each expects. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, Canada and Australia, a certified translation is precisely what we issue - a translator's or agency's signed statement of accuracy - and immigration authorities, universities and courts there specify its contents (translator's name, credentials, contact details, date, statement of completeness), which our certification meets. In Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, France, Poland and much of continental Europe, "certified" is often used for what is really a sworn translation by a court-appointed translator, and our language teams tell you when a reader there means that, in which case we arrange re-certification through a partner sworn translator abroad using our text, or a notarized and apostilled translation where the reader accepts it. In the Gulf, Asia and Africa, requirements vary by authority, and our teams check.

Pricing, delivery and how to order

A certified translation costs the translation at our fixed rate per standard document or per page, with no notary fee, no state fee and no requirement for the original: a legible photo or PDF is enough, since the certification attaches a copy of what was translated. Standard documents are delivered by email as signed PDFs within 1-2 hours, longer documents the same or the next day, and paper copies with wet stamp are collected at Agmashenebeli 117 near Marjanishvili Metro or couriered anywhere.

To order, send photos or PDFs of every page on WhatsApp, Telegram or email and tell us who will receive the translation and in which country; the quote arrives within 15 minutes, and if the reader turns out to need a notarized translation we say so before you pay for the wrong form. A certificate of accuracy naming the specialist's qualification is included for medical, legal, technical and financial documents.

Frequently asked questions

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