Certified Translation
The certificate we're asked to translate more than any other. Certified for UKVI, HM Passport Office and register office use, normally ready the next working day.
A certified birth certificate translation costs £35 to £60 per page, certification included, and is normally ready the next working day. Ours carry a signed statement of accuracy on our letterhead and are accepted by the Home Office, UKVI, HM Passport Office and UK register offices.
The birth certificate is the document we certify more than any other. Since 2013 we've certified them in any of the 300+ languages we cover, each handled by a native-speaker translator and read back by a second linguist before it leaves us. How certification itself works is explained on our certified translation page; this page covers the birth certificate specifically. Everything else we do is under translation services.
Most requests trace back to one of three bodies. UKVI wants birth certificates for spouse and family visas, settlement and citizenship applications, usually to prove a parent-child relationship. HM Passport Office asks for them with first adult passport applications where the applicant was born abroad. And register offices need them when someone born overseas gives notice of marriage; if that's you, a marriage certificate translation will probably follow once the ceremony is done.
Universities, banks and employers ask too, usually as part of an identity check. And a birth certificate rarely travels alone in a visa application. It tends to sit in a bundle beside a passport translation and other papers; our immigration document translation page covers the wider bundle.
Countries issue birth certificates in more than one form, and the difference matters. A full certificate names the parents; a short or extract version often doesn't, and UKVI generally wants the full one for anything involving family relationships. Poland, for instance, issues both an abridged copy (odpis skrócony) and a full copy (odpis zupełny), and we're regularly asked for a certified Polish translation of each. Not sure which form you're holding? Send it over anyway and we'll tell you what it is before you spend a penny.
The single most common reason a translated certificate gets bounced is a name that doesn't match the passport. So we reproduce names exactly as they appear on the original, diacritics and all: Łukasz stays Łukasz, not Lukasz. Where the original is in Arabic, Cyrillic or another non-Latin script, we transliterate to match the spelling in your passport rather than inventing our own. If family members spell a surname differently across documents, tell us which version the receiving body already holds.
We don't need the original, and please don't post it. A clear scan or a phone photo is enough, provided every word, seal and stamp is legible, including anything printed on the back. Take the photo flat, in decent light, with the whole document in frame. That's it.
Three details alongside the image speed everything up: the language, the deadline, and the organisation that will receive the translation. If any name on the certificate has an established English spelling in a passport, send that spelling too so the two documents agree.
No account, no minimum spend. Most orders start and finish by email.
Upload a clear scan or phone photo through the quote form, or email it over. No original needed. Tell us the language, the deadline and which organisation will receive the translation.
We reply within one working hour during office hours. Birth certificates are priced per page, £35 to £60 with certification included, and the quote is the price you pay.
A native-speaker translator does the work and a second linguist checks it against the original. You get a PDF by email, normally the next working day, with a stamped hard copy by tracked Royal Mail if you need one.
A birth certificate looks simple until a caseworker rejects it. Every one we certify is translated by a professionally qualified native speaker and read back by a second linguist, because the failure points are small: a transliterated name, a date format, a registrar's stamp dismissed as decoration. The second reader checks exactly those things before the certification is signed.
Between £35 and £60 per page, with the signed certification statement included in the price. Most birth certificates fit on one page, so most people pay a single fixed fee, agreed before we start. Where the price lands within that range depends mainly on the language: common European languages at the lower end, rarer languages higher, because the pool of qualified translators is smaller.
Standard turnaround is next working day for a short certificate. Against a genuinely tight deadline, same day translation is often possible for a short document, subject to capacity on the day, so ring rather than email if it's that urgent. Solicitors instructing us on eligible matters can use Legal Aid Agency rates. Wider context, including per-word rates for longer documents, is on our pricing page.
It works the other way round as well. If you were born here and a foreign authority wants your certificate in its own language, the requirements are usually stricter than UK ones: many countries ask for a sworn or notarised translation, sometimes with an apostille on top. We don't arrange notarisation or apostille ourselves. What we do is prepare the certified translation in exactly the form your notary needs, so that step is quick and cheap. Our notarised translation page explains the sequence; tell us the country and the receiving body and we'll say which route you actually need.
Send a scan or a phone photo, tell us the deadline, and a project manager will reply with a fixed price within one working hour during office hours.