Powers of attorney
Selling a flat in Kraków or completing a purchase in Alicante while you live in Leeds. Translated, notarised and apostilled for use abroad. Complex drafting sits with our legal translation services.
Translation Services
We translate and certify documents ready for the notary, apostille or embassy stamp the destination country requires, and translate notarised documents into English.
A notarised translation is a certified translation whose certification has been verified and sealed by a notary public. Most UK bodies only need certified translation; notarisation matters when a document is going abroad. Prism Linguistics translates and certifies the document ready for the notary, and translates notarised and notarial documents coming into English. The notarisation, apostille or embassy step itself is carried out by a notary public and the FCDO, arranged by you or your solicitor.
The distinction matters because notarisation costs more and takes longer. If your document is staying in the UK, a certified translation is almost always enough, and we'll say so before you spend the extra. Since 2013 we've prepared paperwork for use abroad in more than 300 languages, from powers of attorney to company registration packs.
Here's the part many agencies won't tell you up front: if your document is staying in the UK, you almost certainly don't need a notary. The Home Office, UKVI, HM Courts & Tribunals Service, HM Passport Office and UK universities all accept a certified translation, which is the translation plus a signed statement of accuracy on company letterhead. It's quicker and cheaper.
Notarisation earns its keep when the document is leaving the country. An overseas authority can't easily judge whether a UK translation company is reputable, so it asks for independent verification: a notary public confirms who signed the certification, and the FCDO confirms the notary. Each layer lets a registrar in Rome or a land registry in Kraków trust paperwork produced in another country.
Our part of that chain is the translation and certification, produced the same way as everything else in our translation services: a native-speaker translator, then a second-linguist review. The notary and FCDO steps sit with a notary public, usually arranged through your solicitor, and our paperwork is formatted so those steps go smoothly.
You only need to climb as high as the receiving organisation demands.
An apostille is a certificate attached by the Legalisation Office of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, based in Milton Keynes. It authenticates the signature and seal on a UK document, including a notary's, under the 1961 Hague Convention. Once attached, authorities in any Convention country accept the document without further evidence of who signed it.
People searching for an "apostille translation" usually mean one of two jobs. Either a foreign document was apostilled abroad and now needs translating into English, or a UK document needs translating and certifying before it goes to the notary and the FCDO. We do the translation side of both. Membership covers most of Europe, the USA, Australia, India and Brazil, and keeps growing: China joined in November 2023.
One honest caution. A few receiving bodies insist the translation is done in their own country by an approved translator, and no UK paperwork changes that. It's rare, but we'd rather flag it at quote stage than sell you a bundle you can't use.
Spain has the traductor jurado, Poland the tłumacz przysięgły, and much of the EU appoints court-registered sworn translators whose stamp alone gives a translation legal force. The UK has never had an equivalent. No register, no title to hold.
So when a Spanish bank or a Polish court asks for a "sworn translation" of a UK document, the accepted route from this side is a certified translation, notarised, and apostilled where the receiving country belongs to the Hague Convention. If a body insists on its own country's sworn translator instead, we'll say so plainly rather than dress our certificate up as something it isn't.
Requirements vary by receiving body even within one country, so treat this as the usual pattern rather than a promise.
| Where the document is going | Usually asked for | Our part |
|---|---|---|
| A UK body (Home Office, UKVI, HMCTS, a university) | Certified translation only | Certified translation with signed statement of accuracy |
| A Hague Convention country (Spain, Italy, Poland, most of Europe, USA, Australia) | Notarised translation, often with an FCDO apostille | Certified translation, ready for your notary and the apostille |
| A country outside the Convention (the UAE and Kuwait among others) | Notarisation, FCDO legalisation, then embassy legalisation in London | Certified translation, ready for the full legalisation chain |
| An overseas body with its own rules (some banks, universities, courts) | Varies; sometimes certification alone is accepted | We check the requirement before quoting |
The common thread: a foreign authority acting on the strength of UK paperwork.
Selling a flat in Kraków or completing a purchase in Alicante while you live in Leeds. Translated, notarised and apostilled for use abroad. Complex drafting sits with our legal translation services.
Certificates of incorporation, articles of association and board resolutions, legalised for registering a branch or subsidiary overseas. Everyday business files without certification belong with document translation.
Birth certificates and certificates of no impediment for a wedding in Italy or Greece. Registrars abroad usually want the apostille as well as the notary's seal.
Deeds, mortgage paperwork and completion documents for foreign purchases. A Spanish translation with the right stamps is the difference between completing and stalling.
Degree certificates, professional qualifications and police clearance letters for overseas employers. Gulf states usually require embassy legalisation; our Arabic translation services page covers the language side.
Consulates in London and overseas authorities each set their own rules. We confirm the requirement before we quote, not after.
One fixed quote covers the translation and certification. The notary and FCDO fees are paid to them directly, so you always know whose bill is whose.
Send a scan or clear photo through the quote form and name the country and organisation that will receive it. The destination decides the level.
We tell you whether the job needs certification only, or notarisation, an apostille or full embassy legalisation on top, and reply with a fixed quote for the translation and certification within one working hour during office hours. Notary and FCDO fees are paid to the notary and the Legalisation Office directly.
A native-speaker translator does the work and a second linguist reviews it. We sign the certification and format it so a practising notary public can verify and seal it. The notary appointment and any FCDO apostille or embassy stamp are arranged by you or your solicitor; we make sure our paperwork is exactly what they need.
The certified translation arrives as a PDF, with a stamped hard copy by tracked Royal Mail in time for the notary appointment. Once notarised and legalised, the document is ready for the destination country.
People search for an office near them because the process sounds like it needs visits. The translation part doesn't. The document arrives as a scan or a phone photo, and the translation and certification happen at our end. The notary appointment is the one in-person step, and that happens with your own notary or solicitor, wherever suits you.
The certified translation goes out by tracked Royal Mail in time for that appointment, or straight to the receiving organisation where no notary is needed. We work this way for clients from Aberdeen to Plymouth, run from our head office in Warrington. What matters is getting the level right, and that's a phone call, not a journey.
The price has two parts. The translation itself is charged at our certified rates: as a guide, £0.12 to £0.18 per word for legal, medical and certified work, with short standard certificates from £35 to £60 per page. Those ranges, and what moves a job within them, are set out on our pricing page.
The notary's fee and any FCDO or embassy fees come on top and are paid to the notary and the Legalisation Office directly, because they genuinely vary. A one-page power of attorney is not the same errand as a set of company documents needing embassy stamps. From us you get a fixed quote for the translation and certification, within one working hour during office hours, and an honest steer on what the other steps involve.
If nobody has mentioned a notary, you probably don't need one. Certified translation covers UK bodies. Contracts and business paperwork with no certification sit with document translation, and the full picture is on the translation services hub.
Tell us where it's going and we'll confirm the level it needs, with a fixed quote for the translation and certification.