Vocabulary card: certified, sworn, apostille

Six words that are often used as if they meant the same thing. Here is what each one means.

Certified translation

A translation that comes with a signed statement from the translator or company that it is complete and accurate. It is a statement of accuracy and nothing more: it does not make the translator an official of any court or ministry.

Sworn translation

A translation made by a translator who is registered with a court or ministry in their country, and who puts their official stamp on it. The word describes who the translator is, not only what they wrote.

Notarised translation

A translation where a notary confirms the translator’s signature. The notary vouches that the signature is the translator’s; the notary does not check the translation itself.

Apostille

A certificate a government authority attaches to an original document so that other countries which accept it recognise the signature or seal on that document. It is attached to the original, not to the translation.

Legalisation

A longer way of confirming a signature or seal on a document, in steps, by the authorities of the country that issued it and often by the consulate of the country that will read it. It is used where an apostille is not the route.

Official or certified copy

A copy of a document that the issuing authority, or a person authorised to do so, states is a true copy of the original. A certified copy of a document is not a certified translation: the first copies the original, the second renders it in another language.

What Polyfetti does

Our translation is a certified translation: it comes back with our signed certificate of accuracy, a statement that the translation is complete and accurate. It is not a sworn translation, and it is not made by a translator registered with a court or ministry.

We do not notarise documents or issue apostilles. A notary does the first, and the foreign ministry or the authority the issuing country names does the second. We are not a government body.

Which of these a particular office accepts is for that office to say. Questions? Write to us and a person will reply by email.