Referrals
When we send you elsewhere, and what we get for it
This page commits to taking no referral fee. If that is ever going to change, it has to change here first, before a single fee is accepted, and the wording below has to be rewritten honestly rather than softened.
Why this page exists
There is a lot we deliberately do not do. When your situation needs one of those things, we will tell you and often point you toward someone who can. The moment a business recommends another business, you are entitled to know whether money changed hands.
Our position
We do not accept referral fees, commissions, or kickbacks from anyone we refer you to.
Not from administrative scriveners, attorneys, notaries, tax accountants, labour consultants, relocation agents or anyone else. If we suggest someone, it is because we think they can help, and our income from your case does not change either way.
This is a commercial decision as much as an ethical one. You are handing us documents that decide whether you can stay in the country, marry, enrol a child or take a job. If our advice about who to see next were quietly paid for, everything else we tell you would be worth less.
What a referral is and is not
- A referral is information — a name, and why we think they are relevant.
- It is not a recommendation, endorsement or guarantee of that person's work, price or outcome.
- It is not advice about your case. We are not qualified to give that, which is precisely why we are pointing you at someone who is.
- Your contract with them is entirely between you and them. We are not a party to it, we do not supervise their work, and we are not responsible for it.
- You are never obliged to use anyone we name. Ask three, ask none, ask a friend instead.
When we will refer you
| If you need | You need a |
|---|---|
| Someone to prepare or submit an application to a public office on your behalf | 行政書士 — administrative scrivener |
| Legal advice or representation in a dispute | 弁護士 — attorney |
| A notarised signature or a notarial deed | 公証人 — notary |
| An apostille or consular legalisation | Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or the relevant embassy |
| Tax filing or tax advice | 税理士 — certified tax accountant |
| Labour, pension or social insurance matters | 社会保険労務士 — labour and social security attorney |
| Interpreting in a medical or legal setting | A qualified interpreter for that setting, not a translator |
We will say plainly which of these you appear to need. We will not pretend the boundary does not exist in order to keep your business.
Partners who work on your documents
Separate from referrals: for some language pairs we use a qualified partner reviewer. That is a subcontractor working on your order, not a referral. They are bound by confidentiality, they appear in our vendor register, and we remain fully responsible for the work. This is covered by the privacy policy, and where a named person certifies a translation, that name is on the certificate.
If this ever changes
If we ever enter a paid referral arrangement, we will publish it here with the partner's name and the nature of the payment before we make any referral under it, and we will say so at the moment of referring rather than in a footnote. Until this page says otherwise, no money is involved.