What this page is, who it suits, and the first step
A european translation agency in the sense used here is a translation provider that works across European languages and the document systems attached to them, from Portuguese and Polish to Greek, Swedish and Romanian. This page suits you if your document is in one European language and the reader needs another, or if the document is in English and the reader is a European office. It does not suit a request for interpreting at a meeting, and it does not cover languages outside Europe. If it suits, send the document, name both languages and the receiving office, and ask for a written quote.
What drives the price of European work
For this service, the european translation cost is built from the language pair, the word and page count, whether the source is typed or scanned, the number of seals and handwritten notes, the density of tables and numbering, and the format the office requires. Some pairs are more work than others because of script, terminology or the scarcity of translators for a rare combination. A sworn translation adds a step that a plain translation does not have. We quote after reading the file, and the quote states what is included. A figure given before the document is seen would be a guess, and a guess is not a quote.
Certification: scope, use, boundary
Certification is not one thing across Europe. In Spain a traductor jurado is appointed by the state; in France and Belgium a traducteur assermenté is listed by a court; in Germany a beeidigter Übersetzer is sworn before an authority; in Poland a tłumacz przysięgły is on a ministerial list; in Italy a traduttore giurato is sworn in court. A certified european translation prepared under one system is not automatically recognized under another. This service can prepare a translation with a signed statement of scope; whether an office needs a sworn professional, a notarized copy or an apostille is decided by that office.
Layout risks: kept, confirmed, not promised
Kept: paragraph order, clause numbering, tables and the position of signatures where the source permits. Confirmed with you: whether the office wants a bilingual page, a target-language-only page, or both, and whether a statement or a sworn cover sheet is attached. Not promised: a facsimile of a seal, a hologram or a signature; identical fonts; and acceptance by a particular authority. Public documents often carry a stamp that a reader uses to identify the issuer, and we describe that stamp in brackets with its position rather than redrawing it. A reader who wants the facts preserved gets them; a reader who wants a visual copy does not.
Three delivery routes, and how to choose one
The finished file can be sent as an email attachment, offered as a download link, or printed and posted. Email and download suit offices that accept digital filings and are the route this service usually uses for a plain translation with a signed statement. A printed set suits an authority that wants paper with an ink signature, and it is the route to choose when a sworn translator's stamp must appear on the page. The route is agreed before translation starts, because the layout and the review differ. Changing the route after delivery is new work, not a setting to toggle.
Files grouped by the situation behind them
Civil status files bring birth, marriage, death and name-change records. Immigration files bring residence permits, police certificates and passport pages. Academic files bring transcripts, diplomas and grade explanations, often for a credential evaluation. Corporate files bring registration extracts, powers of attorney, board minutes and contracts. Legal files bring judgments, summonses and notarial acts. Each group has a different reader and a different field set, and public documents within the same group may fall under different legalisation rules depending on the countries involved. Say which group and which two countries are on either side.
Where our role ends
We prepare the translated text and the layout the receiving office can use. We do not issue public documents, do not legalise them, do not apostille them and do not decide whether an authority will accept the result. Under EU rules, some public documents circulating between member states are exempt from legalisation and may be accompanied by multilingual standard forms, but that framework has exceptions and does not cover every document or every country. Whether your file falls inside it is a question for the issuing or receiving authority, not for the translator.
Regional word choices worth listing
European languages carry regional official vocabulary that a general dictionary will not settle. German in Austria and Germany differs in administrative terms; French in Belgium and Switzerland differs from France; Dutch in Belgium uses forms that Dutch readers in the Netherlands notice. A birth record may be a partida de nacimiento in Spain, an acte de naissance in France and a Geburtsurkunde in Germany, and the English rendering should follow the reader's system. When a document already uses a term from one national variant, tell us whether to keep it or adapt it to the receiving country.
Common errors that cause a returned file
This service sees four errors recur. First, a name spelled two ways across pages, where one spelling is silently corrected instead of both being kept and flagged. Second, a date read in the wrong order, because European records usually write day.month.year while US sources write month.day.year. Third, a missing page, often the reverse of a sheet carrying a stamp or a marginal note. Fourth, a seal too faint to read, where the translator guesses at the issuing office instead of asking for a better scan. Each of these is cheap to fix before delivery and expensive after an authority has reviewed the file.
European translation agency questions
The questions readers ask most about european translation agency are answered in the FAQ section below. The answers name the local offices, the document types and the receiving rules that apply to this page.
The questions are grouped by the point they turn on: the file, the receiving office, the turnaround and the format. Each answer names what the reader should confirm in writing, and a point that depends on the receiver is named as such rather than smoothed over.