Court-sworn translators

Settling in Germany
with every document certified

The driving licence, the degree, the criminal record certificate, the birth and marriage certificates. Translated by translators sworn before a German court, stamped, and posted to you on paper as well as sent digitally.

  • Driving licences for the Führerscheinstelle
  • Degrees and transcripts for recognition
  • Criminal record certificates and civil status documents
  • Company and trade documents for business arrivals
  • Stamped paper copy by post as standard
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Send everything you have been asked for and we will price it as one set.

Your documents

    What we guarantee
    • Sworn court translators
    • Stamped paper copy by post
    • Encrypted upload, deleted after 30 days

    What German offices ask newcomers for

    Nobody needs all of these, and almost nobody needs only one. Send us what you have been asked for and we will price the set.

    Which German office asks for which document

    Each one wants a beglaubigte Übersetzung — a translation certified by a translator sworn before a German court.

    • Exchanging your driving licence

      The Führerscheinstelle will want your foreign licence translated and certified before it will convert it. Licences are short documents with a great deal packed into them — category codes, restriction codes, issue and expiry dates — and every one of those has to come across exactly.

    • Getting your qualification recognised

      Degree certificates and transcripts, translated so an assessor can compare them with a German qualification. Transcripts are the long part: grades, credits, subject names, sometimes dozens of pages. We quote them as one document, not page by page.

    • The criminal record certificate

      Your home country’s police certificate, needed for residence applications, for many jobs, and for citizenship. Short, formulaic, and frequently needed at short notice — which is why we treat it as urgent by default.

    • The Standesamt

      Marrying in Germany, or registering a marriage that happened elsewhere. A birth certificate and evidence of your capacity to marry, plus a divorce decree or death certificate if there was an earlier marriage. The registry office is the strictest reader of the lot.

    • Residence and citizenship

      The Ausländerbehörde for a residence permit, and later the citizenship file, which reaches further back — your own certificates, sometimes your parents’. Each translated and certified, usually wanted on paper.

    • Arriving for business

      Company registration documents, articles, powers of attorney and contracts for anyone setting up or posting staff here. The same certification standard, a different set of documents.

    Four steps

    1. 1

      Send everything at once

      Phone photos are fine. A set is cheaper than the same documents quoted one at a time, and it lets one translator keep your name and dates identical across all of them.

    2. 2

      Tell us which office it is for

      Führerscheinstelle, Standesamt, Ausländerbehörde, an employer, a university. It changes what the certification has to look like and whether you will need paper.

    3. 3

      Approve one fixed price

      For the whole set, with a delivery date confirmed before you commit.

    4. 4

      Digital now, paper in the post

      A digitally signed PDF by email and the stamped paper copy by post, because most German offices still want an original stamp in front of them.

    Documents from India, the USA, Turkey, Brazil and the Philippines

    People come to Germany from everywhere, but the documents arrive in a few recognisable shapes, and knowing the shape in advance is most of the speed.

    • India — degree certificates with consolidated marksheets running to many pages, and birth certificates issued by a municipal authority rather than a national registry. The volume is in the transcripts; we quote those as one job.
    • The United States — birth certificates issued by a state, not federally, which means the apostille comes from that state’s Secretary of State. People routinely lose a week discovering this. Driving licences are state-issued too, and their codes differ.
    • Turkey — civil registry extracts that carry a great deal of family information on a single page, which is helpful for a Standesamt and demanding to set out clearly.
    • Brazil and Latin America — certidões issued by a notary’s office, often with stamps and seals across the whole page, occasionally handwritten in the older ones.
    • The Philippines — civil registry certificates issued centrally, usually on security paper that photographs badly. Send the best image you can and we will tell you if it is legible enough.
    • Ukraine, Russia and the Balkans — documents in Cyrillic, where the spelling of a name in the translation has to match the spelling in the passport exactly. We follow the passport and say in the translation that we have done so.
    • The United Kingdom — since Brexit a third country like any other, and UK documents now go through the same certification as everyone else’s. Not everybody has caught up with that yet.

    Whatever the origin, the output is the same: a certified translation by a court-sworn translator, with the certification clause, the stamp and the signature that a German office is looking for. If your file is mostly academic, our page on diploma and transcript translation goes into that side of it in more detail.

    We translate documents, and we are not an immigration adviser, a recognition body or a lawyer. What your particular route requires is a question for the office or the adviser handling it. What we will tell you honestly is which of the documents in front of us actually need a certified translation — and which do not.

    Your certified translation partner in Germany

    Everyone who moves to Germany describes the same first year: the flat, the Anmeldung, the bank, the tax number, the recognition of a degree you earned fifteen years ago, and a queue of offices each asking for one more piece of paper than the last.

    We have been translating that paperwork since 1999, and the useful thing we bring is not speed — it is knowing what the office on the other side is actually going to look at. A licence code rendered loosely, a transcript where the grading scale is unexplained, a name spelled two ways across two documents: these are what send people back for a second appointment, and they are avoidable.

    So send us the whole pile, tell us which office each part is for, and let us tell you what you do not need. That conversation costs nothing and it is usually the most valuable ten minutes of the job.

    Happy to be of service,

    Founder

    Frequently asked questions

    Tap any question to see the answer!
    Who is allowed to certify a translation for a German authority?
    A translator sworn in or authorised before a German court. They attach a certification clause confirming the translation is complete and accurate, then stamp and sign it. German offices accept that and will not accept an uncertified translation, however good it is. Every job on this page is produced that way.
    Do I need my driving licence translated to exchange it?
    For most non-EU licences, yes — the licensing office will want a certified translation alongside the licence itself. Which licences can be exchanged, and on what terms, is a matter for the Führerscheinstelle rather than for us. Send us the licence and we will translate it; ask them about the exchange.
    My transcript is forty pages of grades. How is that priced?
    As one job, quoted on the whole document rather than at a per-page rate that punishes you for having a thorough university. Transcripts are repetitive, which works in your favour on the price. Send it and you will have a real figure the same day.
    Will I get a paper copy?
    Yes, as standard. German offices generally want the certified translation on paper with an original stamp, so every order includes a posted copy alongside the digital one. If you genuinely only need the digital version, say so and we will price it accordingly.
    Do I have to post you the original documents?
    Usually not. A clear scan or photo is enough for us to produce and certify the translation. If a particular office insists that the translation be made from the original in hand, tell us and we will arrange it.
    My name is written differently in Cyrillic and in my passport. Which do you use?
    The passport spelling, and we state in the translation that this is what we have followed. A German office comparing your documents needs one consistent name; a translation that invents a third spelling creates exactly the problem it was supposed to solve.
    Which languages do you cover?
    English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian, Arabic, Hindi, Chinese, French, Italian and more, into German. If your combination is unusual, ask — the answer is usually yes.
    How much does it cost, and how fast?
    A fixed price for the set, by documents and language pair rather than a published rate. You receive the quote within 24 hours; most standard certificates are delivered within 24 to 48 hours, plus postal time for the paper copy. If you have an appointment booked, give us the date first and we will confirm before you commit.

    Send us the whole pile

    One fixed price for the set, a firm delivery date, and an honest answer on anything that does not need translating.

    Get my quote