Five Ways to Tell If a Company Offers Certified Translation Services
What are Certified Translation Services?
When you hire a certified translator to produce a certified translation of a document, the translator does not just simply substitute words into the other language and send you the results. Instead, the translator translates the document and then performs additional checks to ensure the accuracy of the translation. Then, the translator submits a certification along with the document that contains their name, signature, address, and date of the translation. This certification lends legitimacy and authority to the translated document, which allows you to use it for official purposes or legal work.
When Do You Need Certified Translation Services?
No government bodies—and sometimes even private institutions—accept translated documents unless they come with a certification. For these cases, not just “any translator” will do. Translating the document yourself or having a bilingual friend means that the document won’t be accepted by the government agency and you’ll have wasted your time and energy for nothing. You absolutely have to go with a certified translator for the translation to be valid.
For example, if you need to get your vital records translated for USCIS (the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) for immigration to the U.S., you will need to hire a certified translator. These rules are not exclusive to the USCIS, either. If you ever need to submit translated documents for official purposes, you will need to produce certified documents.
Apart from the certification, you will often need to get the documents notarized by a notary public as well before you can submit them. The notary acts as a second step in ensuring the authority of the translated document by verifying the legitimacy of the person signing.
Fortunately, many certified translation services offer to notarize these documents for you. You do not need to physically go to a notary’s office to get your document notarized once the certified translation is delivered. Instead, you can get your document translated, certified, and notarized all from the comfort of your home (if you choose to submit an electronic copy of the documents online to a translation service’s website). However, you still do need to make sure that your choice of translation agency does, in fact, offer these services.
Here are five ways you can tell if a company offers certified translation services:
1. Check the Website
The simplest way to see whether or not a translation agency offers certified translation services is to look up the information on their website. Agencies that do offer certified translation services will mention this information on their site because it’s a service that’s in high demand.
With minimal effort on your part and straight from the comfort of your couch, you can determine whether or not any specific translation agency provides certified translation services.
2. Send Them an Email
If for some reason, the website does not explicitly say that the agency offers certified translation services, the best way to confirm this is by asking them. Simply look up their email address on their website and shoot them a quick email to inquire.
This method has the added benefit of clearing up any additional confusion or questions you might have, too. You can ask the agency exactly what’s on your mind and get a proper response. Reputable translation agencies care about their clients and will go the extra mile to clear up any doubts you might have.
3. Call the Service
If you do not want to send the agency an email, you can go the old-fashioned route and call them up on the phone. Look up their phone number on their website or on Google and give them a call.
This method also has the same added benefit as the email method. You can confirm whether or not the agency provides certified translation services or not and ask them any further questions you have. This will clear up any confusion, for example about the timeline, price, or other details about your translation.
The additional advantage of using the phone instead of an email is that you receive answers to your questions more quickly. You do not need to wait for an employee to check their email and respond. You also do not run the risk of the email getting lost in the shuffle if the agency is having a particularly busy workday.
Thus, if your need for translations is urgent and you need quick answers, there is no better option than calling up the agency on the phone and asking them directly.
4. Read Online Reviews
Another possible way to determine whether or not the translation agency offers certified translations is by looking up their online reviews on Google. If another client has previously used their certified translation services and left a review, you can find out if the company does, in fact, offer certified translations.
This method has the added advantage of letting you know what level of service to expect from the agency. If the majority of the reviews are negative, it might be a good idea to skip that service and go with another one that has better user feedback. You should always take these factors into consideration before choosing your translation services agency to ensure you get the best possible service.
One thing to note is that reading online reviews is not a surefire way to know whether or not the translation agency offers certified translation services in some cases, unlike the other methods we mentioned in this article. For instance, this inherently depends on whether another client used the certified translation services previously and was impressed enough to leave an online review. Thus, we recommend that you use this method as a last resort to check.
5. Choose Acutrans
One surefire way to know if a company offers certified translation services is by choosing one that outright declares that it does. Acutrans is just such an agency.
With more than two decades’ worth of experience in the translation and interpretation services business, Acutrans delivers you accurate and certified translations. We have a team of over 2,000 linguists that can translate your documents to over a hundred different languages. Additionally, we notarize our own translations at no extra cost, so you do not need to make runs to any notary’s office. Submit your documents for translation online, and we’ll take care of the rest.