As the officialization process is not globally standardized, an official translation has a different meaning in each country. This usually means an officially accepted translation performed by a professional translator approved by the competent authority in the field in each country.

Some examples:

The United States and United Kingdom do not use the sworn concept. Nevertheless, you may be required to provide a “certified translation” or “notarized translation.” A certified translation is a translation with a letter (“affidavit” or “certificate of accuracy”) signed and dated by the translator or translation agency, stating that the translation performed is a true version of the original.

In Canada, a certified translation is a translation by a certified translator who has successfully passed the standardized translation certification examination CTTIC (Canadian Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters Council), or who has been registered as a certified member of a professional association in one of the provinces of Canada. The translator signs each of his or her translations with the initials TA (“traducteur agréé”) or CT (“certified translator”).

In Australia, only NAATI accredited translators (The National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters) are allowed to produce certified translations.

In Mexico, translators must submit an application to the Superior Court of Justice in one of the States of the Mexican Federation and pass a written and oral exam in order to obtain the official title of translator (“perito traductor oficial” - expert official translator) and be authorized to affix their signature and stamp to documents.

In France, a "traduction assermentée" (sworn translation) is a translation performed by a sworn translator, that is to say, a person who has taken an oath before a court (Superior Court or Court of Appeals) and who is officially approved to provide a translation into the language combination in question.

In Italy, our translators must personally go to Court to attest to the translation’s conformity to the original text before a public official. This explains the higher management fees (US $80) we apply for this country.

Sworn Translations
The cost and delivery time depend on the translator's availability, language pair, volume to be translated, requested delivery date, and mailing address destination. A sworn translation in Italy costs US $50 - GB £40 per page. To this price we add: a fixed cost of US $80 - GB £64 for management fees, US $10-GB £8 for shipping by express courier, and the cost of fiscal stamps (a US $18 - GB £14 fiscal stamp is applied once every 4 pages). A sworn translation outside Italy costs US $80 - GB £64 per page on average, management fees and shipping by registered mail included.
Sworn translations are sent by mail directly to your address. Please be aware that in theory, a sworn translation has legal value only in hard copy format. This includes the original document (or a photocopy) attached to the translation, both authenticated by a signature and a stamp. If all you need is a digital copy via email, we will not charge any shipping fees.

Certified Translations
For certified translations there is a fixed additional cost of US $20-GB £15 to the cost of the translation, or 3% of the total cost of the translation (including any revisions) for orders above US $500 - GB £400. If you need to receive a hard copy of the certificate with the original stamp and signature, we will add shipping costs to the quote based on the destination.

For a sworn translation for Italy, yes. We will have one of our professional translators revise the already-translated document, then certify this final document. For a sworn translation for outside of Italy, unfortunately not. A sworn translator outside of Italy cannot use an existing translation, because any certified translation must be translated fully and personally by the certified translator; this is because it involves civil and criminal liability for the translator.

A translation performed by a sworn translator is usually officially recognized throughout the country in question. However, its recognition abroad can only be assessed on a case by case basis, according to the specific needs of the requesting authority. For example, a translation performed in France by a translator sworn before a French court will not necessarily be recognized in Australia or Canada. That is why at Translated we always strive to choose a competent translator directly in the recipient country of the document to ensure its acceptance by the local requesting authority.

Translated does not provide legalization services. Legalization is intended as the procedure by which a State authority certifies the authenticity of the signatures affixed to a document when there is no mutual recognition agreements for certified translations between the two countries.