There are many reasons why you might turn to use official document translation services. If you have some official documents and they are to be presented for inspection for any reason it only makes sense that they are translated first if they are not written in English.
If you are applying for a job in the U.S., for instance, you will probably have to supply translated copies of your
- educational qualifications;
- trade or professional qualifications or certificates;
- references;
Employers are less fussy than government agencies when it comes to choice of official document translation services. The main priority is to make sure that the translator translates all your documents as accurately as possible.
Getting your official documents translated by a certified translator
If you have to supply supporting translated documents to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (U.S.C.I.S.) or the Department of Labor (D.O.L.) you will probably be asked to have the translations certified. This is an easy extra task for many professional translators as all they have to do is to certify that the translated copy is an accurate version of the original and sign the certificate which accompanies the translated document.
Official document translation services tend to specialize in official document translation, so if you are looking for this kind f service you should ask the translate agency whether this is what they do. Not all translation agencies will handle these documents, but may specialize in other sorts of translations like marketing and literature translations. These sorts of translation skills are not as exacting as official document translations. The accent is not o much on literal, word for word translation, as there is some leeway afforded to the translator to interpret what he or she has to do personally.
Avoid simple computer aided translation tools
The worst mistake that you can do when faced with the task of finding an official document translation service is to cut corners and use something like Google Translate or some other cheap or free computerized translation service.
These computer aided translators do a good job and are increasingly more sophisticated but are not designed to cope with official document translate where accuracy is paramount. They are really only designed for amateur or personal needs at the moment although even many professional translators may use translation software to help them speed up long and repetitive translation tasks.
The main difference with a professionally translated document is that it has been translated by someone with not just linguistic skills, but has either trained or gained experience as a professional translator. Official Document Translation Services have a duty to ensure that their translated documents will never be rejected or cause confusion or failed applications because of the quality of the work.
Cinch Translations provides an official document translation service which is second to none. We are proud to report that not one single official document we have translated for use in an application to the U.S.C.I.S. has ever been rejected.
