A passport is a document you are entitled to possess because you were born in a country or you became naturalized after living in that country for a while. Once you have been issued with this important document you will find that everything such as fingerprints and facial recognition are stored in detail in a microchip inside the new passport. This is called your biometric data and officials are taught how to interpret this data when you either submit the passport for inspection at a border post such as in an airport or the number of the passport is written down on an online application of some form or another.
Whoever needs to see your passport will know a lot more about you than simply the paper that has been used to make the document. Because the data stored is detailed and specific often authorities like immigration aren’t required to ask you for your passport before you enter the country. They can simply scan and skip through the pages and they will learn a lot that there is to know about you.
Do I need a passport translation?
Because there other means of identifying you when you present your passport as proof of identity when entering a country other than your own many countries don’t require a passport translation. If for example you wish to migrate to the U.S.A. you won’t be asked by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (U.S.C.I.S.) for a translation of your passport. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get one for your own peace of mind and to ensure no one misunderstands the information in the passport.
Getting a passport translation
As a passport is a legal document you will need to ensure every word is translated exactly so if you are asked to provide a translation you are confident that every word and part of the passport has been correctly translated. If an authority asks for you to provide a translation you don’t want to be in a tight dilemma if it’s found that a word or 2 don’t appear to have the right translation. This could reflect on your honestly as a whole and damage your reputation.
Getting a passport translation
It’s rare these days for passport translations to be required. If the passport is issued by a country that does not use the Latin script (i.e. such as English or Spanish) passports of that country normally have a Latin script equivalent in the passport as well as in the local script. This makes it easier for authorities to understand what is included. Some new passports have pictures or graphics which make them easier to understand without having to understand the specific language.
That being said, a very few countries (Libya was one until recently) may still require passport translations.
If you need any legal documents translated, including passport translations, use Cinch Translations, a translation agency that only uses the most professional of translators with an enviable record for accuracy.
