Certified Translation

For all documents emailed to us, we give a quick and completely free estimate of the translation cost. The volume, level of difficulty, urgency, legibility of the original and formatting requirements are taken into account, along with a number of other criteria detailed in our Guide to Translation Pricing.
Contact us to get a quick free no-obligation cost estimate.

The price of certified translation varies between $5 and $80 per page.
If you wish to learn more about translation pricing, you may be interested in reading this Guide to Translation Pricing.

Yes, when you contact us for the first time, you will have a dedicated translation manager assigned to you. This Chicago-based professional will be available to you every step of the way, answering your questions and providing assistance while we work on your translation.

Should you have additional questions in the future or need to order copies of your documents, your personal translation manager will know your preferences, such as individual names spelling, format customization, type of certification required, and any specific requests you choose to communicate to them.

This level of personalized service is uncommon in the translation industry, and we have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from our customers, who have come to appreciate the benefits of good old dedication and personal attention.

100% of our translations are accepted by USCIS, other US government agencies, courts, healthcare and educational institutions, as well as foreign consulates and institutions. When requesting a price quote or placing your order, we recommend mentioning where you plan to submit the documents so that we can use appropriate certification format.

No, a photocopy via e-mail is all we need to give you a quote and provide translation. If you do not have access to a copier, you can take a photo, even with a smartphone. The chief requirement for a photo is that all information of the original document should be clearly visible on it, including small print, stamps and graphics. If you can read everything in your photo, so will the translator (the reverse is also true). Documents in Word format do not need to be photocopied; they can be submitted as .doc, .docx, or .rtf files.

Certified translation is a formal document that strictly adheres to a comprehensive set of linguistic rules, translation standards, documentation principles and format requirements, and includes official certification of the fact that the information contained in it accurately and fully relays foreign-language contents of the original document.

It depends. Different organizations and government bodies have different requirements with regard to notarization. It is important to understand, however, that in the United States, notarization by itself does not verify the authenticity of the translation or of the original document. Rather, the notary confirms the identity of the person whose signature appears in the translation certification. Whether or not this additional level of validation is necessary is a matter of the receiving entity’s policy. Should you need to have your translation notarized, we will be happy to take care of it for you.

Yes! In fact, we love this type of translations, as many of us have studied abroad too. We recommend double-checking with the institution where you are sending your documents on the exact list of documents they need. Translating transcripts is usually a must, but translating optional documents, such as long study plans, for example, can quickly become an expensive proposition. We’ve all been students and we understand student budgets, hence our advice: only translate what you absolutely must.

In many cases, translations for USCIS and many other organizations can be delivered to you electronically. We will send you the certified translation as a PDF file by email. You can forward the file to your attorney or print it and submit to USCIS or another receiving institution as a part of paper application. This method provides the fastest delivery and you get an extra benefit of having the electronic file for future use. If you prefer a printed translation with wet ink signatures and seals, you can order it mailed to you via USPS Priority Mail. When submitting your translation to USCIS or another receiving institution, do not forget to include a copy of your original document.

We do not recommend sending translations directly from the translation agency to the requesting institution. Most organizations do not allow it in the first place because doing so can introduce confusion to your file with them. A common exception to this rule is when your attorney needs the translation, such as when they prepare to file your petition or case. In such instances, at the client’s request, we can send the translation directly to the attorney and email you a copy for your own records.

The translation timeline depends on its size and complexity. Translation of most certificates (birth, marriage, etc.) and apostilles takes one business day. We will inform you about the delivery time options when we respond to your cost estimate request.

We accept all major forms of payment: credit cards (Visa, Master Card, American Express), Zelle, checks, money orders, bank transfers, and PayPal.

If you are mailing a check for your translation, please call us at (847) 278-2131 in advance to place your order and get mailing instructions.

We start working on your order as soon as your payment is received.

Yes. In fact, we encourage you do so, especially if you already have official documents issued with a certain spelling of the name. Whenever the translation rules allow it, we will be happy to accommodate your request. Please note that not all name variations are permissible in official certified translations (see the next question). You are welcome to inquire about your particular situation before placing the translation order.

When applying for the US or foreign documents, such as a certificate of naturalization, a visa, or and identification, it is important to remember that personal names do not get “translated” but rather transliterated or transcribed. Which means that the official name, as it appears in one’s documents, will be spelled to sound the same or nearly the same in any language. Thus, someone who immigrated to the United States and officially changed their name from Harilaos to Harry, and later decided to go back to Greece to sell their house, will now be travelling back as Harry.

We usually recommend carefully going through the documents with your attorney and selecting only the ones that are required to support your specific case. If the documents are very long, and your attorney does not know the foreign language, we can provide summary translations to help them with the selection. However, once selected, all documents that are being submitted to USCIS must be accompanied with full translation.

Generally, translating unfinished text is not the best way to save time. Translating a draft that is still being worked on often produces the opposite result: translation takes longer and gets more expensive. The likelihood of information getting missed or dissimilar terms used throughout the text to translate the same concept also increases. In special cases, when the cost is less important than the absolute urgency, and the translation has to start before the final version is ready, we use a special procedure where the changes in each successive edition must be carefully tracked and marked. In most other cases, submitting the document in legible and accessible format, proofreading for typos and double-checking dates, names, facts and places, or ordering expedited translation, make for a better way to get the final translation as quickly as possible.

Professional translators go through years of academic and hands-on training in a series of subjects pertaining to their full-time work. Their skill is in conveying by means of the target language all those gradations of meaning, style and lexicon of the foreign-language content created by other highly educated professionals in specialized fields of law, medicine, science, engineering, banking, and so on.

Someone’s ability to communicate well in two languages is not the same as the ability to authentically translate formally structured information while maintaining the attributes of the text that ensure its exact and legally actionable comprehension by the recipient.

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