Certified translations

We do translations of public documents issued by public authorities; these documents could be standard or small-size documents with unlimited validity (personal ID card, birth certificate, marriage certificate, death certificate), certificates and diplomas from educational establishments as well as certificates or notifications with a limited period of validity and documents related to the commercial register.
A document to be accepted by a notary public or a sworn translator must definitely be an original document which may not contain unsigned corrections and must contain the following:

• stamp of the issuing authority (for a document written on company stationery, signature is sufficient);

• signature of the person responsible for issuance or signature of responsible individuals (in case of documents that comprise several unbound pages, there need to be signatures and/or a stamp on each single page);

• the date of issuance.

The following shall be added to the document, just as it is needed or possible, either:

• certification by a sworn translator,
  by which the sworn translator, who has passed the exams for sworn translators and has been sworn in by the Ministry of Justice, confirms the correctness of the translation and its correspondence with the original document;

• or certification by a notary public,
  by which the notary public confirms the authenticity of the translator’s signature, or, in other words, the notary confirms the fact that the document has been signed by a translator who has been certified by him (the prerequisites for this certification are knowledge of the language and a diploma that confirms postgraduate studies);

• or the stamp of the translation agency,
  by which we confirm that the translation has been made and signed in our translation agency and that it corresponds with the original text.

For a document that has been translated by someone else, certification may be applied for only under the condition that the translation will be approved by a sworn translator or a translator certified by a notary public and that this translator will format the text in accordance to his knowledge of the according requirements and then sign it. In this case the services of editing in the according language and of certification need to be paid for on the basis of the current rates. If the translation is not approved by the sworn translator or the translator certified by a notary public, the document needs to be translated again.
For a document that has been translated in our translation agency earlier, certification may be applied for later for an additional charge as it is marked on our pricelist.
The translation of a document will be formatted in accordance to the provisions of the Ministry of Justice or the requirements of the notary public to certify the document and, if needed, it will be bound together either

• with the original document –
  in the case of written confirmations with a limited period of validity like for example the original of the B-card of the commercial register or an attestation by the family doctor; if you need several translation copies of this kind of document, then you would already need to apply for the required number of documents at the according issuing authority so that each single copy of the translation may be bound together with an original copy of the original document. If the translation is just bound together with a copy of the original document, then, even if it may be certified by the notary public, there may occur problems with the application of the apostille for the translated document;

• or with a photocopy of the document, which, according to how it is needed, may be with or without certification by a notary public or a sworn translator.

If an official certification is required for a document, we always recommend previously asking for information at the authority to which it is intended to be submitted.
When ordering a translation with an official certification, the customer shall keep in mind that one should not rush with the translation of important documents and that extra-time is required for the certification of the translations by a notary public or a sworn translator.
If you need to have a document translated through a notary public or by a sworn translator, we will make you an offer, if you ask for the price HERE.

APOSTILLE

For a public document that has been issued in one country to be used in another country, an internationally accepted way of approval for the authenticity of the document is needed. For this purpose the document needs to be legalised or equipped with an apostille, unless it has been agreed upon differently by way of international agreements.
The apostille is a certificate that is acknowledged by all countries that have joined the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents of October 5 of 1961 (”Apostille Treaty”); it comprises agreed upon requirements and it is signed by an according officer who confirms the authenticity of the document.

A public document needs to be apostilised, if it is supposed to be used in a country that has joined the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents. In Estonia the Convention came into force on September 30 of 2001.
The apostille is a certificate by which the competence of the person who signed the document is confirmed. The apostille is attached to the document permanently. The apostilisation of a public document may be done with

–  an original document,
–  a copy of an original document certified by a notary public or officially approved,
–  a printout or a statement.

A public document must be apostilised in the country in which it has been issued. (http://www.notar.ee/19886)
You will find a list of the countries that have joined the Convention on this link:  http://www.hcch.net/index_en.php?act=conventions.authorities&cid=41.
If you wish to, you may also order the apostilisation from us.

LEGALISATION

A public document must be legalised in the case that it is intended to be used in a country that has not joined the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents and also in a country with which Estonia has not concluded a law enforcement treaty. (http://www.vm.ee/?q=node/4810)
If a country has not joined the Apostille Treaty, then the document must be legalised by the according officers in the issuing country and in Estonia. An apostilisation of documents issued in a foreign country is not required for the following issuing countries: Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Poland and Russia – i.e. countries with which Estonia has concluded a law enforcement treaty.

More about legalisation and apostilisation on this webpage:
http://www.vm.ee/est/kat_428/4583.html