Certified Birth Certificate
Translation
It is the first thing asked for in a visa or settlement application, a citizenship application, a passport application, a notice of marriage, an enrolment, and very often in probate. If it is not in English or Welsh, it needs a certified translation before any of those can proceed.
We translate the whole document – the entries, the stamps, the seals, the registrar’s signature and anything written in the margins or on the back – because a translation that silently omits a stamp is the kind that gets sent back.
WHAT THE HOME OFFICE asks for
This is the requirement in the Home Office’s own words, and it is the standard every certified translation we issue is built to meet:
Where documents provided are not in English or Welsh, you must provide a full dated and signed translation in English that can be verified. This must be dated and include the full name and signature of the translator or an authorised official of the translation company and their contact details.
UK Home Office guidance, gov.uk
Read it closely and it is a short list: a full translation, not a summary; in English; dated; signed; with the translator or an authorised official of the translation company named; and with contact details so it can be verified. Every one of those is on the certification page we issue with your birth certificate.
WHAT YOU GET with every certified translation
- Accredited and sworn, fully bilingual philologist and linguist human translators
- An additional native-speaking proofreader on every project for quality assurance
- Professional DTP editing and formatting, so the translation mirrors your original
- A signed affidavit and declaration of translation accuracy
- The company wet stamp for authenticity
- Official certification on company letterhead
- Full compliance with the ISO 17100 quality standard
- A physical copy with wet stamps and company letterhead where one is needed
- Nothing of yours has to travel – a scan is enough, and hard copies come to you
- Any iterations, corrections and editing free of charge, same day or next day
WHEN YOU NEED a certified birth certificate translation
A visa or settlement application
Spouse, partner, family, child dependant or settlement – the Home Office needs to see the relationship the certificate proves, in English, in a form it can verify.
British citizenship or a passport
HM Passport Office and the Home Office both require a certified translation of a foreign birth certificate submitted in support of an application.
Giving notice of marriage
Register offices ask for a certified translation of a foreign birth certificate when you give notice, alongside the original.
School, university or UK ENIC
Enrolment, age verification and qualification assessment all commonly need the certificate rather than just an ID document.
Probate and inheritance
Where a birth certificate establishes the relationship between the deceased and a beneficiary, the court or the executor will want it in English.
Opening accounts and proving identity
Banks, insurers and pension providers accept a certified translation as part of their identity and relationship checks.
WHO ACCEPTS it
A certified translation from us is issued to the standard the Home Office publishes, which is the standard almost every other UK body has adopted. It is routinely accepted by:
- The Home Office and UKVI
- HM Passport Office
- HM Courts & Tribunals Service
- The General Register Office and local register offices
- UK ENIC (formerly UK NARIC)
- Universities, colleges and schools
- The NHS
- The DWP and HMRC
- Banks, insurers and pension providers
- Solicitors and notaries
- Foreign embassies and consulates in the UK
If the body you are dealing with is not on this list, ask us before you order – checking what they actually require is free, and it is the fastest way to avoid paying for a level of certification you do not need.
THINGS PEOPLE get caught out by
Short form or long form
Some countries issue an abbreviated extract and a full certificate. UK authorities usually want the full version, because the short one omits the parents. Send what you have and we will tell you before you order whether it is likely to be enough.
Everything on the page counts
Stamps, seals, apostilles already attached, registrar’s notes, corrections and marginal annotations are all translated and described. Nothing is quietly dropped for being hard to read – if it is illegible, it is marked as illegible.
Name spellings
Transliteration from Cyrillic, Arabic, Greek or Chinese can produce more than one valid English spelling. We match the spelling in your passport, so the two documents agree. Tell us at the quote stage if a previous translation used a different one.
An apostille goes on the translation
If the certificate is going abroad rather than to a UK body, the order is translate, then certify, then apostille – the FCDO certificate goes on the document we prepared. Your original never leaves your hands.
HOW IT works
Send a scan
A photograph from your phone is fine, as long as every corner is in frame and the text, the stamps and anything written on the back are readable. Your original never leaves you.
Get a fixed price
We read the document, confirm the language and the certification the receiving body wants, and send back an itemised price and a delivery date. Free, and with no obligation.
Translation and checking
An accredited, sworn linguist translates it; a second linguist who is a native speaker of the target language reads the whole thing against the source.
Certification
The translation is issued with a signed declaration of accuracy on company letterhead, dated, with the translator named and our wet stamp applied.
Delivery
By email the day it is finished, with a wet-stamped hard copy posted to your address if you need one. Corrections afterwards are free.
The full five-stage service process, and the three-stage quality assessment behind it, are set out on How It Works and Quality Assurance.
PRICE AND turnaround
PriceQuoted per job
A standard birth certificate is priced per document with certification included, and a posted hard copy is priced per page. You get the figure in writing, itemised and fixed, before you commit – and the analysis that produces it is free.
Standard24–72 hours
One to three working days for a standard certificate, in any of the 76 languages we work in.
ExpeditedAs fast as 24h
When a deadline is close – without taking the second linguist out of the process.
0 +Years of Excellence
0 +Happy Customers
0 +Official Translators
0 Countries Approved EKO 4's Certified Translations
At EKO 4 Translations we guarantee 100%
- Document Acceptance
- Accuracy and Quality
- Delivery on Time
- Free Corrections
WHAT ELSE your document might need
A certified translation is enough for most UK purposes. Documents going abroad, or to a body that has asked for a solicitor or notary, need a layer on top – and it is ordered with the translation rather than afterwards.
Certified translation
The full service and what it covers – 114 document types, 76 languages, and what certification actually is.
Certified document translation →Sworn & notarised
When an authority wants the declaration sworn before a solicitor, or witnessed and sealed by a notary.
Sworn & notarised translation →Apostille & legalisation
For documents going abroad: an FCDO certificate on the translation we prepared, plus embassy legalisation where it is needed.
Apostille & legalisation →76 languages
The full European and Asian lists. The language changes who does the work, not what you get.
Translation languages →Some of our clients
As featured on
BIRTH CERTIFICATE questions, answered
Do you need my original birth certificate?
No. A clear scan or photograph of both sides is enough for the whole job, including certification. Nothing of yours goes in the post – and if you need a wet-stamped hard copy, we post that to you.
Will the Home Office accept it?
Yes, and we guarantee it. Every certified translation carries a dated declaration that it is a true and accurate translation of the original, the translator named and signed, our contact details, company letterhead and our wet stamp – which is the requirement in the Home Office’s own words, quoted higher up this page.
How much does it cost?
A standard birth certificate is priced per document with certification included, and a posted hard copy is priced per page on top. We quote each job rather than publish a figure, because the language pair and the state of the document both matter. The analysis is free, the quote is itemised, and it is fixed before you commit.
How quickly can I get it?
A standard birth certificate is normally back within 24 to 72 hours, in any of the 76 languages we work in. Expedited service delivers as fast as 24 hours without removing the second linguist who checks it.
Does it need to be notarised or apostilled as well?
For a UK authority, almost never – a certified translation is what they ask for. For a foreign authority, often yes. Ask before you order: telling you that you need less than you thought is part of the service.
The certificate is handwritten and hard to read. Is that a problem?
It is common on older certificates and usually workable. Send it and we will tell you honestly what can be read. Anything genuinely illegible is marked as such in the translation rather than guessed at – guessing at a name or a date is the one error that cannot be fixed later.
My name is spelled differently on my passport. Which do you use?
The passport spelling, unless you tell us otherwise, because that is the one the receiving body will be checking against. Flag it at the quote stage and we will confirm it in writing.
Send us the birth certificate
A scan or a clear photograph is enough. You get back a fixed price, a delivery date, and a straight answer on whether a plain certified translation will do or whether you need a solicitor, a notary or an apostille on top – free, with no obligation, and handled confidentially under UK GDPR.
CERTIFIED TRANSLATION wherever you are in the UK
The service runs digitally end to end, so where you live makes no difference to the price or the timing. Send a scan, approve the quote, and the finished translation comes back by email – with the wet-stamped hard copy posted to your address when you need one.
Certified Government Translation Service Near You
Looking for a certified government translation service near you in London? Look no further, we've got you covered!
124 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX
