Work With EKO 4
Translator Applications
EKO 4 works with more than a thousand accredited translators across 76 languages, and the network is never finished – language pairs move, specialisms come up, and good linguists are worth knowing before we need them.
Most of our work is official document translation for UK authorities, alongside business, technical and marketing projects. If that is your trade, the form further down this page is the whole application. It takes about ten minutes and asks for your languages, your accreditation and your own rates.
0 +Years of Excellence
0 +Official Translators
0 Languages We Work In
0 Countries Approved EKO 4's Certified Translations
WHAT WE look for
Accreditation
Membership or qualification with a recognised body – CIOL or ITI in the UK, ATA in the United States, or the sworn-translator register of the country you work in. Tell us which; it is the first thing we check.
A native target language
We translate into a linguist’s native language, not out of it. Fully bilingual philologists and linguists, with the direction of the pair stated plainly.
A subject you own
Legal, medical, financial, technical, academic and scientific, marketing, or official civil-status documents. Generalists are harder to place than someone who is genuinely strong in one field.
Comfort with a CAT workflow
Our projects run on our own cloud platform with a shared translation memory and glossary. You do not need to own a licence for anything – you do need to be comfortable working that way.
Reliability on a date
We guarantee delivery dates to customers, so we need them from linguists. Being honest about what you cannot take is worth far more to us than accepting everything.
Confidentiality
Everything we handle is confidential under UK GDPR, and much of it is somebody’s immigration file or medical record. That is a professional obligation, not a checkbox.
HOW APPLYING works
You complete the form
Contact details, the languages and pairs you work in, the terminologies you know, your own rates at each service level, your availability and your PayPal address. Leave any rate blank for work you do not want – a blank is an answer, not a gap.
We check the credentials
Accreditation, language pairs and direction, terminologies and experience. The form asks whether you are willing to send proof of proficiency and a short sample from each pair – saying yes to both makes a strong application much easier to act on. A person reads this, not a filter.
We keep your details on file
Applications are held against the language pairs they cover. Some pairs are busy and some are quiet, so a strong application in a rare pair can sit for a while and then become urgent overnight.
We get in touch when there is work in your pair
You will hear from a project manager with the source text, the deadline and the rate agreed from what you quoted. Nothing is assigned to you without that.
Onboarding onto the platform
Once you take a first project you get access to our cloud platform, the shared memory and the glossary for that client. A project manager stays with you through it.
HOW WE WORK with translators
You set your own rates
The form asks what you charge, by document type and by turnaround, rather than telling you what we pay. That is the number we work from.
Your work is proofread, not policed
Every translation is read by a second native-speaking linguist before delivery. It is a quality stage, and it is also the reason nobody is left carrying a job alone.
A rating built from finished work
Every linguist carries an internal quality rating drawn from completed projects and proofreader feedback. It decides who is offered which project, which is why the same names come back for the same subjects.
One platform, one glossary
Translation memory and terminology live in one place, so you are not rebuilding a client’s vocabulary from scratch on every job, and repeated segments are not retyped.
A project manager on every job
Someone who has read the brief, knows the deadline and answers questions. You should not have to guess what a client meant.
Work across 76 languages
From Polish, Romanian and Ukrainian to Arabic, Urdu, Mandarin and the rarer pairs. If your pair is not one we are asked for often, say so – those are the ones we struggle to staff at short notice.
BEFORE YOU start the form
It is quicker with these to hand:
- Every language you work in, and your preferred language pair
- The terminologies you know and the document types you prefer
- Your rates for template, general and specialist documents, at regular, express and super-express turnaround
- Your PayPal address – that is how translators are paid
- Your maximum words per day, when you are available, and roughly when you started translating
- The country you are based in and your contact details
Leave any rate blank for work you would rather not take, and the fields marked optional really are. There is no minimum number of languages and no obligation attached to applying.
TRANSLATOR application form
Everything below goes straight to our language department. Fields you leave blank are read as “not this one” rather than as an omission.
THE WORK you would be doing
Certified document translation
Civil-status records, qualifications, police certificates and immigration paperwork for UK authorities. The bulk of what we do.
Certified document translation →Business & professional translation
Contracts, reports, tenders and technical documentation, where a subject specialism earns its keep.
Business & professional translation →How your work is checked
The three-stage assessment every translation goes through, and the standard the whole process is built to.
Translation quality assurance →The 76 languages
The full European and Asian lists, and the variants we are asked to distinguish between.
Translation languages →As featured on
APPLICANT questions, answered
Do I need to be based in the UK?
No. We work with linguists wherever they are – the form asks which country you are based in, and that is for context rather than eligibility. What matters is the language pair, the accreditation and whether you can meet a deadline in our working hours.
What accreditation do you accept?
CIOL and ITI in the UK, the ATA in the United States, and the sworn or certified translator registers of other countries. The form asks this as a yes-or-no question, so we confirm which body when we get in touch. A degree in translation or philology plus professional experience counts – tick it, and tell us the detail then.
Do you set the rates, or do I?
You do. The form asks what you charge for template, general and specialist documents at each turnaround, and that is what we work from. Leave a field blank for any work you would rather not take.
Which currency should I quote in?
The rate fields are currently headed in US dollars. If that is not the currency you work in, enter your own figure anyway: we confirm the currency and the rate with you before you are offered anything, and we would rather have your real number than a converted guess.
How long before I hear back?
It depends entirely on your language pair. Applications are held against the pairs they cover, and busy pairs move quickly while quiet ones can sit for months and then become urgent overnight. We do not delete applications.
Do you offer employment or freelance work, and how am I paid?
Projects are offered on a per-project basis, with the rate agreed from what you quoted before you accept – nothing is assigned to you without that. The form asks for a PayPal address because that is how translators are paid.
Will my translations be edited?
Every translation is read by a second linguist who is a native speaker of the target language before it is delivered. It is a quality stage rather than a judgement, and it applies to everyone.
What software do I need?
Nothing you have to buy. Projects run on our own cloud platform, with the translation memory and the glossary held there. You need to be comfortable working in a CAT-style environment; you do not need a licence for one.
Can I apply in more than one language pair?
Yes – the languages field takes as many as apply. Be honest about direction, though: we translate into a linguist's native language, and a pair listed the wrong way round is worse than one not listed.
My language is not on the list. Can I still apply?
Yes. Send the form with the closest match selected and say so when we get in touch. The list is what we are asked for regularly, not the limit of what we can place.
What happens to the details I send?
They go to our language department and are held confidentially under UK GDPR, used only for matching you to projects. They are not sold, shared or used for marketing.
Not sure you are what we are looking for?
Send the form anyway. Applications are held against the language pairs they cover rather than filtered and forgotten, and the pairs we struggle to staff are rarely the ones people expect.
