What Should Appear on a Certified Translator’s Stamp?

Why the stamp exists at all

A translation is a claim: that this text corresponds to that document. On its own, the claim is unverifiable — anyone can type anything. The stamp and the accompanying statement exist to attach that claim to an identifiable office that can be contacted, verified and held responsible for it.

That is the whole logic, and it explains every element that follows. If a stamp does not let a reader identify who made the claim and how to reach them, it is not doing its job however impressive it looks.

What the certification normally shows

1. The name of the translation office, as it is licensed and known — not an abbreviation or a trading style nobody can look up.
2. Its licence or registration details, so a reader can confirm the office exists and is authorised to do this work.
3. Contact details — address and telephone at minimum. A reader who cannot reach the office cannot verify anything.
4. A statement of certification, saying in plain words that the translation corresponds to the original document presented.
5. The date, and often a reference number that ties the translation to the office’s own records.
6. A signature, by the person or office taking responsibility.
7. The language pair and direction, where the format provides for it.

How a receiving body actually checks it

• It reads the office name and looks for the licence detail. This is the first check and the fastest to fail.
• It compares the names and numbers in the translation against the original document and the rest of the file.
• It checks that the certification statement covers the whole document, not a summary or an extract.
• It may telephone or email the office. This happens more often than people expect, which is why contactability is not a formality.
• It checks the date against the document’s own dates and against the application’s timeline.
• It looks at whether every page is accounted for, and how multi-page translations are bound or referenced.

Where the stamp goes

Practice varies, but the principle does not: the certification must clearly cover everything it is certifying. On a single-page translation that is straightforward. On a longer document, the pages need to be identifiable as one set — numbered, referenced, and bound or stamped in a way that makes it obvious nothing has been added or removed. A loose stack of pages with one stamp on the last one invites exactly the question you do not want.

Where the translation is delivered electronically, the same logic applies in a different form, and whether an electronic certified copy is acceptable is a question for the receiving body rather than for us or for you.

What a stamp does not do

• It does not attest the original document. Certifying a translation says nothing about whether the underlying document is genuine — that is what attestation and legalisation procedures are for.
• It does not make a translation acceptable everywhere. Different bodies accept different forms of certification, and some require procedures carried out in their own country.
• It does not expire. What expires is the document underneath: a translation of an identity card stops being useful when the card is renewed, not when the stamp gets old.
• It does not substitute for a required attestation step. Where a receiving body wants ministry attestation or an apostille, no stamp replaces it.
• It does not certify accuracy of content. If the original says something incorrect, the certified translation faithfully says the same incorrect thing.

The question worth asking first

Before commissioning any certified translation, ask the body that will receive it what form of certification it accepts. The answer is usually one line, and it determines the language, the format, whether attestation is needed and in what order, and sometimes whether you need a certified translation at all.

Offices that skip this question and translate first are the reason so many files are done twice. We ask it at the start, and where we do not know what a particular body requires, we say so rather than guessing on your behalf. Our page on how to verify that a translation office is accredited covers the checks you can make in the other direction.

If your translation is questioned

1. Ask what specifically was objected to. “Not accepted” is not a reason, and the actual reason is usually narrow and fixable.
2. Check whether it is the certification or the content. A missing attestation step is a different problem from a disputed rendering, and they are fixed differently.
3. Check the document underneath. Frequently the translation is fine and the original has expired, been superseded or been reissued.
4. Come back to the office that issued it. A certified translation is a document we stand behind; if something needs correcting, we correct it.
5. Do not simply commission it again elsewhere. A second translation that differs from the first, in a file that already contains the first, creates a new problem on top of the old one.

Our page on why certified translations are rejected sets out the causes we see most often.

Warning signs in a certification

• No office name, or a name that cannot be found anywhere.
• No contact details, so verification is impossible by design.
• A statement that certifies nothing specific, or that does not identify the document being translated.
• Claims of accreditation that cannot be checked, including invented certifications.
• A stamp applied to a summary while the file called for a full translation.
• Pages with no numbering or reference, so the set cannot be shown to be complete.

In short

A certification exists to make a claim verifiable. It should name the office, state clearly what is being certified, carry a date and a signature, and let anyone who wants to check pick up a telephone. Everything else is presentation. Ask the receiving body what it accepts before you commission anything, and most of the difficulty disappears before it starts.

Certified, sworn, notarised, legalised: four different things

These words are used loosely in conversation and precisely by the bodies that receive documents, which is where the confusion becomes expensive. They are not stages of the same thing and they are not interchangeable.

• Certified translation — a translation office states that the translation corresponds to the document presented, and stamps and signs to that effect. This is what we issue.
• Sworn translation — a translation made by a translator formally appointed by a court or authority in a particular country. That appointment exists inside that country; no office in Riyadh holds it, and any that implies otherwise is describing something it does not have.
• Notarised — a notary attests to a signature or to the execution of a document. It says something about who signed, not about whether a translation is accurate.
• Legalised or apostilled — an authority confirms that a document or a seal on it is genuine, so that a foreign country will accept it. This concerns the document’s authenticity, not its translation.

A file can need one of these, two, or all four in a specific order, and the order is not negotiable. Establishing which applies to you is a single question to the receiving body, asked before anything is commissioned. Our pages on the difference between certified, sworn and ordinary translation and on where attestation fits in the sequence set this out in full.