Turkish Sworn Translation

What makes a translation sworn in Turkey

A sworn translation is not a different standard of writing. It is a translation that carries a named, identifiable translator behind it. In Turkey a translator becomes sworn by swearing an oath before a Turkish notary, who records that oath and keeps the translator on a register together with a specimen signature and the language pairs the translator is competent in. From that point the translator can sign a translation with a declaration that the text is a complete and accurate rendering of the document placed in front of them.

That declaration is the whole point. An institution receiving a translated birth certificate has no way to judge the Turkish or the foreign text itself. What it can do is see who took responsibility for the rendering, confirm that person is on a notary register, and hold them accountable if the translation turns out to be wrong. The signature and seal are a chain of responsibility rather than a decoration.

When sworn is enough and when it is not

A sworn translation on its own is accepted by many offices in Turkey. Others want the translator's signature certified by a notary as well, which is a separate step performed at a notary office and produces a separate stamp. A third group of documents, the ones travelling abroad, needs the notary certification and then an apostille on top of it. These are three different levels of formality and they cost different amounts of time and money.

The mistake we see most often is ordering the highest level by default, on the assumption that more stamps mean more safety. They do not. They mean more expense, and in some cases a document that has been notarised unnecessarily still gets rejected because the receiving office wanted something else entirely. The reliable move is to ask the office that will receive the document what it requires, in writing if possible, before any translation is commissioned. We would rather tell you that a plain sworn translation is sufficient than sell you two steps you do not need.

What we need from you

A legible scan or photograph of the complete document, including any stamps, seals and text on the reverse. Partial scans are the single largest cause of delay, because a seal cropped out of frame has to be requested again before the translation can be finished. Tell us the name of the institution the document is going to and the country it will be used in, since both change what has to happen.

Names matter more than anything else on the page. If your name is spelled one way on your passport and another way on a university transcript, say so at the start. A translation that transliterates a name differently from the passport it will be presented alongside creates a mismatch that is tedious to unpick later. The same applies to place names, company names and the exact form of dates.

If you want to understand the vocabulary before you order, sworn, certified and notarised translation explains how the three terms differ and why they are so often used interchangeably. How to get a sworn translation in Turkey walks through the sequence step by step. For the notary stage see Turkish Notary Translation, and for documents going abroad see Apostille Services in Turkey.