Frequently Asked Questions

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The meaning of translation is taking a document from one language and rendering it accurately in another language. 

In the United States, no government agency certifies translators or translations. A certified translation (also called a sworn or official translation), therefore, is one which includes a signed statement by a professional translator attesting to the accuracy of the translation. Watch this video to learn more. 

Yes, we do! You can submit your documents here. 

Yes, we translate documents such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, and death certificates, among others. 

If it is an official document you likely need a certified translation but remember to always confirm with the person or institution to whom you are giving the translation. 

We translate all types of documents including legal, medical, and official records. 

Our certified translations of official records include birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, academic transcripts, wills, contracts, vehicle, and real estate titles, financial and medical records, court orders, correspondence, web pages, advertising copy, forms, surveys, witness testimony, etc. 

Our commercial translations include business correspondence, ads, web copy, and human resources materials. 

Our clients are law firms, government agencies, students, immigrants, businesses and professional organizations.

 We work with translators from all over the world! 

Our in-house translators handle translation for Spanish, French and Portuguese. We rely on a network of professional, freelance translators for other languages. We may have to decline requests for languages that we cannot staff at a reasonable cost and turnaround time, and without sacrificing quality. (Did you know there are 7,000 languages in the world?)

A notarized translation is a certified translation in which the translator or translation manager signs their certification statement in front of a notary public. 

Certain agencies require notarization such as DMV/DPS and the passport office. If it is an official document remember to always confirm with the person or institution to whom you are giving the translation. 

All documents requiring a certification statement will have one, at no extra cost. These affidavits are not notarized unless requested by the client or required by the end-user. Notarizations are $20. 

An Apostille is a form of certification set out in the 1961 Hague Convention, to which the United States became a subscriber in 1981. It is a form of numbered fields, which allows the data to be understood by the receiving country regardless of the official language of the issuing country. Apostilles are only issued by the Secretary of State. 

Yes, this is a service we provide. This service includes a certified and notarized translation, the courier fee, and the cost of the apostille. Check our price list to find out more about this service. 

Yes, we do. We provide translations from English to Spanish as well as translations from Spanish to English in addition to many other languages. 

Due to recent restructuring of our business, we are between offices and working remotely. As much as we love meeting our clients in person, that's not an option at this time. Our hours are 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday - Friday, except federal and some state holidays. 

We usually receive scanned images or photos of the originals when you submit your documents here. Our mailing address is 5900 Balcones Drive, Ste 20304, Austin, Texas 78731 if you would rather mail a copy of your documents. Please do not mail originals without first discussing the order, as they are rarely necessary in our process.

We rely on a team of highly-trained translators, chosen for their specialized experience with a given category of document. You can see photos and bios of our primary translators on this page.  We hire translators based on their specialized academic degrees, experience, professional affiliations, and proven performance. Strong preference is given to translators living and working in Texas.

In the United States, no government agency certifies translators or translations. We do have ATA certified translators that we work with if requested. 

Interpretation is a distinct service from translation and is usually provided by separate professionals. At this time, we are focused on providing the highest quality written translations and are not booking interpreters. 

We would be happy to point you towards the professional associations and agencies that serve this market, though.

No, unfortunately, we cannot certify a translation done by someone else. Our signed certification statement makes us legally liable for any mistakes in the content, so we only certify translations that we prepare. If you have an existing translation that you would like to submit with your order, that could possibly expedite the process.

Before you trust your business translations to Google, buy a toy from China at the dollar store and read the English version of the instructions. Is this how you want speakers of other languages to perceive your company?

Google Translate (and other machine translation software) is impressive and useful, but it still can't make sense of poor photocopies or faxed reproductions, handwritten documents, obscure figures of speech, puns, odd formatting, context-sensitive connotations and so many other details that need to be exactly right in a professional document. 

Please visit our education page. Our Business Development Manager, Marco Hanson, is available for seminars, conferences, and classes as a speaker on the topics of language access, legal translation, and court interpreting. 

We treat every order as confidential, whether or not you request it specifically. Identity theft is a real issue today, and we know the dangers of carelessly handling personally identifiable data. We have strict internal controls in place to prevent any misuse. Please see our Privacy Policy for more details.

With sixteen years of experience as a commercial and personal translation agency in Austin, Houston, and statewide, we have prepared thousands of documents for legal, commercial, academic, and personal use. 

Due to the unpredictable and changing requirements of some end users (especially consulates), we cannot guarantee that our translations will always be accepted. However, we have prepared thousands of certified translations and their acceptance rate is approximately 99.99%. 

On the rare occasion that something needs to be corrected in our translation, we will do so promptly and cheerfully at no extra charge.

When we take your order, we'll ask who the translation is for (USCIS, University of Texas, Lone Star College, the visa agency of Spain, Human Resources at Dell, etc.) and we'll discuss their translation requirements. Then we prepare your translation to meet those requirements to the best of our ability.  If you have any written or verbal instructions about the end user's requirements, we need to know that from the start.