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Germany · Free tool

Certified translations & copies

Sooner or later an office asks for a “certified” copy or translation. Here is what that means and where you get one.

Two different things share the word “certified”. A certified TRANSLATION is done by a translator a German court has approved. A certified COPY is a photocopy that a government office stamps to say it matches your original. You cannot make either one yourself — not at home, and not at a copy shop.

Which of your papers this touches

There is no fixed list, and anyone who gives you one is guessing — the office that asks decides. But these are the papers people are asked for again and again, so they are the ones to think about first.

The usual suspects

Your birth certificate
Your marriage certificate, if you have one
Your degree or diploma, if you want a job or want it recognised
Your driving licence, if it is from outside the EU

A non-EU licence needs one, for certainThe official wording The office fee is set locally, so ask yours — but the fee is not the whole bill. To exchange a non-EU licence you are also asked for an eye test, a first-aid course and a sworn German translation of your licence, and each of those is bought from an optician, a course provider and a translator rather than from the office. Source ↗

Do not translate everything in advance. Ask the office what it wants, in writing if you can — then you pay for what is actually needed.

Coming from another EU country? Ask for this first

There is a shortcut that most people never hear about, and it can save you the translation completely.

EU papers: a free standard form beats a translationThe official wording Your birth and marriage certificates need no extra stamp. Since February 2019 a birth, marriage, death, residence or criminal-record certificate from one EU country must be accepted in another as genuine, with no apostille and no legalisation. If it is not in German, ask the office that issued it for a multilingual standard form — you hand that over instead of a translation. Source ↗

What to do

In this order. Each step is small, and none of them costs you a day off work.

1Ask the office which papers it wants, and whether it needs a translation, a stamped copy, or both.
2For anything from another EU country, ask the office that issued it for a multilingual standard form before you pay a translator.
3If a paper needs an apostille, get that stamp put on before anything is translated — the stamp gets translated with it.
4Then search the courts' database for a translator in your language, and ask two of them what it costs.
5If a stamped copy is wanted, take the cleanest original you have to your local town-hall counter.

Finding a translator a court has approved

Germany's courts keep one list for the whole country. You can search it by language and by town, it is free to look at, and you can do it from anywhere.

A court-approved translator, not just any translatorThe official wording Not any translator will do. German offices want a translation from someone the courts have sworn in — publicly appointed or generally authorised for that language. The state justice administrations run one joint database of them for the whole country, and anyone can search it by language and place. Source ↗

Search the official database ↗

Getting a copy stamped

Take the original to a government office. Your local town-hall counter — the Bürgeramt, the same one that registers your address — is the usual answer.

A government office makes it, from your originalThe official wording A certified copy is made by an authority, not by you and not by a copy shop. Any authority may certify a copy of a document it issued itself. Beyond that, the authorities each state designates may certify a copy when the original came from an authority, or when the copy is needed to give to one. Source ↗

A marked-up original can be turned awayThe official wording A damaged original can be refused. A copy may not be certified if the original looks altered — pages missing, something crossed out or written in, or a part that cannot be read. So take the cleanest original you have, and do not write on it. Source ↗

If a paper needs both

Some papers also need an apostille: a stamp your home country puts on a document to prove it is genuine. Get that stamp first. The translation is then made from the stamped paper, and covers the stamp too — translate first and you pay a second time.

Two different things — you may need bothThe official wording A translation and an apostille are two different things, and you may need both. The apostille proves the paper is genuine; the translation makes it readable. One never replaces the other, and the apostille goes on first — it is part of what gets translated. Source ↗

We do not quote a price for either. Sworn translators set their own fees, and what an authority charges for a copy is set locally — so anyone naming one number is guessing.

Where to get help →