This one is a lynx. Miss a date, or do it in the wrong order, and it costs you real money. Easy once someone shows you how — and this is the kind Papertame was built for.

Germany · Free tool

Certified translations & copies

One day an office will ask you for a “certified” copy, or a “certified” translation, and nothing else will do. Here is what those words mean and how to get one without paying twice.

Two completely different things share that word, and mixing them up is what costs people money. A certified translation is made by a translator a German court has approved. A certified copy is a photocopy that a government office stamps to confirm 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, because the office asking is the one that decides. Anybody who hands you a definitive list is guessing. These are the papers people get asked for again and again, so start by thinking about these.

The ones that come up most

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 actually wants, in writing if you can. Then you pay for that, and for nothing else.

Coming from another EU country? Ask for this first

If the paper was issued in another EU country, there is a free form that can replace the translation completely. Ask for it before you pay anybody.

EU papers: a free form beats a paid 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. Every step is small, and not one 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 issued in 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 on it before anything is translated. The stamp gets translated with the paper.
4Then search the courts' database for a translator in your language, and ask two of them what it would cost.
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

The courts keep one list for the whole of Germany. It is free to search, you can filter it by language and by town, and you can do all of that from your sofa in another country.

It has to be a translator the courts approvedThe 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. Usually that means your local town-hall counter, the Bürgeramt, the same place that registers your address.

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 or damaged 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, which is a stamp your home country puts on a document to prove it is real. Get that stamp first. The translation is then made from the stamped paper and covers the stamp as well. Do it the other way round and you pay a translator twice.

Two different things, and 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 ↗

No official price. Ask two or threeThe official wording Nobody but the translator sets your price. The law that fixes what a translator is paid applies only when a court, a prosecutor's office, a tax office or another authority engages one — not when you order a translation yourself. So there is no official price to measure a quote against: ask two or three sworn translators what they charge and how long they need, and compare. Both the price and the deadline are theirs to set. Source ↗

Where to get help →

LynxBeglaubigte Übersetzung

Included with the PassField guide

A translation an office will accept, because a court has approved the person who made it. Its cousin is a certified copy — an authority stamping a photocopy to say it matches your original. You may need either, or both, and neither is the same as an apostille.

One piece of paperwork, recorded: what it is, where you deal with it, and what catches people out. Every answer comes from an official source, with the date we checked it. What each guide covers is listed on it — they are not all the same length.

What it answers

When and how it turns up
Where you deal with it
What it costs
What catches people out

5 sourced answers sit behind this lock.

The Pass opens the field guide for the animals that carry the most dread — 13 field guides today, and more as each one clears our sourcing bar. Every line is answered from dated sources, never from memory.

The tools and guides on this page stay free and complete without it. This is depth, never the thing you need to get the job done.

See the Germany Pass →