If you are a lawyer or migration agent in Australia, chances are that your clients have supplied you with documents that needed to be translated. For official purposes in Australia, documents are typically translated from a language into English, but there are often cases where documents need to be translated from English into another language. And for most official purposes in Australia, documents need to be translated by a NAATI Certified Translator. Some of the most common documents that are translated include birth certificates, marriage certificates, academic transcripts and degree certificates, as well as other personal documents. It’s critical that translations are delivered quickly to avoid delays in submission of applications to relevant authorities, such as the Department of Home Affairs, or to the relevant Australian courts. The good news is that there are several ways to speed up the translation process, to make it a smoother experience for both you and your clients. The next time your clients need documents to be translated, here are 5 tips to consider: 1. Only translate essential documents Do all the documents that you are requesting to be translated really need to be translated? As a general rule of thumb, the more pages that you need translated, the more time it will take a a NAATI Certified Translator to complete the translation. For example, you could consider which documents will meet the requirements for a specific visa application. For example, for a skills assessment, if the applicant has multiple degrees, will translating the academic transcript for one degree meet the requirements? More content means it will take longer for our translators to produce their translations. If you want to speed up the process, it’s important that you translate only the most essential documents. 2. Consider digital translations As the world has moved increasingly online, we have noticed that many of our clients do not necessarily require physical hard-copy ‘Certified translations’ any longer. In fact, in many cases, a digital translation will suffice. Consider whether the authority that you are submitting the translations to will accept a digital copy of the Certified translation, because if they do, you will not have to wait for the physical copy of the translation to arrive by post. 3. Provide English spellings up-front Ask your client to provide all the English spellings of names/places on their documents. This is an important step in speeding up the translation process. The English spellings of names and places can vary depending on the language, so it’s essential to ensure that your client provides you with the correct spellings. For example, Κώστας can be transliterated into English as Costas or Kostas. There is no way for a translator to know the preferred English spellings. If English spellings are not supplied up-front, this can slow down the process if we need to update the translation later with revised English spellings supplied by the client. 4. Provide clear scanned copies up-front There are many instances where the original copies supplied to us for translation are illegible. When the client doesn’t provide clear copies of the documents, it can slow down the translation process because we need to request clearer copies from you and your client. Many times, photos of documents are acceptable, but we have found that scanned copies are typically the highest quality and are provided with acceptable resolution. You can avoid delays in the translation process by instructing your clients to supply you with clear, legible, scanned copies of all documents up-front, to avoid any delays later. 5. Consider an urgent processing option If your client’s application is time-sensitive, you may wish to consider an expedited processing option. This enables you to ‘skip the queue’ and to have your translation order expedited. However, it’s important to note that this option will come with an additional cost. To avoid urgency surcharges, you can plan ahead and this will help limit the need for this type of service. Summary By following these tips, you can give yourself the best chance of getting your translations completed faster and stress-free. By choosing only essential documents for translation, harnessing the benefit of digital translations, and requesting English spelling and clear scanned copies from your clients, you can significantly speed up the translation process. And when all else has failed, and you simply need a translation as soon as possible, you can consider an urgent processing option. If you would like a free quote for an upcoming document translation, you can request a free quote from our friendly team.
