LaraBarnett United Kingdom Local time: 21:22 Member (2011) French to English + ...
Jan 9
I have been asked by an agency if I would sign a certification statement for an educational transcript (this has something to do with US regulations apparently). Is it normal practice to do this for free? Also, if I am not a sworn translator am I making myself vulnerable in any way by doing this?
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JL01 United States Local time: 16:22 English to French + ...
no sworn translators in the USA
Jan 9
Firstly, there is no such a thing as "sworn translator" in the USA, unlike Europe.
The procedure to certify a translation in the USA is a statement, signed by the translator, attesting s/he is a competent translator and that the translation attached is a faithful rendering, etc. The translator's signature on that statement is then certified by a notary public (I have yet to find something -anything- lower tech and more prone to fraud).
By law, notaries public cannot charge for their services, so a number of people believe that notarizations must be free. Me, when I do certified translations, I charge for the time spent away from my office, such as going to a notary public and then waiting at the post office.
A number of agencies use the practice you describe, the legality of which I seriously doubt, since they appear to claim certification by someone whose identity is not verifiable by the US legal system. However, IMHO, there is nothing against charging such agencies.
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LaraBarnett United Kingdom Local time: 21:22 Member (2011) French to English + ...
TOPIC STARTER
Common practice
Jan 9
I was wondering though what the common practice was amongst other translators. For example, would charging for signing the statement put me at risk of pricing myself too high with the agency so they might not want to use me again, or is it common practice to charge?
My concern is that if I charged for this service, and other translators did not, it may put me out of favour with the agency.
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kifle woldesemayat United States Local time: 16:22 Member (Apr 2012) Amharic to English + ...
Signing certification statement
Jan 9
I have signed certification one or two times myself and my signature. that was deemed acceptable by the clients concerned. I did not have to go to a notary. As a free lance translator I do most of my work with agencies and, in those instances, the Agencies do the certification when it is necessary. However, I do not know know exactly how they go about it.
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Aisha Maniar United Kingdom Local time: 21:22 Member (2003) Arabic to English + ...
Quick answers
Jan 9
Personally, I don't charge to certify translations. I don't know anyone else who charges for this in the UK. If the certificate needs to be sworn before a solicitor, I charge their fee and for my time.
Furthermore, as stated by someone else, there isn't really a system of "sworn" translations in common law jurisdictions like the UK/US, so there is no concept of it as such. Sometimes the client may need you be a member of a professional body, like the CIoL or ITI (this is required by some organisations/official bodies). By certifying the translation, you do so to the best of your ability, which I guess is all anyone really can.
In any case, I think it's always best to ask the client exactly what it is they're looking for and need and perhaps to check with whoever asked for the translation, just to be sure.
Hope this is of some help, Aisha
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Katalin Horvath McClure United States Local time: 16:22 Member (2002) English to Hungarian + ...
A few questions and suggestions
Jan 9
1. You are talking about certifying YOUR OWN translation, right? If not, stop right there and refuse.
2. If it is your own translation, there are still two possible scenarios here:
- 2A: They only want your signature on a statement with the standard text that other already referred to. You can decide whether you want to charge for this or not, considering the time and effort it takes for you to produce the requested document; the possibility of them using that certification on other documents (without your knowledge), and finally, whether the agency charges extra for their clients for this service. (You may want to use your "research skills" - hint: ask a friend to call them - to find out whether they charge extra, or just take a guess.)
- 2B: They want the certificate as above, BUT also want it to be notarized. In that case, definitely charge, because you have to print all the documents (original, translation and your statement), go to the notary public, sign the statement in front of him/her, and mail the notarized document package to the client. Each of these steps cost time and money. The good thing about this scenario is that they cannot use your statement for any other purposes, except for the given document - that's why you should include a short description of the document in your statement, such as: ..."the attached birth certificate of XY"...
I hope this helps.
Katalin
[Edited at 2012-01-09 15:47 GMT]
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