Q&A
1. WHAT IS AN OFFICIAL TRANSLATOR?
Anybody can translate a document, especially today, using online translators like Google Translate.
However, the quality, accuracy and legality of such translations can only be provided by an experienced certified professional.
An official translator in Spain is a person certified by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The official translation you obtain can be presented at any institution being used thus as a legal translation.
Each member of my team is a fully legal and experienced official translator certified by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
2. WHAT IS AN OFFICIAL TRANSLATION?
It is a legal translation made and stamped by an official translator (see previous point), sometimes referred to as “certified translator” or “sworn translator” (traductor jurado, in Spanish).
3. WHAT CAN I EXPECT FROM YOUR OFFICIAL TRANSLATIONS, DAVID?
After being in business on my own since 2010 serving the English-speaking community on the Spanish Costa Blanca South, I’ve learned to provide my services with the following criteria:
• Quality – it seems obvious and expected, but it’s not. I always try to provide a better service than anybody.
• Honesty – to differentiate my businesses from the competition I’ve always put a special emphasis on the seriousness of the services I offer. My clients trust me because honesty is in all of my actions.
• Efficiency – I’m not a fan of colorful fake stuff and beautiful empty words. They annoy me. The world is packed with plastic messages. I believe in efficient actions: deliver what you offer. That’s all.
• Affordability – And this does not mean “cheap”. Sorry, it does not in my vocabulary. I don’t do cheap stuff. I don’t work for free. I don’t bargain. I support my business on the previous values: quality, honesty and efficiency. And that has an economical price. Otherwise it would not be a business.
4. HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO HAVE MY DOCUMENTS TRANSLATED?
Basically, it will depend on the amount of pages that your document contains and the amount of work from our side.
On average, small translations are ready in 2-4 working days. We can speed it up, but we’ll have to charge emergency fees.
Putting work to the front of the queue postponing other work. I believe It’s fair to charge extra to give preference to certain translations.
Deadlines are very important to me. My team doesn’t fail on deadlines, as I coordinate the work to be delivered on time.
5. HOW MUCH WILL IT COST ME?
The price is calculated in relation to the document. I will only need a scanned copy of it and I will send you a quotation within a few hours.
Without seeing the document I will not be able to give you a quotation. I can’t improvise on something I don’t know, sorry.
In the past, I have had queries from people who said it was only a few pages, and it ended up being more than twice as much as they said.
Sorry, I can’t engage myself with wrong quotations. It’s neither fair to you nor to me.
Please send me a scanned copy of your document at any time to evaluate it.
6. HOW CAN I PAY FOR IT?
There are two options:
1) Costa Blanca South area and surroundings – If you live around this area, we can sort it out in person. I usually work on a 50% up-front basis and the rest on delivery.
2) Outside Costa Blanca South area, including rest of Spain and International – For this particular situation, the payment method would be the following:
• Paypal – I would send you the link with the right amount once we know the scope of the project.
• Bank transfer – same here, I would give you the bank details so that you proceed to transfer the total amount.
Note: For this second option (either Paypal or bank transfer) the total invoice will have to be paid 100% beforehand. The official translation is sent by post after it’s finished.
In some cases public or private institutions asking for official translations accept printed copies. I could email them to you first, and post it to any location around the world afterwards.
7. CAN I GET MY MONEY BACK?
My official translations are not a product you can return if you don’t like it or cannot use it. Sorry about that.
They are a product that you order, in theory because you are 100% sure that you need it.
Official translations are not in stock, we have to produce them exclusively for you; and that involves hours of work that will be lost if we refund the money.
My official translations have already been used in many countries all over the world.
However, as I mentioned previously, you should find out whether your country will accept official translations certified by Spanish official translators.
Your country may have special conditions. So, if they refused the translations it wouldn’t be our fault. Therefore, I cannot refund any money after the job is done if that happened. Sorry.
Now, although we take our job very seriously, we are humans. We’ve never made a mistake before, but one day we could. Is that the case? Let me know the details with proof and I will refund and I will provide the appropriate compensation.
8. WHAT IS AN APOSTILLE?
An apostille is usually a special stamp that certifies the validity of a document within countries that participate in the Hague Convention of 1961.
Apostilles are used outside the origin county for a number of reasons. It is a way to authenticate the document, to prove its legal and original. Otherwise, how could the destination country verify it?
I don’t do apostilles. They must be requested at the country where the document was issued, and most likely at the institution where the document comes from.
For instance, in Spain, if you needed an apostille for a written court sentence that must be presented in Ireland, the Spanish court building where the document was issued would normally stamp the apostille.
Before you send me your document, Find out if you need an apostille or not.
Other countries must deliver more authentications on the documents through watermarked papers, or other unique procedures like specials stamps, security ribbons, etc.
Please, make sure you need this (or not). It is important that we have all the final documents as you need them to produce an accurate official translation.
On the contrary, if we need to include other details in a document that has already been completed and delivered, there will be additional cost.
9. ARE COPIES OF MY OFFICIAL TRANSLATIONS FREE?
No, they are not. In order to make an additional copy of an official translation it has to be issued on registered paper, including a new serial number.
Additional charges may be applied if I have to post the copy of your translation.
Send me an email if there any questions on the above information or something that is not included.