Translation of Commercial and Company Documents for Luxembourg

Small as Luxembourg is, it is a hub for holding, fund and financing structures, and so it takes up more room in the commercial paperwork of Turkish companies than one might expect. This page deals with the documents a company established in Türkiye will submit to a registry, a notary or a financial institution in Luxembourg; the reverse direction, a Luxembourg company structuring itself in Türkiye, is a separate matter.

Two languages, one file: French or German?

Official correspondence in Luxembourg is mainly in French, German is also used, and a good part of the business world works in English. For a document going to the registry or the notary, though, the choice belongs to the institution: the authority conducting the procedure decides which language it is translated into. That is why obtaining confirmation of language from the receiving party before ordering a translation is more critical here, given the country’s multilingual make-up, than it is elsewhere. Financial institutions frequently accept an English translation, but the same flexibility does not apply in registration procedures. Cases also arise where one part of a file has to be prepared in French and another in English.

Turkish documents before the trade and companies register

Companies in Luxembourg are entered in the trade and companies register, and the information registered is officially published. What your counterpart expects from you is the equivalent of that structure in Türkiye: a currently dated certificate of activity from the trade registry directorate, the notice published in the Turkish Trade Registry Gazette, the full text of the articles of association and the signature circular. In a company formation or a contribution of capital, the notary will also want to see the decision taken by the decision-making body of the parent shareholder; the board resolution therefore joins the file. If a business permit is to be obtained in order to trade in the country, documents relating to the manager’s professional competence open up a heading of their own.

Document	Why it is asked for	Chain
Articles of association	Object and shareholding structure	Translation + notary + apostille
Current registry extract	Is the company still trading?	Translation + notary + apostille
Board resolution	Has the transaction been authorised?	Translation + notary + apostille
Signature circular	Who may sign?	Translation + notary + apostille
Invoice, certificate of origin	Shipping paperwork	Chamber / customs route

The sworn translator regime and the place of the apostille

In Luxembourg an official translation is made by a sworn translator, and that is what is looked for in a translation produced inside the country. For a translation produced in Türkiye the chain runs as follows: the sworn translator’s signature, notarisation, then the apostille. Breaking that order is the mistake made most often: the apostille is an endorsement added to the original document or to the notarial certification, and most bodies expect that endorsement to have been translated as well. So the apostille comes first and the translation after it. Luxembourg is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention; verify the current list of parties through the HCCH. Our document types page sets out in detail which document calls for which chain.

Branch or subsidiary? The choice determines the file

There are two routes to structuring an operation in Luxembourg, and which one you pick changes the list of paperwork from the outset. Opening a branch creates no separate legal entity, so the parent company’s documents sit at the centre of the file and the registry will want to see the Turkish company’s articles of association, the resolution of its decision-making body and the appointment of a representative. Setting up a subsidiary, by contrast, creates a new legal entity; the parent features there only in the capacity of founding shareholder and the set of documents asked of it is narrower, though the formation itself is carried out before a notary. At the decision stage, settling the question “what structure are we building?” before asking “which documents do we need?” eliminates unnecessary translation from the start.

Consistency of terminology in financing files

In a country dense with holding and fund structures, files carry financial as well as legal content: balance sheet, income statement, shareholding chart, beneficial ownership declaration. The problem seen most often in these documents is not a mistranslation but an inconsistency of terminology. The same item appearing in two places in the file with two different renderings prompts the institution to come back with a request for further explanation, and can stretch the process out by weeks. Running the file from a single termbase and through a single pair of hands is the most effective antidote to that kind of response.

The commonest ground of refusal, and the form of delivery

With commercial files going to Luxembourg, the first ground of refusal is the date on the document: the registry extract and the certificate of activity are expected to be currently dated, and a copy obtained months earlier counts as stale. The second is a mismatch of language, and the third is the translation having been detached from the copy of the original; the translation has to be delivered as a sealed whole together with its source. Where the procedure involves a notarial appointment the calendar is a constraint too, so plan the apostille step backwards from the appointment date. You can see how scope and level of certification affect the difference on the pricing page, and send us your file through the quotation form.

The account below summarises typical practice; each consulate applies its own current guidance. Settling the form the body wants at the outset saves rework later on.