Document Translation for Greece

With documents sent to Greece, most difficulties come down to one detail that arises from the language itself: a different alphabet is used. However your name is carried across into the Greek alphabet, from that moment on that is your official identity in Greece. When the rendering is inconsistent from one document to another, even translations that are technically correct stop corroborating one another.

The rendering of a name must be single and consistent

Letters that occur in Turkish names and have no exact counterpart in the Greek alphabet may be written differently in different translations. When one spelling appears on your birth certificate and another on your diploma, the institution cannot be sure that they belong to the same person. This is the most frequent, and the most easily prevented, problem in Greek files.

The remedy is simple: have all the documents prepared by one hand and on a single spelling decision, and show the Latin-script spelling from your passport in brackets in the translation as well. The Greek entry can then be made, and the match with the passport is beyond argument. You can use the quote form to send your documents in together.

The certifying authority changed, and so did expectations

Which authority handles the certification of official translations in Greece has been altered in the past. Applicants who for a long time knew of a single central channel now meet a different arrangement, and when they act on the old information they find the door closed. The first step in preparing for Greece is therefore to ask the receiving institution directly what is expected today.

In practice there are differences between institutions as well. A form accepted by a university may not be thought sufficient for a municipal registration or a land registry transaction. If you are going to use the same document in more than one procedure, preparing it to the strictest expectation is the safe course.

What is looked for in education files

In applications to Greek universities and in recognition procedures, a diploma on its own is not enough. You will be asked how many years the programme lasted, which subjects were taught and with what weighting, and what level the qualification corresponds to. A detailed curriculum and a statement of the length of study, obtained from the university in Türkiye, are the answer to those questions.

Two points stand out in translating these documents. The first is that course titles have to be carried across in a way that preserves their meaning; freely interpreted headings make comparison harder. The second is that credit and hour information has to be transferred in full, figure for figure. Since the assessment is made largely on those numbers, a single missing column weakens the whole file.

In regulated professions such as health and engineering, a breakdown of placement and practice hours is also required. Files of that kind grow quickly; to settle the scope in advance you can look at our range of services.

Property and power of attorney files

Powers of attorney granted in Türkiye are often used in property purchases in Greece. In these documents the scope of the authority matters word for word: if powers such as buying, obtaining a tax number and opening a bank account are not listed one by one, an obstacle may arise during the notarial transaction. Narrowing or generalising the scope in the translation of a power of attorney causes the process to stall halfway through.

Financial documents are asked for in the same files. Bank and income documents showing where the funds come from have to be carried across in a form in which the amounts and the dates can be read clearly. The number of pages mounts up quickly in documents of this kind; to see the scope and the budget in advance you can look at our rates.

The process and where the delays come from

The speed of administrative processes in Greece varies with the region and with how busy the institution is; on the islands practice can work differently from the large cities. That variability affects the timetable rather than the list of documents. The preparation on your side, by contrast, can be planned in full: obtain the document, put the certification chain in place and complete the translation.

The geographical closeness of Türkiye and Greece creates a misleading sense of ease here. An applicant who has forgotten a document thinks, “I can sort that out quickly”; but an appointment missed because of a missing document means going back into the queue, and the shortness of the distance does not make up for the loss. Completing the file in one go is the rule here too.

Decide at the outset how many copies of each document you need. Tax registration, banking transactions, the land registry and the residence application are separate procedures, and some of them keep the document submitted. Having several certified copies of the same document prepared is the simplest way of running the process without having to queue the procedures one behind another.

• The rendering of a name differing from one document to another.
• Items of authority left out of a power of attorney.
• Obtaining the certification endorsement after the translation.
• Only the concluding section of court judgments being translated.
• Acting on an expectation about certification drawn from the old practice.

The account below summarises typical practice; every consulate applies its own current guidance. We recommend following the practice in force through official announcements.