Document Translation for Hungary

In Hungary an “official translation” and a “certified translation” are not the same thing

Where document translation is concerned, Hungary is one of the most widely misunderstood countries in Europe. The reason is that two quite different kinds of translation come into Turkish under one and the same name. On one side stands the fully authorised translation, which only the authorised institution can produce and which takes the place of the original document in official procedures. On the other stands the certified translation, drawn up by a translation office with a statement of accuracy. Both are spoken of as “certified”, yet not every institution accepts both.

The practical dividing line runs roughly like this. Procedures that go straight to the state – civil registry, immigration, the courts – expect the higher level of approval, whereas correspondence with an employer, preliminary university applications and some commercial processes may be satisfied by the office’s own declaration. Picking the wrong side is costly either way: you pay for an expensive approval you did not need, or your file is not accepted. That is why the first step is always to read what the institution itself says.

Which level, at which institution?

The one sentence you need to ask

When you write to the institution, do not stop at asking for the list of documents. Put the question plainly – “at what level of approval do you want the translation?” – and get the answer in writing. That single sentence removes most of the time and money lost on Hungarian files. Pass the answer on to us exactly as you received it, and there is nothing left to debate about which route to take.

We would advise you not to rely on answers given by word of mouth. Two officials in the same unit can give different answers to the same question, and when the file is refused you have nothing left to fall back on. An email exchange, a screenshot of the notice on the application portal, the institution’s own published list of documents – whichever it may be, a written record puts an end to the argument that surfaces afterwards.

The document set for your purpose

• Study: diploma, academic transcript, course descriptions; where recognition is needed, the detail of the curriculum takes on weight.
• Work: employment contract, professional certificates, criminal record certificate; consistency of job titles is critical.
• Residence: accommodation, health insurance, proof of means; the documents must be closely dated.
• Family: marriage and birth certificates and, where needed, court judgments with their annotations of finality.
• Commerce: registry records, signing authority, contracts; the company name is not translated but carried over.

The process and the timing

In building the chain, obtaining the original and having the certification annotation added are the first two steps; translation comes third. Having the annotation added after the translation leaves the translation incomplete, because the annotation is part of the text as well. The translation step itself can be finished in a few working days depending on the number of pages; what draws the process out is the correspondence with the institution and the wait for an appointment. Since preparation can also take longer as the level of approval rises, the decision has to be made early.

Send us the file you have and let us settle together which level is called for; there is no sense in your paying for approval you will not use. You can begin by uploading your documents, and take a look at the starting fees per page as well.

Recognition and the language condition in education files

In the fields where Turkish students gather in Hungary, in the health and engineering programmes above all, the admission file and the recognition file get mixed up with one another. Admission to a university is that university’s own assessment, and it generally proceeds on the translation of the diploma and the academic transcript. Recognition of the diploma across the country after graduation is a separate procedure, with its own application route and its own list of documents. Assuming that recognition will follow of itself because you have been admitted is a mistake that stings later on.

On the language side, programmes taught in English create an illusion. Even where the teaching is in English, residence and civil registry procedures run in the language of the state, and an English translation may not be accepted in them. Students often enter the university on an English translation and only then, at the residence stage, discover that they need a second set. Planning the two applications together from the outset brings down both the cost per page and the time lost.

Then there is the question of whom the documents are handed over to. The set that goes to the university is usually not given back; the set that goes with a residence application may be shown at the appointment and returned. Knowing from the start which set will stay in your hands determines how many copies you have prepared and heads off the cost of needless repetition.

A further detail is that the documents wanted for a secondary school diploma and for a university degree are not the same. An undergraduate application is satisfied by the secondary school diploma and the record of marks, whereas master’s and doctoral applications also bring in the curriculum, the thesis abstract and, where needed, letters of reference. In academic texts such as a thesis abstract, consistency of terminology matters as much as it does in official documents.

This content is meant as information; the country’s practice on the apostille or on consular legalisation may change. Confirm the particulars with the institution you will be handing the papers to.