Work Document Translation for Greece

What Changed When Approval Authority Passed to Lawyers and Sworn Translators

For many years the translation service within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was the central point of contact for official translations in Greece. After that service closed, the authority to approve passed largely to lawyers and sworn translators. For a candidate assembling a work file, the consequence is this: instead of one central address, you have to find out in advance which form of approval the receiving body accepts. Some offices take a lawyer-certified translation as it stands, while others want the stamp of a sworn translator. A file prepared with the wrong form of approval may not be refused outright, but it will be sent back for approval again and the process lengthens. That uncertainty is especially costly on files prepared remotely from Türkiye, because renewing an approval usually means a physical step in Greece.

In Regulated Professions the DOATAP Decision Is a Compulsory First Step

Recognition of higher education diplomas in Greece is carried out by DOATAP, and it is a precondition for working in a regulated profession. Alongside the diploma, a DOATAP file calls for a detailed academic transcript, module descriptions and documents on the length of the programme, the comparison being made on the structure of the programme. The work permit application and the DOATAP process run independently of one another, so starting the two in parallel saves time, although it means producing extra copies of the documents. A mistake candidates often make is to obtain the work permit and leave professional recognition until later; in a regulated profession, employment may in practice be impossible without recognition.

Why Each Document Is Asked For

In a work file the employment contract shows that the employment exists, the social security employment record shows how long the experience runs, and the professional qualification certificate shows the basis of the person’s authority to practise. The criminal record certificate is requested in connection with suitability for residence and is expected to bear a recent date. The diploma and module descriptions are used not only on the recognition track but also by the employer in verifying qualifications. You can look at how far this set extends on our document types page.

Document	Which track	What matters at approval
Diploma	DOATAP	Apostille plus certified translation
Module descriptions	DOATAP	Complete rendering of the content
Employment contract	Work permit	Clarity of the job description
Social security employment record	Work permit	Legibility of the date ranges
Criminal record certificate	Consulate	Recent date and apostille

Where the Translation and the Apostille Fall in the Sequence

A document issued in Türkiye is first given an apostille; the translation is then made so as to cover that annotation as well, and only afterwards does it go down the accepted approval route, whether that is approval by a lawyer or the stamp of a sworn translator. Because the Greek alphabet is a different one, transliterating personal and institutional names calls for extra care: if the spelling in the passport and the spelling in the translation do not agree, the institution may not treat the two documents as belonging to the same person. This is the weakness in a file that is overlooked most often and prevented most easily.

The Ground for Refusal That Comes Up Most Often

The negative outcome seen most often on work files is a form of approval that does not match what the receiving body expects. Second comes inconsistent spelling of the name, and third a module description document that is not detailed enough for DOATAP. The remedy for all three is the same: before assembling the file, read the document list published by the receiving body and order the translation against that list.

Where the Turkish-Side Documents Come From, and in What Order

Part of the delay on work files bound for Greece comes from obtaining a document from the wrong body, or in the wrong scope. The diploma and the detailed academic transcript come from the university the applicant graduated from; module descriptions from the relevant faculty or departmental office; the employment record from the social security institution; and an employment certificate carrying a job description directly from the employer. For a DOATAP file the transcript is expected to contain not only the marks but the contact hours and credits for each module, since a short-form list of grades is not enough for the comparison. If this is not specified when the document is requested, the university issues its standard short form and the process begins again.

There is an order at the apostille stage too: the governor’s office is competent for educational and administrative documents, the courthouse for judicial ones. Once the documents have been gathered, the apostille comes first and the certified translation after it. A point particular to Greece is that the same document will be used on both the DOATAP track and the work permit track, so preparing at least two copies of the certified translation is a practical precaution. And since translation takes longer on bulky documents such as module descriptions, that document should be sent for translation ahead of the others; putting the long document in the queue while the short ones wait shortens the total time noticeably.

Approval differing from one body to another also affects how the papers are handled physically. A lawyer-certified translation and one bearing the stamp of a sworn translator are laid out differently, so mixing the two in the same file can give the assessor pause. Where possible, putting every document through the same approval route keeps the file looking consistent. Another detail particular to Greece is that the transliteration of forename and surname into the Greek alphabet should follow the Latin-script spelling in the passport; that spelling must stay the same on all documents, and the Latin-script form should be kept in brackets where necessary. The same principle holds for institution names: a university name transliterated one way on one document and another way on the next makes it harder to find the institution’s record during the DOATAP assessment. The easiest way to secure that consistency is to hand every document to a single translator in one go, and to add a copy of the passport to the package.

This page is for general information; since forms of approval and recognition requirements can change, confirm the current conditions from DOATAP and from the official announcements of the Greek consulate. You can request a quote for your file, look through our pricing page, and compare other countries in our country directory.