Birth and Marriage Certificate Translation

Translating them looks easy at first glance: a few lines of information, a few dates, a few names. In practice they are the group of documents most often rejected, because of name spellings, place names and marital status terminology. A single letter of difference here is enough for the holder to be taken for somebody else.

Multilingual standard documents: when no translation is needed

Under the international conventions on civil status to which Türkiye is a party, civil registry offices can issue birth and marriage records on a multilingual standard form. On these forms the field headings are printed in several languages and the fields are numbered, so the foreign official examining the document can read from the list of headings in their own language which box holds what.

In the states party to the conventions these documents are frequently accepted without any further translation or apostille. That is precisely why the registry office asks whether you want the “international” version when you collect a document. If the destination country is not party to the convention, or the institution applies its own rule, the classic route holds: the Turkish document, a sworn translation and, where required, an apostille.

The practical advice is this: before you collect the document, ask whether the receiving institution accepts the multilingual form. If it does, both the translation and the apostille step may fall away. If it does not, taking the Turkish version and setting the process up correctly from the start is faster than issuing a second document later on.

Spelling of names: what one letter costs

The letters ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş and ü of the Turkish alphabet do not exist in many target languages. Simplifying them when the document is translated – turning Şükrü into Sukru, Çağla into Cagla – looks reasonable enough at first. Yet whatever spelling the passport uses has to be used on every document; otherwise the impression arises that there are two different people.

The right approach is to keep the name in its original Turkish form and to make it match the passport spelling exactly. The same rule applies to the names of the mother, father and spouse. Where a surname has changed through marriage, carrying both the old and the new surname across as they appear on the document lets the institution establish the chain of identity.

With place names the rule runs the other way: the province, district or village of birth is not translated. “Karadeniz Ereğli” is a place name and its meaning is not conveyed. Only the type of administrative unit – province, district, village, neighbourhood – is explained in the target language. Village and neighbourhood names may have changed over the years; whichever appears on the document is the one that stands.

Conceptual differences in marriage documents

People marrying abroad are usually asked for a certificate of capacity to marry (evlenme ehliyet belgesi); this is a separate document showing that there is no legal impediment to the marriage, and it must not be confused with the marriage registry extract. One records a marriage that has taken place, the other opens the way to a marriage still to come.

Nor is the family register booklet a document accepted everywhere on its own. Because it is a small, multi-page booklet that may contain handwritten entries, the translation has to state clearly which page carries which information. Blank pages are noted as blank, the content of completed pages is given, and the position of seals is recorded.

Where there has been a divorce, the annotation added to the record is of critical importance. It gives the date of the divorce judgment, the court and the decision number; if that line is missed the person still appears to be married and an application for a new marriage is refused. Because the annotation is written in small type and in abbreviated form, it is easily lost in a scan.

Information about the authority before which the marriage was contracted also has to be conveyed. In Türkiye a marriage is solemnised by the marriage registrar of the municipality; since marriage in some destination countries is contracted religiously or through a court, the official wants to see whose signature appears on the document. Fudging the words “marriage registrar’s office” with a vague equivalent raises needless questions about the official character of the marriage.

The other direction: registering a child born abroad

Documents do not always travel outwards from Türkiye. For a child born abroad to be entered in the family register in Türkiye, the birth certificate issued by the civil registry authority of the country of birth is brought here. The document is apostilled in the source country, translated by a sworn translator in Türkiye and then notarised.

The problem that arises most often in this direction is that the child’s name has been written in the alphabet of the source country. The letters chosen when the name passes into the Turkish civil register will determine the passport the child later holds and every document that follows. The decision is therefore taken once, and the same form is kept on every subsequent document.

The same logic governs the registration in Türkiye of marriages contracted abroad. The foreign marriage certificate is submitted to the civil registry office with its apostille and certified translation; the spouse’s name, place of birth and nationality are entered exactly as they appear on the document.

Which document, from where, with what certification

Differences from country to country

In Germany the registry offices (Standesamt) accept a translation only from a court-sworn translator and want to see the apostilled original of the document; in family reunification files both conditions are applied together. In the Netherlands the IND and the educational institutions ask for different sets of documents, so two separate copies of the same birth certificate may be needed, and the translator must additionally be entered on the Rbtv register. The United States has no institution of the sworn translator; the immigration authority regards a signed statement of accuracy attached to the translation as sufficient. You will find these differences of regime country by country in our countries guide.

Mistakes peculiar to these documents

• Spelling the name with different letters from the passport; on civil status documents this is the commonest ground of refusal.
• Overlooking a divorce annotation or a change of name.
• Trying to translate the place of birth; place names are carried across, not translated.
• Taking the Turkish version when a multilingual international version was available, and incurring needless translation and apostille costs.
• Leaving dates in an order the destination country does not use; 03.07.2019 falls on a different day for an official who reads month before day.
• Having only the first page of the family register booklet translated and leaving the sealed pages out.

Think of your family file as a whole

Birth and marriage certificates are almost never submitted on their own; together with the civil registry extract, the passport and often the criminal record certificate they form a single body of evidence. Within that body, names, dates and place names written in one consistent form are what carry a file forward quickly. You can review the target languages on our languages page and the basis on which we work on our pricing page, and send your documents through the quotation form.

This page sets out the general framework; whether an apostille or notarisation is needed depends on the institution you apply to. The safest course is to obtain written confirmation from the relevant department before you begin.