Birth Certificate Translation for Germany

Which procedure needs it, and who receives it

In Germany the birth certificate is requested when a child is registered as part of family reunification, in the run-up to a marriage and in naturalisation applications; the bodies concerned are the Standesamt and the Ausländerbehörde. Because the same document is submitted with different attachments depending on the procedure (a full civil registry extract, for instance), it is worth asking in advance which form is wanted. The document is usually read together with the parents’ documents, so the names of the child and of both parents must be consistent across all of them.

A difference in the spelling of the mother’s or the father’s name makes the chain of parentage harder to prove. The translation therefore carries names and identity data across in a way that is consistent with the official documents, without interpretation.

The full extract and completeness of the fields

The Turkish civil registration system supplies birth details sometimes through a single birth registry extract and sometimes through a full civil registry extract, one that shows recorded events; the two cover different ground. Whichever scope the Standesamt asks for is the document that gets translated, and the translation carries every field across in full, including annotations of events such as marriage, divorce or a change of name, since leaving out a field breaks the integrity of the document. Empty fields are marked [blank]; seals and signatures are shown in square brackets.

Binding the translation to the original document

The Standesamt usually asks for the birth certificate together with other civil status documents, a certificate of capacity to marry (evlenme ehliyet belgesi) or a current civil registry extract for instance, and wants to see which copy the translation is attached to. The translation is therefore attached to the copy of the source document and completed with the translator’s stamp, and the declaration states plainly whether it was made from the original or from a certified copy. The document is not merely a line recording a birth: the seal, the serial number and the issuing details on it are part of what makes it genuine, and they take their place in the translation. Where several procedures are running for the same person, a marriage and a residence application say, each recipient may need its own certified copy with a translation bound to it; planning for that at the outset removes the trouble of having the same document translated over and over, and shortens the process.

A multilingual international copy sometimes removes the need for a translation

Turkish civil registry offices can issue a multilingual (formula A) birth registry extract along the lines of the international family record book (uluslararası aile cüzdanı); because that copy shows the standard fields in several languages, some German offices may accept it without asking for a separate translation. This is not guaranteed, however: in some cases the Standesamt will still want a sworn translation. Asking the Standesamt first whether the multilingual copy is accepted therefore prevents either an unnecessary translation cost or, conversely, an application submitted with a document missing. If it is not accepted, the standard Turkish document is translated.

Transliteration of names must be consistent

What a birth certificate is really about is identity data: the spelling of the given name, the surname and the parents’ names must match the spelling in the passport exactly. Turkish special characters (ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, ü) are frequently written differently in Germany, so the translator does not apply a transliteration of their own choosing but works from the official spelling in the passport. A single letter of difference is enough to break the identity match at the Standesamt and stop the procedure. The original spelling may also be kept alongside the names, but not in a way that contradicts the spelling on the official documents.

Date and place formats

The date of birth is the field most often misread in a translation; writing the month as a figure can cause day and month to be confused, so spelling the month out is preferred. The place of birth (province, district, village) is kept under its original name; place names are not translated, and an explanation is added in brackets where needed. Registration numbers and civil register details such as the volume, household and row numbers (cilt-hane-sıra) are carried across exactly, because the Standesamt verifies the document against them.

The order of certification, and common mistakes

The order runs: official copy of the birth certificate, apostille where required, then translation including the apostille. A translation submitted to an official body in Germany must carry the stamp of a court-sworn translator (öffentlich bestellter und beeidigter Übersetzer). Common mistakes:

• Not asking the Standesamt in advance whether the multilingual copy is accepted.
• Giving the name with a transliteration that differs from the passport.
• Obtaining the apostille after the translation.

Germany is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention; confirm the current position on the official HCCH list. You can see the level of certification required for other documents on our document types page, review the cost on our pricing page, and upload your document for a quote. Practice is updated from time to time, so check the institution’s current notice before you begin.