Arabic to English Translation

This direction is used when an Arabic document has to be sent to an English-speaking country. The source is a diploma, a civil registry record or a contract from the Gulf, the Levant or North Africa; the target is the United States, the United Kingdom or Canada. Unlike the en|ar pair, here Arabic text that runs from right to left is carried into a left-to-right English layout, and the real difficulty lies in the transliteration of names and the conversion of calendars.

The main users are people with an educational or working history in Arab countries who are moving to an English-speaking country: the student applying for a master’s programme in the United States or the United Kingdom with a Gulf or Levantine diploma, the family submitting Arabic documents to a Canadian immigration procedure, the company putting its Arabic contract before an English-speaking counterpart. In these profiles the most fragile point of the process is identity consistency, that is, the same person appearing in the same form across every document.

The particular difficulties of this pair

An Arabic name can be written in the Latin alphabet in more than one valid way (Mohamed, Muhammad, Mohammad and so on); in official translation the only criterion is the spelling in the person’s passport, and that single form is used across all documents. An Arabic chain of names may include the father’s and grandfather’s names; these are not reduced to a single name but carried over as they stand. On documents bearing Hijri dates, the Gregorian equivalent is calculated with care. In moving from a right-to-left layout to a left-to-right one, tables and forms are rebuilt, and the positions of seals and signatures are indicated with a note.

The second difficulty lies in legal and administrative formulas. Official formulas specific to Arabic are rendered into English by their institutional function, not word for word. The educational and professional titles of Arab countries are not forced into an equivalence with an English degree; the recognition decision is left to the assessing body. Document names (shahada, qayd) are matched by their function. Numbers (registry, file) are not translated, but the record they belong to is stated; this makes it possible to establish the link between documents belonging to the same person.

Third, the fact that the source documents may come from different Arab countries calls for extra care. Documents from the Gulf, the Levant and North Africa follow different formats and administrative structures; the country and the name of the issuing institution are explained for the English reader. In multi-document immigration and recognition files, the person’s name in the Latin alphabet, the renderings of institution names and the date format are kept consistent across every document, because authorities in English-speaking countries may read even the smallest inconsistency as evidence of separate documents.

The sheer breadth of the Arab world means that the same type of document is named and drawn up differently from country to country. A civil registry record in a Gulf country and its counterpart in a Levantine country may diverge in both form and content; the translation states clearly the name and country of the issuing authority. In family and civil status documents some concepts, such as the dower recorded in a marriage contract, have no direct English equivalent, so they are given by their function and, where needed, with a short explanation; the substance of the concept is not altered. On older documents the conversion from the Hijri calendar to the Gregorian one is done meticulously, and where necessary both dates are shown together. The content of official seals and certification annotations on the document is translated, while their position is preserved with a note. This approach makes it easier for documents from different Arab countries to be assessed consistently by a single English-speaking authority. The file as a whole is thus prepared end to end according to the expectations of one target country.

Which documents call for this direction

Education and immigration files lead the way; diplomas, transcripts and professional documents are requested for recognition, while civil registry and criminal record documents are requested for family and residence procedures. Commercial contracts and company documents follow. Throughout the file the name in the Latin alphabet is kept in a single form.

• Arabic diplomas, transcripts and professional documents
• Birth, marriage and civil registry records
• Criminal record certificates and administrative certificates
• Commercial contracts and company documents

The chain of approval

Since the target is an English-speaking country, no sworn translator system is required; the United States and the United Kingdom ask for a translation accompanied by a statement of accuracy, while Canada asks for a translator registered with an association or an affidavit. An apostille or consular certification is needed from the country where the source document was issued; some Arab countries are not party to the apostille arrangement, so that route differs. Check the position of the target and source countries on the country approval regime page and the documents you need in the document guide.

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The account here summarises the typical case; notarisation and apostille steps are costed as separate items. It is worth checking the current requirements against an official source.