Dutch to English Translation

This direction is used when a Dutch document has to be sent to an English-speaking country. The source is a diploma, civil registry record or contract from the Netherlands or the Flemish region of Belgium; the target is the USA, the UK or Canada. The most distinctive technical issue in this direction is placing the prefix in Dutch surnames (tussenvoegsel) correctly in English name fields, and this is a problem that does not arise in the en|nl pair.

The main users are people who have completed a stage of education or a career in the Netherlands and are moving to an English-speaking country: a student applying for a master’s degree in the USA with a Dutch diploma, a family submitting documents of Dutch origin in a Canadian immigration procedure, a company presenting its Dutch contract to an English-speaking counterpart. In these profiles the most fragile point is that the person’s name appears in the same form across all documents and matches the passport.

Challenges specific to this pair

Dutch surnames contain prefixes such as van, de and van der; these form part of the surname but are usually disregarded in alphabetical ordering. If the point where the surname begins is marked incorrectly on English forms, the same person appears differently from one document to the next. The Dutch citizen service number (BSN) is not translated but preserved, with a note on what it refers to. Date and number formats are set according to the English target.

The second difficulty lies in institutional and educational terms. Dutch compound terms and the names of administrative documents (uittreksel, Verklaring Omtrent het Gedrag) are rendered into English by their institutional function, not word for word. Dutch higher education concepts (hbo, wo) are not forced into an equivalent English degree; the recognition decision is left to the assessing body, and the marking system (out of 10) is not converted but explained. The positions of the seals and signatures in the source document are preserved in the translation with a note.

Third, the closeness between Dutch and English increases the risk of false friends; because words that look alike can carry different meanings, every term in an official text is chosen according to its context. Registration and file numbers are not translated but identified by the record they belong to. In immigration and recognition files with many documents, the name (including the prefixes), the equivalents given for institutions and the date format are kept the same across all documents, because English-speaking authorities can read even the smallest inconsistency as separate documents.

Another point to watch with Dutch documents is that some civil registry records can be issued on the multilingual European standard form; where such a document already carries an English column, a separate translation may not be needed, and checking this avoids needless cost. Where translation is required, the document names peculiar to Dutch institutions (uittreksel, afschrift) are carried into English by their institutional function. Dutch diplomas usually come with a supplementary document describing the diploma (diplomasupplement); as this annex is an official text setting out the level of the degree, it is preserved in the translation and carries important information to the assessor. The apostille for the document is obtained from the Dutch courts; presenting the translation in a form consistent with that apostille makes it easier for the document to be processed in one pass by the English-speaking authority. Documents from the Flemish region of Belgium, moreover, can carry institution names that differ from Dutch ones even though they share the same language; this distinction is preserved in the translation. How the prefixes in the person’s name are to enter the English form is settled once and applied in the same way throughout the file, because even the smallest difference between airline, bank and official records delays an application.

Documents for which this direction is asked

Education files lead the way; diplomas, transcripts and course descriptions are at the centre of the recognition assessment. They are followed by birth, marriage and civil registry records; criminal record certificates and administrative certificates; commercial contracts and company documents. Across the whole file, the name and the prefixes are kept in a single form.

• Dutch or Flemish diplomas, transcripts and course descriptions
• Birth, marriage and civil registry records
• Criminal record certificates and administrative certificates
• Commercial contracts and company documents

Chain of certification

As the target is an English-speaking country, no sworn translator system is looked for; the USA and the UK ask for a translation with a statement of accuracy, while Canada asks for a translator registered with a professional association or an affidavit. A document leaving the Netherlands is expected to carry an apostille annotation. You can see the expectations, which vary with the target, on the certification regime of the country page, and the papers required in the document guide.

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