German to English Translation

This direction is used when a German document has to be sent to an English-speaking country. The typical applicant lives in Germany or Austria and needs to present a Zeugnis, a Meldebescheinigung, a diploma or a registry document issued there to a university, an employer or an immigration authority in the United States, the United Kingdom or Canada. Source and target run the exact opposite way to the en|de pair: here the concepts peculiar to the German administrative world are carried into English, and the authority that will read them belongs to an Anglo-Saxon legal culture.

The people who need this direction most often are those who have completed a stage of education or a career step in Germany and then moved to an English-speaking country: applicants using a German university diploma for a master’s programme in the United States or for professional recognition in Canada, registry and signature documents that a German company will put before an English-speaking market, and people who worked in Germany for many years and are transferring their records to an English-speaking country for a pension or social security procedure. What they have in common is that the document carries a German institutional reality that the receiving side does not recognise on its own.

The particular difficulties of this pair

German’s long compound nouns cannot be matched by a single English word; terms such as Aufenthaltserlaubnis or Handelsregisterauszug are translated by unpacking them. Company forms cannot be carried across word for word either: GmbH does not automatically become “Ltd.”, because the liability structures of the two legal systems are not the same; the original abbreviation is kept and an English explanation is added. On the name side, umlauts and the letter ß are matched exactly to the machine-readable spelling in the person’s passport (ä→ae, ß→ss), and the same form is used across every document in the file.

Educational and professional titles call for separate care. Concepts specific to German, such as Meister, Diplom-Ingenieur or Fachhochschule, are not forced into an equivalence with an English degree; the body that carries out the recognition assessment (WES/ECE in the United States, the provincial associations in Canada) makes that decision itself, and a forced equivalent leaves the application open to dispute. Grading systems are not converted either; the German 1–6 scale is explained rather than translated into the English letter system. The date format is adapted to the English target, and the month is written out in words to prevent day-month confusion.

Another feature of German official documents is that they pack information into abbreviations and standard formulas. The abbreviations used by German institutions (for example i.V., gem.) cannot be carried into an English text as they stand; they are unpacked and, where necessary, given in their original form in brackets, since otherwise they mean nothing to the official on the receiving side. Registry, registration and file numbers are not translated, but the record each one belongs to is stated; this makes it possible to connect two numbers appearing on two documents belonging to the same person. Documents from Germany and Austria usually carry an official seal and a date of entry; their position and content are preserved in the translation. In pension and social security files, transferring the periods worked and the employer names exactly has a direct bearing on the accuracy of the calculation in the receiving country, which is why date ranges are given particular attention.

Which documents call for this direction

Education files lead the way: diplomas, the Abschlusszeugnis and transcripts. They are followed by the documents used in residence and work applications (residence, registration, criminal record), then by registry extracts and signature circulars on the commercial side, and finally by pension and insurance correspondence. In this last group, transferring the date ranges and employer names exactly is what determines the accuracy of the calculation. In correspondence from German social security and pension institutions, setting out the names of the bodies and the period details clearly is necessary if the counterpart in the English-speaking country is to be able to assess the document. Translations of diplomas and of the Zeugnis are expected to give a detailed breakdown of courses and credits alongside the grades, because recognition bodies cannot complete an assessment on the basis of a summary translation; consistency of terms and names with the person’s other documents is also maintained.

• German or Austrian diploma, Abschlusszeugnis and transcript
• Residence, registration and criminal record documents
• Trade registry extracts, signature circulars and company agreements
• Pension, insurance and employment record correspondence

The chain of approval

Because the target is an English-speaking country, the sworn translator system does not come into play here. The United States (USCIS) and the United Kingdom rely on a signed certificate of accuracy attached to the translation; Canada (IRCC) asks for a translator registered with a provincial translators’ association or a sworn statement (affidavit). The document coming from Germany is also expected to carry an apostille. For each country’s different expectations, see the approval regime of the target country and the requirements for the document type.

So that we can choose the right level, tell us the target institution before you send the document; the upload screen gives you the page count and the current fee shown on the card above straight away, and you can also compare unit prices separately.

The account here summarises the typical case; notarisation and apostille steps are costed as separate items. The safest course is to ask the relevant office for written confirmation before starting the procedure.