Swedish to English Translation

This direction is used when a Swedish document has to be submitted in an English-speaking country. The typical applicant is someone who studied or worked in Sweden and is applying to a university, an employer or an immigration authority in the USA, the United Kingdom, Canada or Australia. The regime of source and target differs from the sv|de pair: here the document is assessed not by a German-speaking country but under the Anglo-Saxon declaration system.

Concrete examples clarify the direction: a student applying for a master’s programme in the USA with a Swedish diploma, the service records of a specialist who worked in Sweden and moved to the United Kingdom, the civil registry records of a family relocating to Canada. What they have in common is that the document is meaningful within the Swedish system while the receiving side does not recognise that context directly.

Education and immigration files are the backbone of demand; the international standing of Swedish higher education keeps diploma and transcript translation in constant demand in this direction. The second cluster is employment and civil registry documents.

The common difficulty with these documents is that Swedish administrative reality is not directly recognisable to an English-speaking authority; the translation connects the two administrative cultures and conforms to the declaration system of the target country.

Swedish higher education documents list course and credit information in detail; this structure is preserved in the English translation, because the recognition body reads the courses one by one. A summary rendering leaves the assessment incomplete and draws out the process.

The Swedish personal identity number (personnummer) appears frequently in these documents; it identifies the person and, even though it contains the date of birth, it is carried across as an identity number and not as a date. The translation states this distinction clearly.

Swedish personal and place names, including the letters å, ä and ö, are carried across according to the spelling in the passport; a spelling that is original in one document and simplified in another is avoided. This consistency secures the matching of the documents by the authority reading in English.

The plain, spare quality of Swedish official style is preserved when it is taken into English; institution names are rendered according to the function the target authority will understand, not word for word.

Technical issues specific to Swedish into English

The Swedish letters å, ä and ö do not exist in English; in personal and place names they are carried across according to the spelling in the passport and arbitrary simplification is avoided. Swedish compound words are broken up and expanded in English, because no single English word can render them.

Personnummer is an identity number and is not confused with the date of birth; the Swedish ISO date order (year-month-day) is freed of ambiguity in the English translation by writing the month out in words. These distinctions allow the authority reading in English to understand the person and the dates correctly.

The Swedish grading system (e.g. A–F or the older IG–MVG) is not forced into an equivalence with the English letter system; it is explained, and the recognition decision rests with the target institution. Institution names are rendered according to their function; registration numbers are not translated but cited as recorded.

The seal and the registration details on the document are kept in their position. In documents belonging to the same person the passport spelling of the name is carried across unchanged.

Because the Swedish diploma system rests on the European higher education framework, the credit and level information in the transcript is clearly preserved; the recognition body assesses on the basis of these data, and a summary rendering delays the process.

Swedish official style is spare and direct; this clarity is preserved when it is taken into English. In employment documents job titles and lengths of service are carried across exactly at their values in the source.

In immigration files the consistency of name spelling across the documents of family members is of particular importance; the same surname written differently in two documents can make a family reunification application contentious.

Documents for which this direction is required

• Diplomas (examensbevis), transcripts and course descriptions
• Birth, marriage and civil registry records (personbevis)
• Employment, service and criminal record certificates
• Bank and income documents
• Professional qualification certificates

Education and immigration files are the backbone of demand; a detailed breakdown of courses and credits is required. The passport spelling of names is preserved across all documents.

In employment files the service record and job titles are carried across accurately. In family documents the relationships between relatives are stated clearly.

Chain of certification

Because the target is an English-speaking country, the sworn translator system does not come into play: the USA and the United Kingdom ask for a signed statement of accuracy, Canada for a translator registered with a provincial association or an affidavit, Australia for NAATI accreditation. A document arriving from Sweden is expected to bear an apostille.

For these differing expectations, look at the certification regime of the target country and the document type requirements. Tell us the passport spelling of the name and the target institution before you send the document.

Upload your document to see the page count and the current fee, and compare our unit prices.

The information below is a guide; in this language pair the level of certification is determined by the target institution. It would be advisable to check the current requirements against an official source.