Sworn Translation in Ankara

For us Ankara is not a name on a service map but the place where the work is actually done. The desk where our sworn translators sign, the bag in which the notary folders are carried and the shelf where envelopes wait to be collected are all in our office in Kızılay. That is why a request from the capital has a rhythm unlike that of any other province: a document left with us in the morning can be handed back in the afternoon with its notarisation already complete. There is no shipping in between and no waiting for a courier; there is only walking distance.

How being the capital changes the flow of documents

Anyone living in Ankara will at some point have to deal with an official document. Because the directorates general attached to the ministries, the regulatory bodies, the foreign missions and the large universities are gathered in the same city, the range of documents produced here and called for here is extraordinarily wide. One day it is the English version of a tender specification, the next an employment certificate drawn up for a posting abroad, and immediately after that an academic transcript to be attached to a recognition application. Seeing all three of those within a single week is hardly possible in any other province.

That variety puts pressure on terminology as well. The set forms of public correspondence and the language of a private-sector contract are not the same thing, and technical files in defence and aviation call for a vocabulary of their own altogether. The thing we do most often with Ankara files is to ask, before translating a word, which authority the text will be submitted to – because the right rendering of a given phrase changes according to where it is going.

English, German, Arabic, French and Russian

It is no accident that these five languages come to the fore in the capital. English and French are the languages of international correspondence and of academic files; German comes up where people are leaving to work or to study, Arabic in the commercial and academic ties maintained with countries in the region, and Russian in energy and contracting files. Unlike in other provinces, in Ankara these languages are not confined to a particular sector but spread across the whole of institutional life. You can see the full tariff on the languages page.

Handing documents over in person, still the preferred route

The advantage of being in Ankara is that the choice stays with you. For a client in another province the only sensible route is to work remotely, whereas here you can drop the document off and go, or settle the whole thing online without calling in at all. In practice most of our clients mix the two: they upload the file from home in the evening and, once it is ready, come by in their lunch break to collect it.

Academic files and postings abroad

The weight of higher education in the capital sends a steady flow of academic work to the translation desk. Foremost among it are the academic transcript and diploma files prepared for postgraduate study abroad, the module descriptions attached to recognition applications, and the assignment letters and publication lists of academic staff. Translating module descriptions is a more laborious job than it appears: the receiving institution wants to understand not only the name of the course but how many hours it was taught for and what it covered. On these files, then, rather than a word-for-word rendering we build a language that preserves the meaning and can be read within the other system.

Files for postings abroad proceed on a different logic. Here the party asking for the document is usually an institution or a programme secretariat, and what is expected is not speed but conformity of form. In employment certificates, official letters and letters of invitation, the signature, title and date blocks have to keep the arrangement they have in the original; when that detail is overlooked, the file comes back.

A city accustomed to deadlines

Most of the work in the capital is tied to an appointment, an application window or a tender date. That is why the first thing we ask about a request from Ankara is the delivery date; the fee comes after that. Enter the number of pages and the language pair, and the quote screen will show you both the amount and a realistic delivery day at the same time. If you are wondering which types of document we work on, the translation services page sets it out in more detail.

This content describes the typical flow; how long the process takes depends on the size of the document and the delivery speed chosen. The safest course is to ask the relevant office for written confirmation before work begins.