Reimbursement of translation costs
Although translations are often indispensable, they are also expensive. As a customer, it is natural that you want to make sure your translation is accurate and
EN
In my capacity as a state-certified and sworn-in translator at the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court (Landgericht Frankfurt am Main) and the Koblenz Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht Koblenz) I am authorised to translate your official documents such as certificates, diplomas, contracts, court judgments, powers of attorney, deeds, expert’s opinions etc. from and into German, English and Polish. I do this on my own responsibility by certifying the conformance of the translation with the original document by stamp and signature.
Here you can find a list of documents, which most frequently require a certified translation.
My certified translations are recognised by all public authorities, administrative bodies, courts, universities and other public institutions across Germany. As there is no automatic guarantee that translations certified by a German-based court translator will be accepted everywhere abroad, it is wise to enquire directly to the relevant authority for the intended target country of your translation. De facto however, certified translations from Germany are honoured everywhere without trouble.
You may possibly be asked by a German authority to submit an “amtlich beglaubigte Kopie” or “öffentlich beglaubigte Kopie” of your document. An officially certified copy of this kind has nothing to do with certified translation. You can obtain a certified copy of your document at a Bürgeramt (Citizens Office) or an Ortsgericht. You will find contact details of the Ortsgericht in Frankfurt under this link. In Mainz you can obtain a certified copy of your document from the Stadtverwaltung.
Please also pay attention to the Frequently Asked Questions.
Detailed information on legal translation can be found here.
Legal basis:
Authorisation by the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court (Landgericht Frankfurt am Main), file number 316 E – 95 – 2 (see Database of Interpreters and Translators)
It is possible to certify the conformity of a translation with an officially certified or uncertified copy or scan. Should you wish to send me a printed or scanned copy of your original documents, please ensure that the copy is complete and legible.
You may send me your documents by post, email, or deliver personally, on appointment to my office in Mainz. You may also post your documents, along with your contact details, through my secure letterbox outside the office. In case you prefer sending me your original documents via post, I encourage you to do this by registered letter (German: “Einschreiben”) due to security concerns.
Your translation will be complete within a few days. On delivery, you will receive an invoice under your name and address. You should inform me of your address when placing an order. Please also let me know if you would like to pay in cash, via bank transfer, Paypal or by cash-on-delivery with Deutsche Post AG.
On request, I can send a scan of your certified translation by email or fax at no extra cost. You can use the text before collection or delivery, i.e in most cases several days earlier (which is especially important in urgent circumstances). Furthermore, you will receive a useful voucher with each certified translation, which can be redeemed against any subsequent orders.
I am obliged by the Court to treat your documents as confidential and to not divulge them to any third parties. I take this commitment to confidentiality, and protecting personal data very seriously. Thus my computer is secured by a master password, and my messaging systems are constantly monitored by anti-virus application AVG AntiVirus.
All completed translations and e-mails remain on my computer, unless applicable privacy policies dictate otherwise. Data is stored mainly for tax and financial auditing purposes. Besides that, data storage makes it possible for me to maintain specific terminologies. There is the practical advantage of having an additional available copy of your translation at any time. Should you wish however, that translations of your documents are not stored, please let me know when placing an order.
Professional qualifications received abroad are recognised as equivalent to German qualifications by various administrative bodies in the State of Hesse. You will find further information on the Staatliches Schulamt in Darmstadt website (State Education Authority). Information regarding recognition of foreign qualifications in the State of Rhineland-Palatinate can be found here.
In case of school certificates and university diplomas, I am obliged to translate school types, grades, professional titles or academic degrees as accurately as I possibly can. I am however permitted to mention in brackets a corresponding German term. Please take into consideration that it is the relevant authorities who are responsible for the final assessment of your qualification.
For more information on this topic, feel free to read one of my blog entries here.
Remuneration for certified translations is calculated on the basis of the German Law on the Remuneration of Interpreters and Translators (JVEG). Accordingly, the rate for translating every 55 characters (=one line of text) amounts to net €1.80 (‘basic fee’). In case of documents that are not electronic and editable texts, the fee rises to net €1.95 for every 55 characters of a source text (‘increased fee’). In case of particularly difficult translation due to a high number of specialist terms, bad legibility, or very high urgency, the ‘basic fee’ amounts to net €1.95 and the ‘increased fee’ to net €2.10.
In certain cases translation costs can be paid or refunded for you. For more details click here.
The given rates apply to all language combinations (English, German, and Polish). The mentioned rates are net prices in each case. A VAT rate of 19% will be added to the total net sum. If you wish for the translation to be sent by post, then you will also be charged delivery costs (in most cases €1.55). The total fee agreed will cover the entire scope of your order, i.e. the actual translating process, preparation and post-processing of your order, terminology search, text formatting, spell check, issuing a certification clause as well as printing costs.
The minimum fee for small assignments is €50.00 including VAT.
The number of characters in a source text (original text) in case of non-editable texts is calculated with the help of the OCR programme Readiris. Should it be impossible to precisely determine the number of characters for technical reasons (hand-written text, faint ink, uneven text structure etc.), then it can be either estimated or the number of characters in a target text (translation) can be subsequently taken as a basis for calculating the price.
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