Client details are withheld. The client is referred to by first name only. The two people named on the certificates are not identified or described, and their connection to the client is not stated.

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Six words and a blank where the question should be

Dimitar’s message was six words long: I want only PDF files. Two Bulgarian birth certificates were attached, each a separate PDF, each concerning a different person. Two pages in all, Bulgarian into English, notarisation unticked. The purpose was recorded as “Family & Personal”, and under certification — where the form lists receiving authorities — he had chosen “Unsure”.

So we knew the format he wanted the answer in, but not the question. That is not a criticism. It is the most common shape an enquiry takes, and his six words turned out to be the useful part, because they pointed at something clients are rarely told.

Two forms of certified translation, and why they are not interchangeable

A certified translation exists in a digital form and a physical form.

The digital form is a PDF carrying the translation and the translator’s signed statement of accuracy, with name, contact details and date. For a large share of modern submissions this is exactly right. Visa applications are uploaded through portals; employers, universities, insurers and banks usually want a file by email. For those readers the PDF is not a lesser copy — it is the document.

The physical form is a printed translation with a wet-ink signature, posted, sometimes expected to travel with the original foreign certificate. Some authorities and some proceedings still work on paper and will ask for it.

The part clients do not expect is that nobody can tell you which you need by looking at your certificate. It is not a property of the document. It is a property of the reader. The same Bulgarian birth certificate, translated identically, needs a PDF for one submission and a posted copy for another, and the only way to know is to know where it is going.

That is why “PDF only” and “certification: Unsure” on the same order is a problem rather than a preference. He had fixed the output and left the input blank. If the submission is online, he is right and we simply do as asked. If the reader turns out to want paper, a PDF-only order has bought a document he will have to order again — discovered, as these things usually are, after he has submitted it.

Two people, two documents, two certifications

This was not one order in substance. It was two documents about two different people, and the client was neither of them.

That mattered in two ways. First, authority: we needed to know on whose behalf he was acting and that the people concerned were aware. That is routine and it is not optional. Second, each certificate had to be certified separately, with each statement naming the specific document it covers. It is tempting to treat two pages ordered together as one job under one statement. But two people’s documents very often end up going to different places, or one is needed alone later. A certification that refers to a set the page is no longer part of is, in practice, no certification at all.

Cyrillic names with more than one correct spelling

Bulgarian is written in Cyrillic, and rendering a Bulgarian name in Latin letters is not a matter of taste. Bulgaria has an official transliteration system, and that is the system a Bulgarian passport uses. But other systems exist, older documents follow them, and someone who has lived in the United Kingdom may already appear on British paperwork with a spelling that came from somewhere else — a school register, a payroll system, an earlier translation by another provider.

So there can be three Latin spellings of one name in circulation, all defensible, and a UK reader comparing documents has no way of knowing they refer to one person. Our rule is that the travel document governs, letter for letter, and that any other spelling found on the certificate or in the client’s paperwork is recorded in a translator’s note rather than silently chosen between. On a two-person order the work doubles: both names need reconciling, and if the two certificates render a shared surname differently, that difference has to stay visible.

What the certificate itself records

A Bulgarian birth record is held by the municipality, and what people hold is an extract from that register — often a duplicate issued years later, carrying its own issue date. That date is not a date of birth and must never be presented as one. The issuing municipality also needs to be named as the body holding the register, not replaced with a generic phrase, because a reviewing officer may want to know which office could verify it.

A purpose that described the documents, not the destination

“Family & Personal” told us what the certificates were, not where they were going. Two birth certificates used for family reasons could support a passport application, a school place, a settlement application, a registry matter, a pension claim or an estate. Each of those readers has a different appetite for paper.

One question first, then the work

Before accepting the PDF-only instruction, we asked where the translations were going. One line, and it decides whether his instruction was right or expensive. We explained the two forms plainly, said that the receiving body decides, and suggested he check what they had asked for in writing.

We also offered the arrangement that costs almost nothing and removes the risk: issue the PDFs as requested, and print and hold signed copies so that if paper turns out to be wanted, it is a posting rather than a re-order.

Authority was settled in writing, since neither certificate was his. The two documents were treated as two documents: separate translations, separate certifications, each naming its own source and able to be submitted alone.

We asked for the travel documents of both people, not to translate but to govern the Latin spelling of their names. Where a certificate rendered a name differently, or the two rendered a shared surname differently, each was translated as its source shows it, with the divergence noted.

Each issuing municipality was named, register and issue dates were separated from dates of birth and labelled, and months were written as words. Stamps, reference numbers, signature blocks and marginal annotations were translated and located, with anything illegible declared rather than inferred.

On certification, we did what the “Unsure” answer was really asking for. Rather than selling the most impressive-sounding option, we explained what a certified translation is and what it is normally accepted for, and advised against buying a notarial layer unless someone had asked for one in writing. He had not ticked notarisation, and we did not talk him into it.

The two translations as issued

  • Two certified English translations, issued as two separate documents, each with its own statement of accuracy naming its own source.
  • Both people’s names rendered to match their travel documents, with a note on every divergence.
  • Each issuing municipality identified; register, issue and birth dates distinguished and labelled.
  • Every stamp, number, annotation and signature block accounted for, and anything illegible declared.
  • Delivery as PDFs, as the client asked, with signed hard copies printed and held in case the receiving body wanted paper.

Why the order of decisions mattered

The format decision was made after the reader was known, not before, so neither certificate needed ordering twice and both names could be matched against the right passports without anyone guessing. What any receiving body decides about the matter underneath is for that body alone.

The same “unsure” problem turns up in very different files. A conveyancing client of ours faced it with German bank statements and an undecided certification field, and a passport applicant met a version of the spelling issue in our account of a Greek birth record for HM Passport Office.

PDF or paper? Questions about ordering certified copies

Is a PDF certified translation acceptable?

For most online submissions, yes — a PDF carrying a signed statement of accuracy is exactly what is wanted. Some authorities and proceedings still ask for posted paper. The receiving body decides, so check what it asked for in writing.

What if I do not know yet who will read the translation?

Ask for both. Take the PDF now and have the signed hard copy printed and held. It is far cheaper than ordering the translation again later.

I am ordering documents for two family members. Can they share one certification?

It is better not to. Each document should carry its own statement naming its own source, because documents for different people are often needed separately.

Why do you want passports if they are not being translated?

Because Cyrillic names can be spelled correctly in more than one way, and the passport spelling is the one a UK reader will compare against. On a family order, send all of them.

For the document itself, see our birth certificate translation services; related paperwork is covered on our marriage certificate translation and passport translation pages. The FAQs explain what a statement of accuracy contains. If you do not yet know who will read your documents, tell us what the matter is or upload the certificates and we will tell you which form to order before you pay.

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