Sworn translator
documents offices will accept
A Portuguese birth record, a divorce ruling handed down abroad, a degree earned outside Europe, the articles of a company being set up: a translator on the Luxembourg Ministry of Justice list signs and stamps, and your document becomes admissible, in Luxembourg as in Esch-sur-Alzette or Diekirch.
1 hr
For the price and the delivery date
24 h
Our shortest turnaround
70+
Languages carrying a sworn stamp
16
Communes covered in the Grand Duchy
What lands on our desk every week
Sworn, certified, officially attested: the wording shifts with the office writing to you. The work behind it does not, and neither does the signature.
Civil status and family
Birth, marriage, death, divorce, residence certificates, affidavits of next of kin. Close to half the residents hold a foreign nationality: these papers travel all year between the Grand Duchy and the countries people came from.
Degrees and qualifications
Transcripts, credit statements, pass certificates, academic titles, continuing education records. Recognition of prior study, enrolment on the Belval campus or an application to a firm on the financial centre all call for the signed version.
Rulings and case documents
Judgments issued abroad, court orders, applications, pleadings, criminal record extracts. A foreign-language document is only taken into account by the District Court of Luxembourg when a sworn translation comes with it.
Notarial deeds
Powers of attorney, sale deeds, gifts, marriage contracts, declarations of succession. As soon as one heir lives abroad or a property sits outside the country, the notary's office asks for stamped versions of what it receives.
Corporate files
Articles of association, extracts from the trade and companies register, minutes of shareholder meetings, information documents, compliance memos. Setting up a structure or opening an account for a foreign company puts a whole stack of papers in motion.
Vehicles and licences
Driving licence, registration certificate, European certificate of conformity. These three papers resurface every time a car changes country, and the registration office wants them in a language it works in.
Your Luxembourg record is in French or in German
The Grand Duchy runs its administration in three languages. Depending on the commune and on the year, a birth record comes out in French or in German, and the extract in your hand is not necessarily written in the language the receiving country expects.
So we start by looking at what the document actually says, rather than at what it is supposed to contain. The target language is settled afterwards, from the receiving office and from the country where the file will land.
Whoever opens the envelope reads neither Portuguese nor Serbian. What gets checked is the signature at the foot of the page and the translator's entry on the Ministry of Justice list. A flawless text written by a bilingual friend is still a text nobody stands behind.
- Source language verified, not assumed
- A translator's note when nothing matches
- Entry on the list checked before we start
- Signed PDF emailed on the delivery date
Four situations that require a signature
When the clerk cannot read the original, the only thing that counts is the name at the foot of the translation.
At the population office
Registering after a move, notice of marriage, partnership, nationality application. The sixteen communes we cover apply the same requirement to papers written in a third language.
Before the courts
The country has two judicial districts, Luxembourg and Diekirch, and Justice of the Peace courts sit in Luxembourg, in Esch-sur-Alzette and in Diekirch. Read the address on your summons; foreign papers are sworn everywhere in any case.
Having a career recognised
Equivalence of studies, access to a regulated profession, an application to a professional body. The review only starts on the signed and stamped version.
Papers leaving the country
Once the document goes to a consulate or to an authority abroad, the translator's stamp is often no longer enough. A legalisation is added, and an apostille depending on the receiving state.
Two minutes of checking with the receiving office beats a rejected file. Three points to put to them: is the sworn translation enough on its own, must the translator's signature also be legalised, and should the text be attached to the original or to a recently issued copy? Practice differs from one country to the next and from one counter to the next. Write to us and we will draft the question with you.
Four steps, no visit to the office
You know the figure and the delivery date before you order anything at all.
- 01
Send a photo
A phone shot is enough to count pages and spot the source language. Through the form or by email, from home or from your desk.
- 02
Priced quote in 1 hour
You get the price, the delivery date and the list of formalities your receiving office wants on top: legalisation of the signature, an apostille to request, or none of it.
- 03
Translation and stamp
The translator listed for that language pair works on the document, keeps its layout, then adds the stamp, the signature and the statutory wording.
- 04
Handover
On the date announced, the signed PDF lands in your inbox. Should a counter insist on paper, the stamped copy follows by registered envelope.
A file waiting on its translation?
One photo of the document is enough to start pricing. Price, date and formalities to expect reach you within the hour.
Six points we do not bend on
Entry verified
Before we start, we check that the translator appears on the Ministry of Justice list for the exact pair requested. A stamp applied without that entry protects nobody.
Legalisation of the signature
Where your receiving office requires the translator's signature to be legalised, we take that step. The apostille, on the other hand, is requested from the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs: we tell you which office and what to bring, the request stays yours.
Registered post included
Some counters still take nothing but paper. The stamped copy then goes out by registered post with a tracking number, to the address you give us.
Rush work in 24 to 48 hours
When the date is already set, your document moves to the front of the queue. The surcharge appears on the quote and you are free to turn it down.
Contractual secrecy
Every translator in the network is bound by a confidentiality agreement. None of your documents passes through a free translation tool open to the public.
Layout preserved
Your reader will compare the two documents line by line. Tables, seals, handwritten additions and marginal notes therefore stay where they are and are described.
Frequently asked questions
Sworn, certified or attested: which word is right?
In the Grand Duchy the profession is called sworn translator, and practitioners appear on a list kept by the Ministry of Justice. Words like certified or attested circulate too, mostly in letters from abroad, and they mean the same thing. What counts for your file is the signatory's entry, not the term used in the letter.
My Luxembourg record is in German: is that normal?
Yes. The country's communes issue records in French or in German depending on the period and on local usage, and both versions carry the same weight. The real question lies elsewhere: will the receiving country accept German, or do you need to go through French or English? Send us the document and the name of the office and we will say what has to go out.
I am a cross-border worker: do my papers travel?
Counter by counter is how it gets decided. A paper already drafted in French needs nothing translated for a French-speaking office, at most an authentication step; swap the languages round and the same holds for a German-speaking one. Anything written in a third language, a degree earned outside Europe for instance, goes through a sworn translator every time. Send over the list you were handed and we will mark up what has to be done.
Do you need the original?
Not for pricing: a legible photo is enough to count pages. For the translation itself, the receiving office decides. Some accept work done from a copy, others want the translation attached to the original or to a recently issued copy. You will know with the quote, not afterwards.
Legalisation, apostille, or nothing at all?
Two separate formalities, often mixed up. The first confirms the sworn translator's signature, and we have it applied when your receiving office insists. The second, the apostille, rests on the Hague Convention and is issued by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs; you file that request yourself, and we tell you which office and what to bring. The quote states which one applies to you.
A birth record: how many days?
Two to five working days at normal pace, twenty-four to forty-eight hours when rushed, depending on the language pair. If a hearing, a notary appointment or a filing deadline is already in the diary, give us the date in your first message: we build the schedule backwards from it.
Get your free quote within the hour
A document or a date is all we need. You get the price, the deadline and the form of certification Luxembourg authorities will expect. You decide afterwards.