Frequently Asked Questions About Translation and Translation Industry

Do you produce certified translations?
A certified translation consists of a document signed by an officer of the translation agency and notarized by a Notary Public, attesting that the translation company believes the translation to be accurate and complete. This part of the document is called a "Translation Certification."

We guarantee that any and all documents issued by us will be accepted by any U.S. government requesting agency. All documents are notarized translations or in other words, perfectly legal translations for the U.S. government and in most instances, for other governments as well.

What do you do with regards to certification, authentication and notarization?
Translation of public documents are presented on legal sized company letterhead of the Accurate Translator, LLC. Below the letterhead is the actual translation of its corresponding source page. The bottom 2 1/2"' of the legal sized page is reserved for the oath of accuracy, completeness, and truthfulness by the translator which is then duly signed by the Notary Public. It is then stamped and affixed with our embossed corporate seal. This is required and sufficient to be considered a certified translation and is accepted by all U.S. government agencies.

The translation should always accompany a certified copy of the original document in its native language . The Accurate Translator, LLC will provide a stamped signed copy of the source document used in translation (which should be identical to the original document) in the event the requesting party asks from what copy the translation was made.

Translations for use outside the United States
Certified copies or originals of legal public documents may require a Apostille Certificate (those for use in a destination country which is a member of the Hague Convention of 1961) to be accepted. IMPORTANT: The translated public document itself cannot carry an Apostille certificate, only the certified or original copy of the actual legal public document. Though documents should be accepted with the original and the Apostille certificate alone, its request to be translated is not uncommon.

Apostille certificates of a legal public documents (birth certificates, marriage licenses, death notices, etc.) can be obtained by the Secretary of State of the issuing state of the document. For a list of Secretaries of State offices, please click here.

What is the difference between translation and interpretation? How about simultaneous translation and consecutive translation?
Translation usually refers to document translation or written materials where the professional has access and benefit of time to correctly perform a specific job. With interpretation, the person has to draw upon his or her vast knowledge to quickly convey an idea, mood, and tone. Simultaneous interpretation (or Simultaneous translation as it is sometimes called) is a familiar scene at the United Nations. Consecutive interpretation or translation is more common at meetings, telephone conversations, tours and similar events where a short pause is allowed for the translator to convey the idea to the other party.

What is your policy on confidentiality & security?
We take seriously all personal and confidential information that individuals or companies entrust with us. As standard operating procedure, all information is kept confidential and special measures listed below ensure this process. If you require, we are willing to sign any standard non-disclosure agreement that you or your company may provide or we can provide one for you. Companies and individuals alike should make this a priority with whomever they decide to work with for translation services. Companies must be concerned about protecting their confidential, trademarked information and employment records. Individuals seeking translation of documents for Immigration and Naturalization Service should also be careful with who they entrust their important birth, marriage, educational records, etc. to prevent them being used in identity theft.

There are certain steps we take in order for this:

1. All company client documents when finished are retired to a series of offline media such as data DVD's and thumb drives.
2. All documents are kept on file for a minimum of three years (unless specified otherwise by client) to provide you with replacement documents in the event a file is lost or misplaced
3. All misprints or any other information printed on paper and discarded are always shredded.

Commercial Confidentiality
We will never disclose any company information, customer names, or business content to any outside entity. We also follow a strict protocol for returning documents making sure they are returned to only authorized persons within the organization requesting the work. Anyone working with the Accurate Translator is bound by this agreement and required to sign our own agreement of non-disclosure. In the event we use a client as a business reference, we will always obtain permission from him or her first.

We are able to maintain a strict control over confidentiality working with a relatively small group of professionals who all understand its importance in today's competitive global economy.

Are computerized translations just as good and would that work for my needs?
The intended purpose for most computerized or machine translations is for one to obtain an idea of what is being expressed in a general manner. This method should not be used when grammatical accuracy is of great importance. At best, machine translations give a rough idea of what is being discussed.

What will the translation look like when I get it back? In what formats can it be returned to me?
For Birth Certificates, College Transcripts, Diplomas, High School Transcripts, Marriage Licenses and other miscellaneous types of legal documents, we make every effort to make the translation not only linguistically and grammatically correct, but we also attempt to reproduce the style and format to resemble the original. This method of reproducing the original style of the document also applies to booklets, pamphlets or any other items we translate. .This allows the reader to easily see from which part of the source document the translation pertains.

For brochures or detailed marketing material, we offer the option of the translation alone or translation combined with our desktop publishing service.

We work with any of the following formats in addition to sending either the hard copy, data disk, or thumb drive by mail:

Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Front Page, Access, Publisher
Adobe Photoshop, ImageReady, InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Acrobat, PageMaker
Macromedia Dreamweaver

Other formats are available upon request.

How do you assure quality?
Different steps are required for each language and each type of document.

For any English to Spanish translations or Spanish to English translation, the majority of work is handled in-house. That means we perform much or all of the translation ourselves as opposed to using an outside source. These particular translations are handled by two individuals who are fluent in both languages. One's native language is English, and the other's is Spanish, but each individual are fluent in both. The target document is completed always by a native of the target document and then subsequently checked by the other translator whose native language is that of the source document to make sure there is nothing lost in the translation. For particularly longer documents, we may employ a third party proofing and editing service.

A similar process is used for other languages when one of our translating partners is used. All documents are then transferred and checked by the Accurate Translator and reformatted to meet the Agency's standards after being proofed by another party.

Is there a big difference between different types of Spanish from Mexico and Latin America from Castilian Spanish from Spain?
There are about as many differences between Latin American Spanish and Castilian as there are from U.S. English and The Queen's English of Great Britain. Anyone from Spain would have no trouble communicating with anyone from Latin America and visa versa. The differences between the two are less noticeable in written documents however there are some differences in vocabulary. Most noticeable of course would be when it comes to more technical words. In Mexican and Latin American Spanish, there is more of a tendency to borrow words from English whereas in proper Castilian Spanish, there are more literal translations that may never appear in Latin American and Mexican Spanish.

I've been hearing the terms "Globalization and Localization" a lot when dealing with translation. What does it really mean?
To see out section on Globalization and Localization, please click here.

The Accurate Translator, L.L.C. - Phoenix, AZ - An Arizona based company...