Certified translation English–German

English documents get translated too

The Standesamt in Berlin is unambiguous on this point: because German is the official language, all relevant papers that are not in German must be translated by an approved and sworn translator — and that holds for English-language papers exactly as for any other. § 23(1) VwVfG draws the same line, and the Federal Foreign Office records that German authorities and courts frequently call for a translation of foreign-language documents. So the question is not whether anyone at the office reads English, but which language the file is kept in.

Source: berlin.de (checked 5 November 2026), gesetze-im-internet.de (checked 5 November 2026), auswaertiges-amt.de (checked 5 November 2026)

Documents from the United Kingdom

For England and Wales, birth, death, marriage and civil-partnership certificates come from the General Register Office; for Scotland and Northern Ireland, gov.uk points to separate processes at their own registration bodies. In practice that means a landscape form, often with several columns, a registration district, an entry number and the note of the issuing office. We carry over the footer with its warning text and the printing of the register paper as well — what is on the sheet is in the translation.

Source: gov.uk (checked 5 November 2026)

Documents from the United States

In the United States no federal register keeps civil-status events; they are issued at state or county level, usually by an office for vital records. The certificates look correspondingly different: an embossed seal here, a coloured security print there, a registrar's signature, and a date of issue that is not the date of the event. That difference matters for the translation, because both dates belong in the rendering.

Documents from Ireland

Irish certificates come from the state's civil registration; the forms are printed bilingually in Irish and English while the entries themselves are English. A bilingual form is no shortcut for the translation: the whole form is translated, so that the German version shows the same fields in the same order as the original.

Divorces and court papers

A divorce from an English-speaking country arrives as an order or a decree, often in two stages and with case numbers of its own. For submission to a German court, § 184 GVG applies: the language of the court is German. We carry the decree over with its headings, endorsements and costs decisions; whether a foreign decision is recognised in Germany is decided not by the translation but by the competent court or state justice administration.

Source: gesetze-im-internet.de (checked 5 November 2026)

Apostille and certified copy

Many English-language documents arrive with an apostille on them. The Federal Foreign Office describes it as confirming that a public document is genuine, for which the original has to be presented — nothing has been translated by it. We issue no apostilles and arrange no legalisation. Where one is present we translate it too; where it is missing, that is a question for the office you present the document to, not for us.

Source: auswaertiges-amt.de (checked 5 November 2026)