Doing Official Translations Yourself

[chanchao]

This is just something I thought I'd share with you all. If you (or your wife, or anyone else you know) reads/writres reasonable Thai/English and owns a dictionary then it's pretty easy to do translations of documents yourself, say the house registration book, birth certificates, marriage/divorce papers and so on.

Most embassies require that translations are certified / legalized by the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, (Thai Ministry of Consular Affairs, actually, on Chaeng Wattana Road not far from the intersection with Vipawadee-Rangsit road, just after the TOT offices on the left hand side when coming from Vip.-Rangsit Rd)

If there's interest I can turn some of my translations into a template and put them online. If you have such a template that already has the layout and all translations for the words you find on those documents then all you have to do is fill in your personal information, names, ID card numbers, house ID numbers, addresses and so on.

I find this is a lot more accurate and ultimately less hassle than using most of the 'law agencies'.. Then again of course there must also be high quality professional translation services around, just personally I haven't found one, and I don't think I'll bother.

Just did it yesterday for a birth certificate... Was ready and out of there in under an hour.

Another use for having an example document is when actually GETTING particular documents from local Thai District offices. If your significant other happens to live in an amphur where they don't get a lot of such requests then it can be awfully difficult to get a particular document the way your embassy requires it. With an example there, Thai civil servants will feel a lot more secure in issuing something in a particular way. I experienced this with a document stating my wife was never married. They just didn't know what to do at the amphur and in the end they came up with something that turned out not to be acceptable to my embassy, thus wasting a trip all the way to Bangkok.

Cheers,

Chanchao

[vinny]

See also Thai Document Translation and Samples.

[GU22]

Most embassies require that translations are certified / legalized by the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, (Thai Ministry of Consular Affairs, actually, on Chaeng Wattana Road not far from the intersection with Vipawadee-Rangsit road, just after the TOT offices on the left hand side when coming from Vip.-Rangsit Rd)

Just to re-emphasis that the British embassy does not require this.

[thohts]

I did the same thing not so long ago, too, for the Thai embassy.

Ended up having to have them done over. My translation of the 5-6 documents was fine, but the format was not. (Looked fine to me, but I still don't get what it was they didn't like. A couple of pages included color photographs, which they didn't like either.)

It really isn't worth saving the 200 baht per page for a translation (+400 per signature)

[chanchao]

Vinny, can you check that link? It doesn't work for me.

Would be interested in any other examples already online.

Cheers,

Chanchao

[lopburi3]

I just tried it at 10:27 here in Bangkok on TRUE and is working.

[chanchao]

Strange.. still can't get it even through a SSH tunnel to Europe and back.. Anyway, probably just a glitch somewhere, I'll keep trying.

Cheers,

Chanchao

[vinny]

See also Sample of Thai Document Translation

[Welsh John]

I will be applying for a settlement visa for my wife to come to the UK at the end of the year.

Her new ID card has her name in English( New Type with a chip in it) but will I have to supply translations for the Chanotes (2 properties) & House Registration or just supply the Embassy with photocopies???

[samran]

I translated my own tax return once for getting a UK visa once and had the MFA certify it before handing it over the the UK embassy. I was successful, but it wasn't straightforward.

You have to be careful, certain words have to be translated a certain way. My translation had one or two very minor glitches, and they almost refused it, until I pulled the 'the my boss has a higher rank than your boss' routine and they allowed it though. I speak Thai though and I did have the right leverage to push it through.

My advice is to use the translation service from one of the more well known agencies. The agency certification stamp basically says to the MFA that it is a legit translation. Plus, they have a courier service, to save all the pissing about out at Ransit. Cost isn't a great burden, and saves alot of time.

[the scouser]

I translated our marriage certificate for submission with Mrs Scouse's first visa application for Germany and handed it over unauthenticated. We'd had to travel fom Liverpool to London to make the application and we'd forgotten the official translation. I was waiting for the German visa officer to send us packing all the way back to Scouseland just to pick up a piece of paper, but, thankfully, she didn't even seem to notice that it wasn't certified.

Scouse.