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wanderself

Member
Feb 18, 2017
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We have been asked to send certified copies of all the original documents and we are a bit unclear of what we did wrong.

We found an official translator from their list of approved translators and we sent them photocopies of the original documents in Spanish. The translator stamped every translated document and certified it was a true translation of the document they were sent. Then we got a professional accountant in Toronto to certify every copy we sent the translator, checking each copy against the original and adding their name, date, text ("I hereby certify this is a true copy of the original..." etc).


Since there is no explanation we do not know what to do. We are about to spend a lot of money getting each page certified by a notary instead of a professional accountant but we are confused because we read (on Immigroup com and several other websites) that professional accountants are allowed to certify copies within Canada.

Before we spend the money on a notary and, more importantly, to avoid, having our application sent back to us again, any help on whether there is something wrong we are doing would be extremely helpful. Are we certifying translations properly? Are we not?

Thanks in advance for your help and time, everyone.
 
wanderself said:
We have been asked to send certified copies of all the original documents and we are a bit unclear of what we did wrong.

We found an official translator from their list of approved translators and we sent them photocopies of the original documents in Spanish. The translator stamped every translated document and certified it was a true translation of the document they were sent. Then we got a professional accountant in Toronto to certify every copy we sent the translator, checking each copy against the original and adding their name, date, text ("I hereby certify this is a true copy of the original..." etc).


Since there is no explanation we do not know what to do. We are about to spend a lot of money getting each page certified by a notary instead of a professional accountant but we are confused because we read (on Immigroup com and several other websites) that professional accountants are allowed to certify copies within Canada.

Before we spend the money on a notary and, more importantly, to avoid, having our application sent back to us again, any help on whether there is something wrong we are doing would be extremely helpful. Are we certifying translations properly? Are we not?

Thanks in advance for your help and time, everyone.

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I don't know about translated documents but we were asked to resend some documents that already WERE in the package like marriage certificate, birth certificate, etc. They were saying that those documents were missing. So it's a great mystery for me
 
wanderself said:
We have been asked to send certified copies of all the original documents and we are a bit unclear of what we did wrong.

We found an official translator from their list of approved translators and we sent them photocopies of the original documents in Spanish. The translator stamped every translated document and certified it was a true translation of the document they were sent. Then we got a professional accountant in Toronto to certify every copy we sent the translator, checking each copy against the original and adding their name, date, text ("I hereby certify this is a true copy of the original..." etc).


Since there is no explanation we do not know what to do. We are about to spend a lot of money getting each page certified by a notary instead of a professional accountant but we are confused because we read (on Immigroup com and several other websites) that professional accountants are allowed to certify copies within Canada.

Before we spend the money on a notary and, more importantly, to avoid, having our application sent back to us again, any help on whether there is something wrong we are doing would be extremely helpful. Are we certifying translations properly? Are we not?

Thanks in advance for your help and time, everyone.

Wow, it sounds like you did everything right. Now you have me worried also as I had to use a translator also. We used a court translator who belonged to a provincial association and she notarizes and includes her own affidavits so we didn't need to get them notarized separately. I wonder if you can call CIC to clarify. If they don't say what the problem is, I don't see how you can rectify the situation.

Good luck trying to find answers!
 
Thanks! How do we call CIC? We are having trouble finding a person to talk to and they really did not explain what is supposed to be wrong so we dont know how to fix it.
 
wanderself said:
Thanks! How do we call CIC? We are having trouble finding a person to talk to and they really did not explain what is supposed to be wrong so we dont know how to fix it.

From your other posts, you applied as conjugal when you don't qualify, so you can expect your app to be refused regardless.

Save your money, withdraw and reapply when you are common-law or married.
 
Thanks. We are starting to realise we will have to do that. We paid almost $1k in fees. I guess we can ask for them back? and we will reapply when we will have been living together for 12 consecutive months.
 
wanderself said:
Thanks. We are starting to realise we will have to do that. We paid almost $1k in fees. I guess we can ask for them back? and we will reapply when we will have been living together for 12 consecutive months.

Probably not. You may be entitled to a refund of landing fees, etc., but you'd still have to pay the processing fee.

P.S. I saw nothing wrong in the way you certified your translations. They might be sending the originals back to you, to re-use when you apply again.

wanderself said:
We have been asked to send certified copies of all the original documents and we are a bit unclear of what we did wrong.....

Were there other documents (other than the translated documents) where you sent photocopies rather than originals? Were those certified?

What stage is your application at? It sounds like this is a request for more information rather than an outright refusal. If you are living in Canada, you can ask your MP to make a query on your behalf. You can also order your ATIP notes and see if there is any clue there.
 
wanderself said:
We have been asked to send certified copies of all the original documents and we are a bit unclear of what we did wrong.

We found an official translator from their list of approved translators and we sent them photocopies of the original documents in Spanish. The translator stamped every translated document and certified it was a true translation of the document they were sent. Then we got a professional accountant in Toronto to certify every copy we sent the translator, checking each copy against the original and adding their name, date, text ("I hereby certify this is a true copy of the original..." etc).


Since there is no explanation we do not know what to do. We are about to spend a lot of money getting each page certified by a notary instead of a professional accountant but we are confused because we read (on Immigroup com and several other websites) that professional accountants are allowed to certify copies within Canada.

Before we spend the money on a notary and, more importantly, to avoid, having our application sent back to us again, any help on whether there is something wrong we are doing would be extremely helpful. Are we certifying translations properly? Are we not?

Thanks in advance for your help and time, everyone.
I can explain for you where you went wrong. When you made the copy of the original you then need to notarize that copy as a true copy. Then you send it to a certified translator. This only applies to required documents as per your guide.
 
Sous02 said:
I can explain for you where you went wrong. When you made the copy of the original you then need to notarize that copy as a true copy. Then you send it to a certified translator. This only applies to required documents as per your guide.

Okay, I see the hole in the OP's methods. You'd think that there would be accepted practices to prevent tampering of documents, and that accredited translators would be aware of those and point them out to their clients. CIC themselves certainly don't spell it out for you, I suspect because certification and translation are done differently in every country:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/cit/admin/general/translation.asp
 
wait_so_long said:
Okay, I see the hole in the OP's methods. You'd think that there would be accepted practices to prevent tampering of documents, and that accredited translators would be aware of those and point them out to their clients. CIC themselves certainly don't spell it out for you, I suspect because certification and translation are done differently in every country:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/cit/admin/general/translation.asp
Cic themselves present this topic in as confusing a manner as possible. Very frustrating for people.
 
wanderself said:
Thanks. We are starting to realise we will have to do that. We paid almost $1k in fees. I guess we can ask for them back? and we will reapply when we will have been living together for 12 consecutive months.

You will get a partial refund depending on where you are in the process.
 
So the problem is the copies we sent the Canada-based translators were certified by a professional accountant, not a notary? Is that it? Does a notary need to certify everything we photocopy then - passports, IDs, birth certificates, passport stamps etc?
 
wanderself said:
So the problem is the copies we sent the Canada-based translators were certified by a professional accountant, not a notary? Is that it? Does a notary need to certify everything we photocopy then - passports, IDs, birth certificates, passport stamps etc?
You only notarize the required documents on your checklist. Not anything being used as proof of relationship or passports. And yes certification is not the same as notarizing
 
I was only planning to send only photocopies of the translated documents from the checklist, guess I was wrong
 
Thanks. The documents on the checklist are many pages (translated divorce certificates are 8 pages, translated birth certificates, national IDs, family booklets, passports, stamps...about 20 pages in total). We got an accountant to certify this. So we need a notary instead? Expensive, but happy to do it if that is what they mean. Why are they so vague??