Supporting Documents Translation

[rocky0929]

Hello Everyone;

This is my first topic on this forum, so forgive me if I have made any mistakes by posting it here.

I am in the process of preparing a Spouse Sponsorship application for my fiancee, (We will get married in July and send in the application in August or September). The Guide document 3999 I downloaded from CIC's website says the following regarding document translation:

Translation of documents
Any document that is not in English or French must be accompanied by:
the English or French translation; and
an affidavit from the person who completed the translation; and
a certified copy of the original document.


Here is my question, do we have to get all the supporting documents translated by a certified personal or organization as well?
I am more than capable translating them myself, and I have done so for many already. The cost of getting one page of document translated and certified is approximately $50 CAD, and we have about 150 pages of supporting documents.

And to be specific, the supporting documents I meant are:
1. Train tickets booking confirmation E-mail (To prove our travel history -Original in Chinese)
2. Flight tickets booking confirmation E-mail (To prove our travel history -Original in Chinese)
3. Hotel booking confirmation E-mail (To prove our travel history -Original in Chinese)
4. Online shopping confirmation (To prove we shall the same address-Original in Chinese)
5. Mobile phone calling records (To prove we have called each other like 1000 times a month, even though we lived together)
6. Mobile phone text records

I would really appreciate it if anyone can give me any suggestions or advises.
I am sure I will have more questions to ask in the future too.

Thank you all in advance!

Rocky

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Hey Rocky

They are referring to official documents, like birth, marriage and police certificates. All of the unofficial stuff, like tickets, emails, phone bills, you can translate yourself.

 

[rocky0929]

Hey Rocky

They are referring to official documents, like birth, marriage and police certificates. All of the unofficial stuff, like tickets, emails, phone bills, you can translate yourself.

THANK YOU canuck_in_uk, you just saved me 7500 bucks!!!

 

[rocky0929]

Hey Rocky

They are referring to official documents, like birth, marriage and police certificates. All of the unofficial stuff, like tickets, emails, phone bills, you can translate yourself.

I clicked "Reply" instead of "Quote" in my previous response to you, sorry about that.
But Thank you again.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

THANK YOU canuck_in_uk, you just saved me 7500 bucks!!!

And for that, my fee is only 10%, so if you wanna send that $750 my way . Good luck getting everything organized!

 

[Rob_TO]

Hey Rocky

They are referring to official documents, like birth, marriage and police certificates. All of the unofficial stuff, like tickets, emails, phone bills, you can translate yourself.

I would concur when it comes to hundreds of pages of chats and phone records in a foreign language, that are being used in the "proofs" section of application. When you are submitting so much, the VO probably doesn't even read the majority of it... and just picks out random samples to look at.

HOWEVER keep in mind that the CIC forms don't distinguish official document translations with general proof translations. They simply state ALL translations must be done by a certified person with certified true photocopies. So the main point here is, the VO may take all of your non-certified personally translated proofs with a skeptical attitude. The VO won't be able to really confirm if you are translating correctly, so might not put much weight into this as real proof. So just make sure to have lots of other proofs that are originally in english, or are certified translated.

 

[rocky0929]

I would concur when it comes to hundreds of pages of chats and phone records in a foreign language, that are being used in the "proofs" section of application. When you are submitting so much, the VO probably doesn't even read the majority of it... and just picks out random samples to look at.

HOWEVER keep in mind that the CIC forms don't distinguish official document translations with general proof translations. They simply state ALL translations must be done by a certified person with certified true photocopies. So the main point here is, the VO may take all of your non-certified personally translated proofs with a skeptical attitude. The VO won't be able to really confirm if you are translating correctly, so might not put much weight into this as real proof. So just make sure to have lots of other proofs that are originally in english, or are certified translated.

Thanks a lot Rob.
My other option would be translating everything by myself, give them all to a translation company that are certified to do so, and get a package price if possible.
I guess all I need from the translation company would be their stamps on the translated pages and their certificate, right?

 

[Rob_TO]

Thanks a lot Rob.
My other option would be translating everything by myself, give them all to a translation company that are certified to do so, and get a package price if possible.
I guess all I need from the translation company would be their stamps on the translated pages and their certificate, right?

Remember that Guide 3999 also states: Important information. Translations by family members are not acceptable.

Since you are basically your own family member, technically that means you are not supposed to do your own translations and all should be done by an independent 2nd party.

Again, I wouldn't suggest getting hundreds of pages for your proofs certified translated. It would cost a fortune! I would perhaps get the most important few proof documents certified to ensure they are accepted at full value... and the other random hundreds of pages of chats and stuff, just attempt myself to translate and hope the VO considers everything.

From what i've heard, many visa offices don't really care about translations. Moreso the ones where rates of fraud and forged documents are higher. In an email we got from the Seoul Korea visa office asking for an additional document, it specifically stated "Please note that all documents not originally prepared in English or French must be accompanied by a translation. Translation does not need to be notarized." So obviously they don't care too much about this.

I assume you are applying through Hong Kong or Beijing office? It's probably best you also post this question in the thread dedicated to your visa office, and see what people's experiences have actually been for this.

 

[Farfelu]

We separated the official documents (marriage and birth certificates, police records, etc.) from the "unofficial" ones (like email messages, chat logs, letters, postcards, etc.) and got a certified, registered translator to do the official documents. The translator is approved by the local Canadian embassy for translating documents so that made us trust his services. As for the unofficial documents we had an ESL teacher at a local language school do the translations, he signed all the translated documents and then we had them notarized on a set by set basis, meaning we did not notarize every single page but one full set of pages as a single translated document.

We didn't have any issues with translated documents and we were approved without delays because of translations.

 

[Rob_TO]

As for the unofficial documents we had an ESL teacher at a local language school do the translations, he signed all the translated documents and then we had them notarized on a set by set basis, meaning we did not notarize every single page but one full set of pages as a single translated document.

OP, this is great advice and I would definitely do something like this! Also sounds a heck of a lot cheaper than getting certifications done page-by-page.

 

[rocky0929]

We separated the official documents (marriage and birth certificates, police records, etc.) from the "unofficial" ones (like email messages, chat logs, letters, postcards, etc.) and got a certified, registered translator to do the official documents. The translator is approved by the local Canadian embassy for translating documents so that made us trust his services. As for the unofficial documents we had an ESL teacher at a local language school do the translations, he signed all the translated documents and then we had them notarized on a set by set basis, meaning we did not notarize every single page but one full set of pages as a single translated document.

We didn't have any issues with translated documents and we were approved without delays because of translations.

Farfelu, Thank you so much for helping out. You idea and experiences are so important to people like me.
I will definitely look into it more, and perhaps do the same thing as you have done.

 

[rocky0929]

OP, this is great advice and I would definitely do something like this! Also sounds a heck of a lot cheaper than getting certifications done page-by-page.

Again, thank you so much.

 

[kkbaggio]

Thanks a lot Rob.
My other option would be translating everything by myself, give them all to a translation company that are certified to do so, and get a package price if possible.
I guess all I need from the translation company would be their stamps on the translated pages and their certificate, right?

HI,

I'm experiencing the same issue. Apart from the translating fee, my painful thing is I'm still living in China, for the supporting doc, we also need a certified copy of the original copy and it has to be certified by notary. My question is, can I just attach the original and not getting a certified copy? it is so difficult to have the notary to proof any doc in China. 10000 times more complicated.

thx