# translation of documents - de facto partner visa



## lehine (Jul 16, 2012)

Hi 

I have done a lot of research but I still couldn't really find out what kind of documents I really need to get translated into English. I hope that someone can help me!?

I am German, my boyfriend is Australian and we have just lived together for a bit over 12 months here in Germany. We have been together for over 1 1/2 years now. Now, we would like to apply for the de facto partner visa.

What kind of German documents do I need to get translated into English?

- birth certificate
- police check
- letter from the bank stating that we opened a joint bank account
- rental agreement/lease contract (do we need to get ALL of the 11 pages of our rental agreement translated or is it ok to just get the pages translated that acutally state our names etc.?)
- bank statements
- other mail from a soccer club, energy bill, mobile phone contract ??

It is so expensive to get everything translated... ! how did you solve this problem?

I have read in this forum, that the Australian Embassy Berlin website states that "case countries" (what is a case country?) apparently do not necessarily have to translate their documents. Is this true??? I cannot find this information anywhere on the website 

Concerning the rental agreement/lease contract:
- in case we need to get this translated.... what about the signatures on the original lease contract?? they won't be on the translated one. How can I solve this problem? Does this matter?

I would be so happy if someone could help me!!!


----------



## kttykat (Oct 30, 2012)

lehine said:


> Hi
> 
> I have done a lot of research but I still couldn't really find out what kind of documents I really need to get translated into English. I hope that someone can help me!?
> 
> ...


Any official documents should be translated and any really critical evidence IMHO. I did read one post where they suggested not getting anything translated but immigration makes it clear that you should get it done with an accredited translator. It sounds like you have it covered.

I would put in a cover letter for any documents that you don't translate with an explanation of what they say and an offer to have them officially translated if needed. That way you can include anything you think might be relevant but not have to get it all translated.

Kttykat


----------



## skipperydoo (Nov 11, 2011)

Hi there, 
We applied in August and i did a lot of research regarding the translation, too! And i had the same thoughts about all the translations. After all the research and the comments on that in this forum, I came to the conclusion that we should provide the translation anyway to support the application and be on a safer side.

We had the following documents translated:
- residential tenancy agreement
- document of joint bank account from sparkasse
- police check
- registration documents also with same address (from the "bürgeramt")
- letter from insurance about joint insurance policies

As all translations have to be certified and so a copy of the original will be attached to the translation. In case there are documents with a lot of pages (like rental agreement and document for the joint bank account) only relevant information was translated in our case.

If you have any other documents that would support your application, i would also let them be translated, too. In our case, we did not hear that there are not enough documents. They already returned everything that they do not need for the file and they did not ask for more translated documents. So i hope that we are good. Hope this is helping!


----------



## skipperydoo (Nov 11, 2011)

I just like to add that it is very helpful to ask different official translation offices for an enquiry. I send our documents to three differnt offices and got quotes from 800 euros to 200 euros! That is a big difference...


----------



## lehine (Jul 16, 2012)

skipperydoo said:


> I just like to add that it is very helpful to ask different official translation offices for an enquiry. I send our documents to three differnt offices and got quotes from 800 euros to 200 euros! That is a big difference...


thank you both for your help!!

so I guess, when I just get those critical pages in our rental agreement translated (that is the pages where both our names and addresses are mentioned) and those important pages stating our joint bank account, that should be fine!? (in addition to birth certificate and police check and registration of the "bürgeramt").
I will hand in some own translations of other mail (e.g. invoice of mobile phone)
and will mark important sections on our bank statements.
would this be fine?

It's hard to find a cheap accredited translator... could you maybe give me the address/name of the one you have used?? We do not have 800 euros to spend extra  in addition to the application fees :-(


----------



## Laegil (Sep 17, 2012)

Hi, 

I translated pretty much everything I had in german apart from all the printed bank statements about when we spent money together - I simply marked the important info on them and wrote an explanation underneath.

Unfortunately translations can be very expensive. I had 9 german pages translated for 300 AUD and that was the cheapest option out of 6 translators. But to give you a heads up - I also had 8 finnish pages and they came to (brace yourself) 600 AUD. So be glad that german is one of the cheaper languages to get translated!


----------



## skipperydoo (Nov 11, 2011)

lehine said:


> thank you both for your help!!
> 
> so I guess, when I just get those critical pages in our rental agreement translated (that is the pages where both our names and addresses are mentioned) and those important pages stating our joint bank account, that should be fine!? (in addition to birth certificate and police check and registration of the "bürgeramt").
> I will hand in some own translations of other mail (e.g. invoice of mobile phone)
> ...


We found 'Germany TS' on the internet (just typ into google 'Germany TS uebersetzungen'). We were very happy with them! They were quick and have experience with the australian embassy and translating documents for visas. Also the price was ok (compared to the other offers). If we need more documents, we would ask them again to do it. Maybe just send all the documents to them and get an offer. Let them know what you need it for. Probably do the same thing with other offices to compare. Maybe you will find an even less expensive offer...

Regading the other stuff like bills and so on with just bits and pieces to translate! We put a certified statement to explain the bits and pieces. Hope this helps!


----------



## sev (Aug 11, 2012)

I have the same questions but it is not easy to find the best solution... So after reading all your tips and comments, I think I will:
- use an accredited NAATI translator for the police check, the 2 leases (but only the relevant elements) and the common-law marriage certificate, 
- translate by myself the rent receipts, the invoices (gaz and internet), the life insurance and the pay slip of my sponsor,
- write notes on bank statements

The other documents are already in English (joint account, bank statements in Oz, travel receipts, 2 other short-term leases and declaration to Centerlink) or multilingue (birth certificate, passport).

Do you think it is OK for the translations?

For the documents I will translate by myself, how can I proceed? I just put the translations on a Word page? With the same page layout as the original? Or without page layout? At the end, can I write by hand 'I certify that the translation is accurate'???
'We put a certified statement to explain the bits and pieces' => Could you please give me an example of your certified statement?

Thank you in advance for your help.


----------



## skipperydoo (Nov 11, 2011)

We did not translate stuff like bills or tickets. We wrote a statement about everything that we thought needed explaining. We took the document to a notary office and we both signed it with the notary as a witness. We also got an apostille for the statement (so it is notarized). ( we did the same thing with our 'history of aou relationship' documents.) i am not sure if this was actually necessary, but after all our research we had the feeling it was and we wanted to be on the safe side. Our case officer asked for another document a the health check when she first contacted us. Also she already returned everything she did not need to keep for the file ( the certified statement were kept by our case officer). So far she did not tell us that anything else was missing or not sufficient. So i hope it was ok the way we sent it. Hope this helps!


----------



## neala (Sep 17, 2012)

I was just granted 309 and can say that it didn't matter that travel confirmations etc. weren't translated. Plus, we didn't use a translator for any of the documents; e.g. we asked our real estate agent for a lease agreement in English (of course the English lease agreement didn't have the signatures but we also submitted the original one and on the English one the agent had written his contact info in case Immi wanted to confirm something) and we could get birth certificates and police records in English.

So before getting a translator, you should see if you can get those docs in English.


----------



## Josi (Dec 3, 2012)

I would go with NAATI. That way you make sure that Australia accepts those translations. The one I had was located in Perth and really wasn't that expensive. I didn't even come close to 800 euro. I didn't have to translate too much since I'm located in Australia with my partner but still it shouldn't cost 800. As someone said before, get quotes. There are different prices. If you want the name of the Translator I used let me know. plus it's easy via email
I would also have a certified copy of the original and the translations together in the application. If they don't need everything they will give it back to you or just ignore it.


----------



## Josi (Dec 3, 2012)

I would go with NAATI. That way you make sure that Australia accepts those translations. The one I had was located in Perth and really wasn't that expensive. I didn't even come close to 800 euro. I didn't have to translate too much since I'm located in Australia with my partner but still it shouldn't cost 800. As someone said before, get quotes. There are different prices. If you want the name of the Translator I used let me know. plus it's easy via email
I would also have a certified copy of the original and the translations together in the application. If they don't need everything they will give it back to you or just ignore it.


----------



## sev (Aug 11, 2012)

Unfortunately, I can not have these documents in English. But people should think to that.
So I will proceed like I said.
Thank you all for your advices.


----------

