Usually needs a certificate of accuracy
Employment or income letter
One page on a letterhead, usually written last week and needed tomorrow.
Usually about one page — an estimate, not a count
Business, financial and medical files
Bank statement
Long, repetitive and priced by the page like everything else — which surprises people.
The ordinary part
Who asks for a bank statement, and what we need from you
Two questions, answered the same way every time, and they are the two that decide whether the job can start today or has to wait for a second photograph.
Who asks for it
A visa requiring proof of funds, a mortgage, a sponsorship, an immigration affidavit of support.
A description of what offices have usually wanted, which is a different thing from a rule. Nobody here is in a position to say what your own matter requires, and the page explaining why is on this site.
What to send
The full period the office asked for, every page, with the running balance visible.
The part people find out late
What goes wrong with a bank statement
Everything above this is the ordinary business of a translation office and could be written about almost any document in the catalogue. This paragraph could not, and it is the reason this is a page rather than a row in a list.
The decimal comma. Most of Europe writes one thousand two hundred and thirty-four euros and fifty cents as 1.234,50 and an American reader sees a number a thousand times smaller. Every figure is converted to the American convention and the conversion is stated on the translation, because a silent change to a number in a financial document is the one thing nobody should ever have to take on trust.
That is the whole of it. If it describes what you are holding, it is worth knowing before the work is paid for rather than afterwards; if it does not, nothing else on this page changes. Either way it is not a thing anybody can settle from a description, which is why a quote follows a reading and an estimate does not.
Length and certification
How long it usually is, and what usually goes with it
Both of these are descriptions rather than rules, and the first of them is a guess: most run to about six pages, but that is a figure to plan around and not a figure to pay from.
Length
A page on this rate card is 250 words rather than a sheet of paper, so a dense sheet can be two pages and a sparse one can be half of one. That is why the figure above is written as a guess and why nothing is priced from it.
- The estimator counts from the number you give it, never from the figure above
- A quote follows somebody reading the document, and it is the one to rely on
- Stamps, seals, marginal notes and anything handwritten are part of the length
Certification
Usually needs a certificate of accuracy.
- Certified translation — what a certificate of accuracy actually says
- Notarised translation — a notary attests who signed, and nothing else
- Apostille — issued by a Secretary of State, prepared and lodged by us
What a certificate covers. A certified translation says something about the translation and nothing whatever about the original. We do not verify that a document is genuine, and no certificate, notarial act or apostille from anybody does either — an apostille authenticates a signature and a seal.
An estimate and a quote are different objects. An estimate is arithmetic on what you typed. It is not an offer, it does not bind anybody, and it will move if the document turns out to be longer, in worse condition or a different thing from what it was described as. The quote that follows somebody reading it is the one to rely on.
Other business, financial and medical files
Same group, same reader at the other end, and each one has a paragraph like the one above.
Not usually certified — it depends who is reading it
Medical record
Handwriting, abbreviations and drug names, and rarely wanted by anybody official.
Usually about eight pages — an estimate, not a count
Usually needs a certificate of accuracy
Company registration and corporate records
An extract from a commercial register, plus whatever the bank has asked for this week.
Usually about five pages — an estimate, not a count
Send us the document
A photograph of every page of a bank statement is enough to quote from, and it is quicker than describing what you are holding.