Confusion about translations

[erin85]

I know there are several threads on the topic of official certified translations, but I am still confused!

For the job I start in May, I have been requested to obtain "certified translations" of my degrees, birth, and marriage certificates. I don't really speak French well, so it's not something I could potentially do on my own; I have to pay someone.

I have found two companies, one slightly cheaper... the cheaper one does not offer notarization or paper copies, just a PDF with certification, for $29/page. The more expensive mails certified, notarized copies. It's $32/page, and I have 5 pages.

I think my employer doesn't care that much about the particular certifications, but I'm afraid the French government will give me trouble when I go to get my carte de sejour (I will be in France for 18 months). I don't want to end up paying again because I didn't get everything required the first time, but I'm also not in a position to spend a lot of money.

If anyone can give me some details (or even suggest a better price!), I would appreciate it!

[Thom1085]

Hi there. I got my birth certificate translated by a certified translator. You can find the list of your local certified translators at your local mayors office. I found the dated stamp that they have was very important for the documentation. They provided me a paper version of this for 40Euros. I'm not sure your employer requires the authentication stamp, but you will definitely require it when you obtain your security social number and card, so might be worth going down the route from the start.

Best,

[Bevdeforges]

Certified translators (traducteurs assermenté) not only translate the document, but they also validate the document itself. ("Yeah, it looks real.")

You need to find a translator who is certified for the country the documents are coming from - so for English language documents you need a translator certified for English and for US documents. (It's a racket - but what can you do?)

If your mairie has a list, by all means use it. Otherwise, check the phone book, pages jaunes or even google "traducteur assermenté" and your town, departement or the nearest large town. The going rate seems to be around 30€ a page and up.

You can find traducteurs assermentés on the internet and deal with them primarily online (scan your document), though you need to send them the original so they can validate it.

There is supposed to be a listing of all qualified traducteurs assermentés online (i.e. from the national register of the profession) but I keep getting an error when I try to access the page. Maybe you'll have better luck.
Cheers,
Bev