Last updated on September 26th, 2019
The Migration Translators
$69
Pros
- Professional attitude and excellent communication.
- 24/7 availability including weekends and public holidays. Sometimes, I got reply even during night time.
- Quick Turnaround Time. Received the digital copy within 4 days of sending document. With Express options, you can even get it within 6 hours!
Cons
- Human error is possible and I had to review the translation a couple of times to make sure it has everything that was in the original document. However, they are quick to respond and rectify things.
There are some things which you don’t realise you need until you need them. Document translation is one such thing. When I was gathering documents for my wife’s citizenship application, that’s when it hit me – her birth certificate was in Hindi! *horror face*
To make it worse, it was also partly handwritten. I needed an authorised translator who could create a certified English translation of my wife’s Hindi birth certificate without costing me an arm and a leg. Remember, in Australia, any document which is written in a language other than English, needs to be translated and certified by a NAATI-accredited translator. Thankfully, The Migration Translators came to the rescue!
Who Are The Migration Translators?
The Migration Translators is a Sydney-based translation agency who provide certified translations for various documents such as Birth Certificate, Driving License, Marriage certificate and many others. They have a pool of NAATI certified translators who can translate a document from almost any language to English and vice versa.
Although they are based in Sydney, that doesn’t mean you need to be from Sydney or NSW. In fact, their services are not limited to Australia but available worldwide, which is pretty convenient. They don’t have any walk-in office. The entire process happens over the email. If you want a physical copy of the translation, they can post it to your address too.
How Good Are The Migration Translators?
My experience with the Migration Translators was great. My wife’s Birth certificate was in Hindi. I needed an English translation of the same for the Australian Citizenship application as mentioned above. A quick Google search took me to The Migration Translators website.
From the website, you can either upload the document to translate or you can email it to get a free quote. I chose the former option. The reply literally came within minutes of submitting the document. To proceed ahead, I needed to make the payment.
But how much you need to pay depends on three things:
1. How fast you want the translation?
2. Do you want a paper copy or not?
3. How many copies do you want?
The Urgency of Document Translation
The standard cost of translation is $69 per page however, it can vary depending on rarety of language and document involved. However, if you are in a hurry, there are express options available, the fastest you can get is within 6 hours. Of course, that means more money.
| When Do You Need Document Translation | Cost | Example |
| within 36 hours | base price * 1.5 | $69*1.5 = $103.50 |
| within 24 hours | base price * 2 | $69*2 = $138 |
| within 12 hours | base price * 2.5 | $69*2.5 = $172.50 |
| within 6 hours | base price * 3 | $69*3 = $207 |
Do You Need A Physical Copy?
If you need a paper copy, you need to pay for postage. If you are not in a hurry, the standard post will cost you $7 and will take 3-6 business days. But you want a faster option with tracking, you can opt for Express post which costs $13 and will take 1-2 business days. I was not in a great hurry, so I opted for the standard post.
You get one physical copy of translation without any extra cost. However, if you want more than one, you need to pay extra $5 per copy.
Payment Options
Once you decide about postage and copies, you can pay the total amount either by Debit card, bank transfer or PayPal.
How Long Did It Take?
Once I paid the amount, I shared the payment receipt and spellings of all names and nouns. As names can be spelled differently, you need to help the translator out in this respect. Same goes for the names of places, organisations etc. Since my wife’s birth certificate was handwritten, I gave them a word document with the Hindi text from the birth certificate verbatim. Though they didn’t ask for it, it certainly made their job a lot easier. Plus, I gave them English spellings of all the names in the certificate.
Once all the above was furnished, the first draft of the document translation was ready within 3 days as promised. The quality of the document was excellent. The document contained the English translation as the first page along with the scanned copy of the original document on the second page. The document itself was stamped, signed and certified by a NAATI translator.
The whole process took less than 5 days and the team at The Migration Translators replied even during late night and promptly implemented the corrections I requested. Since everything was on email, there were no phone calls and long wait queue. On the flip side, if you do want to clarify something over the phone, you can always do that.
The physical copy took 5 more days to reach me but I didn’t need it immediately. For now, the digital copy was good enough to attach to the Citizenship application.
Which Languages Are Supported?
The Migration Translators can translate to and from all the NAATI recognised languages and more, which comes to more than 150 languages. That includes even rare and indigenous languages. It includes most of the Indian languages such as Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarathi, Punjabi, Bengali, Oriya and even Sanskrit.
Final Words…
Two things which I loved the most about The Migration Translators were – professional approach and fast turn-around time. The fact that they work 24/7 and even on weekends and public holidays makes them highly committed to their job. Most importantly, I am a super lazy person so getting everything done over the mail was a bonus. So, if you want to translate your documents, look no further. No one does it better and quicker than The Migration translators.
