Your partner is an EU citizen working in Ireland. You're not, so the residence card application sits with you, and the Department of Justice needs every supporting document in English before a caseworker will even open the file. Marriage certificate. Birth certificates for each of the children. Maybe a divorce decree from a previous marriage that has to be accounted for. All of it in one bundle, with nothing that contradicts anything else.
Here's the part worth knowing before you spend anything. Some documents don't need translating at all, and which ones depends entirely on the country that issued them. We check that first and tell you straight. If you do need certified translation, we handle the whole family set together so the names read the same on every page. Send photos and you'll have a written price back the same working day.
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Not always, and this is the section that saves people money. If a civil certificate came from an EU country, you can ask that country for a Multilingual Standard Form to go with it. Attach the form and no translation is needed. Documents issued anywhere in the EEA or Switzerland also don't have to be attested as genuine, which is a separate saving again.
So a Polish marriage certificate or a Latvian birth certificate can often go into your EUTR1 file with nothing from us at all. A Spanish divorce decree can't, and that surprises people. The form only exists for certain kinds of certificate, and divorce isn't one of them.
Outside the EU there's no such form at all. A certificate from Brazil, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines or South Africa has to be translated into English or Irish before ISD will accept it as evidence. Norway, Iceland and Switzerland sit outside the scheme too, even though they're close neighbours. That's where we come in, and it's the only situation where you should be paying anyone.
Send us photos and we'll sort them for you, free
Ask the registry that issued it for a Multilingual Standard Form. Only for certain certificate types, but where it applies, no translation and no fee to us.
No standard form exists outside the EU. Certified translation into English is the only route, and it has to carry a named translator.
The apostille page counts too. ISD expects your photocopy to include it, so it gets translated with the certificate.
The form comes by post from abroad and can take weeks. If your slot is close, translating here is usually faster.
We'd rather walk you through this than translate something you never needed. Four things to know.
Forms exist for birth, death, proof that a person is alive, marriage and marital status, registered partnership, domicile or residence, and absence of a criminal record. That's the whole list. Divorce, legal separation and annulment are not on it, so a divorce decree always needs translating.
The form has to come from the authority in the country that produced your certificate, not from anyone in Ireland. Ask at the same time as you order a fresh copy and it usually arrives together. You can't download one and fill it in yourself, even though the forms appear online, because those versions are for national authorities only.
It isn't always free. EU rules cap what a country can charge at the cost of producing the form, or the fee for the certificate itself, whichever is lower. So it stays cheap, but budget for something rather than nothing.
The form carries no legal weight on its own. It works when the receiving office decides the information on it is enough to process your document. If a caseworker still asks for a translation after you've attached one, that's allowed, and we can turn it around quickly.
Each EU country publishes its own list of which documents a form can be attached to, on the European Commission's public documents portal. Send us a photo of your certificate and we'll tell you which side of the line it falls on before you order anything.
Almost all of it comes from one part of the file: the evidence that proves your relationship. Here's what reaches us most, and the catch that sits behind each one.
The single most important page in a spouse application. A religious ceremony record on its own usually isn't enough, because what ISD is reading is the civil registration. If the certificate is bilingual already, say so before you order anything.
One per child, and each child gets their own application, even the toddlers. Parents' names have to match what appears on your passport and marriage certificate, so we cross-check all three rather than treating them as separate jobs.
Needed where either of you was married before. This one catches people out twice. Some countries don't issue a separate divorce certificate at all. And a decree that hasn't been registered yet won't show up on the marriage record.
For a parent, grandparent or an adult child, ISD wants proof of financial support from the country you came from. Bank statements, money transfer receipts, tax papers. Long documents, and this is where per-page pricing and a bulk discount matter most.
Permitted family members on the EUTR1A route often need to show they lived in the same household before coming here. Tenancy agreements, utility bills, shared insurance policies, all from the old country and all in the old language.
If your certificate came with an apostille attached, ISD expects the photocopy to include those stamps. The page is usually in the issuing country's language, so it needs translating along with the certificate itself.
Need just one document rather than a set? Our marriage certificate translation and birth certificate translation pages go through those two on their own.
People land on the wrong form more often than you'd think, and the document list changes with it. Knowing which route you're on tells you what to gather before you spend anything on translation.
Spouse or recognised civil partner of an EEA national, or a direct descendant under 21 or dependent. This is the most common route by a wide margin. The file leans almost entirely on one civil certificate, so that certificate has to be right.
De facto partners, dependent relatives, household members, and people who need the EEA national's personal care on health grounds. There's no single certificate that proves any of this, so the evidence bundle is far larger and translation costs more.
After five years of continuous residence you apply for a Permanent Residence Card. Documents you translated years ago often need reissuing because they've aged. Keep your original translations, but expect to refresh anything with a date on it.
If an application is refused you can ask for a review. The standard of evidence rises here, and a solicitor may ask for translations to be attested or sworn rather than simply certified. Tell us it's a review and we'll prepare it accordingly.
Applications now go through the ISD Customer Portal, with paper still available on request. For other immigration files that aren't on this route, our immigration document translation page covers the wider ISD process.
This trips up almost everyone, because the answer depends on which application you're making. Two different Irish processes, two opposite instructions, and plenty of advice online quoting the wrong one.
For an EUTR1 or EUTR1A application made while you're already living here, supporting documents go in as photocopies. Don't post originals unless you're asked. Passports are copied in colour, every page including the blank ones, and multi-page documents stapled together.
Applying for a visa to travel to Ireland is a different process with the opposite rule. There the original marriage certificate is required and a photocopy or scan won't be accepted, along with a certified English translation if it isn't in English.
Civil certificates should be photocopied in colour, and the copy has to show any apostille or legalisation stamps that came with the document. A black-and-white copy that cuts off a seal is a query waiting to happen.
Because you keep your originals, a clear phone photo is all we ever need from you. Nothing is posted, nothing goes missing, and the certificate your relative queued for stays where it is. That matters more than people expect.
Four steps, and the first one is free. That first step is also the one that decides whether you need us for everything, for part of the file, or not at all.
The whole set, not one document at a time. Include passports, because that's what we check the name spellings against.
We split the set into what needs translating and what doesn't, flag any name mismatch, then send a written price. This part costs nothing.
One translator takes the whole family set, so every name and date reads the same way across every page. Each one carries a signed statement.
You get PDFs formatted to go straight into the portal, printed copies posted on request, and a free reissue if anything is ever queried.
One reason to start early: the law gives the Department six months to decide, but the clock only starts once your application is in. Weeks spent chasing a document or redoing a translation come out of your time, not theirs.
A separate application has to be made for each non-EEA family member, including every child under eighteen. That one rule changes how the paperwork should be prepared.
Once the residence card comes through and five years have passed, the same documents get asked for again at the permanent residence stage. Keep your translations. If you later move on to citizenship, our citizenship document translation page sets out that list.
Priced by the page, because a one-page certificate and a forty-page set of bank statements aren't the same job. Three levels, and most EUTR1 files only ever need the first.
Certified Translation
The standard ISD format · what most files need
Certified + Attestation
Witnessed by an Irish solicitor or notary
Same-Day / Urgent
When a registration slot is already booked
The figures above are starting prices, not a final quote. What you pay depends on the document and how many pages it runs to. Bulk pages earn a discount, which is worth knowing if you're sending a family set or a long run of bank statements. Your final price is confirmed in a written quotation before any work begins, so nothing starts until you have approved the cost.
A quick way to see where your own paperwork sits before you send anything. The first column is the one that decides everything else.
| Your document | Certified translation | Attestation | What to do first |
|---|---|---|---|
| Birth or marriage certificate from an EU country | Often none needed | No | Ask the issuing registry for the standard form |
| Divorce decree, or any certificate from outside the EU | ✓ Required | Rarely | Send a photo and we'll price it |
| Certificate with an apostille attached | ✓ Both pages | Rarely | Photograph the apostille page too |
| Bank statements, tax or dependency papers | ✓ Required | No | Ask about the bulk rate, these run long |
| Anything going into an EUTR4 review | ✓ Required | Often asked | Tell us it's a review when you send it |
One row is worth reading twice. If your certificate came from an EU country and it's on the eligible list, the form costs a fraction of a translation. We'd rather tell you that than sell you something you don't need. Our office is at 6 Fern Road, Sandyford, Dublin 18, and there's a person on the end of +353 87 441 3817.
Couples, families and a few people who had already been refused once and weren't willing to risk it twice.
"My wife is Polish and I'm Brazilian. They told me her certificate needed nothing and only translated mine. Half the bill I expected."
"Three children, three separate applications, three birth certificates. One quote, one delivery, and our surname spelled identically on all of them."
"We were refused first time and a solicitor took over. They prepared the translations with attestation for the review and it was granted."
"Forty pages of bank statements for my mother's dependency evidence. The bulk rate made it affordable and it came back in three days."
"I'd photographed the certificate but not the apostille page behind it. They spotted it and asked for it before starting."
"De facto partner application, so the evidence bundle was enormous. They quoted per page and the bulk discount made a real difference."
"Five years on and I needed the same documents again for permanent residence. They still had my file and reissued what had aged."
"Our firm sends EU Treaty Rights files here. They flag problems with a bundle before it goes near the portal, which saves us weeks."
"My divorce decree was from Pakistan and hadn't been registered properly. They explained what to request before I paid for anything."
"Registration appointment was in four days. They turned the whole set around on the Saturday morning and we made it."
The things people actually ask before sending anything over. If yours isn't here, just ask on WhatsApp.
Photograph everything, including the passports and any apostille pages. We'll split the file into what needs a certified translation and what doesn't, flag anything that won't match, and price it in writing before a word is translated.
Nothing posted. No originals leaving your hands. A Dublin team that will happily tell you a document needs nothing from us, a signed statement on everything we do issue, and a free reissue if a caseworker ever queries our work.