As you might’ve guessed, sworn translators (traductores jurados in Spanish) translate documents from one language into another. The difference is that sworn translations have an ‘official status’ that you’ll need for certain types of legal and administrative documents in Spain.
They are essentially approved specialists that can vouch for the veracity of your foreign document and that it's been accurately translated.
Without this official translation certain documents in Spain can’t be presented to the authorities (think in the town hall, police station, foreign ministry) but with their stamp and signature, your documents are certified as official, accurately translated documents.
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This could be for any number of documents, such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates, criminal record documents, university degree certificates or training diplomas.
Sworn translation professionals must be accredited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for which they must pass official exams. The Ministry keeps a database of all the approved sworn translators so you can find one there.
How much should I be paying?
There's no one simple answer to this question. It depends on several factors and each sworn translator is free to set his or her own rates, however there are some very rough industry standards.
First off, sworn translations tend to be around 25-30 percent more expensive than ordinary, non-official translation services. If you want trusted high quality translation accepted by the authorities, you’ll need to pay for it.
Some sworn translators set their rates per number of words, while others may do it by page.
In terms of per word rates, judging by some Google research this could be anywhere between €0.8 and €0.20 per word. So, for example, if you go with a translator who charges €0.15 per word and we assume there’s 450 words on a standard A4 page with normal margins, size 12 font, and 1.5 line spacing, a 10 page document would cost you €270.
Sometimes they also set prices per page. For some reason, the translation of the first page can sometimes costs more than the following pages.
However, for some documents sometimes sworn translators charge a minimum price per document. This is usually for single page documents like birth certificates and Spain has a whole host of sworn translators who offer flat rate services specifically targeted at foreigners needing documents translated for residency, citizenship, marriage or university purposes.
These are easy to find and all roughly charge the same going rate. According Gramae Translations, for English translations the usual minimum price per single document is around €30 (though research tells us it can vary from €25-€40) while in French it is around €35-€50 depending on the type of document.
Minimum pricing only tends to apply when the document is 300 words or less (ie. definitely a page or less). Many sworn translators also offer express services with quick turnaround times in 24, 48 or 72 hours, which will of course cost extra.
The language from which the document needs to be translated can also increase the cost, as finding a sworn translator specialising in a particular language is not always as easy. English or French to Spanish translators, for example, should be simple enough to find, but finding an approved Vietnamese to Spanish sworn translator might be a little more difficult.
Cronoshare has a very useful tool that allows you to get an estimate for your translated documents with lots of language and document types available.
Now you’ve got a ballpark idea of how much you should be paying for a sworn translation in Spain, before hiring a translator do your research, play around with the estimate tool a bit and get a few quotes so you’ve got an idea of what you should be paying.
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