Translation of unofficial proof of relationship documents like Whatsapp chats and emails.

[montyspons]

Hello!

Hope everyone's doing well. I'm filling out my wife outland sponsorship application and I have a question. I'm wondering if I should pay a certified translator to translate a couple of pages of Whatsapp chats, most of which have occurred in our native language. Or should I have a friend translate them for us and get it notarized along with an affidavit of accuracy?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

 

[armoured]

Hello!

Hope everyone's doing well. I'm filling out my wife outland sponsorship application and I have a question. I'm wondering if I should pay a certified translator to translate a couple of pages of Whatsapp chats, most of which have occurred in our native language. Or should I have a friend translate them for us and get it notarized along with an affidavit of accuracy?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

Formally IRCC requires a certified translator, but for non-official docs, you do not need the notarization of the original copy. (The meaning of the notarization is that the 'original' is a valid and real copy of that official document; so notaries in some places will not notarize copies of eg official documents from other countries or informal things or random docs or whatever).

-What exactly is 'notarized with affidavit of accuracy'? Seems to me only a certified translator could issue an affidavit of accuracy that would have any meaning. (In which case if they're ok with the translation, they might as well say it's their own translation - the translator's stamp just means 'this is a true and accurate translation' after all, and in some places, that's the actual text on the stamp).

-Sometimes people here have said they've submitted 'hand translations' and had IRCC accept, or at least not object, particularly if it's obvious or supplemental material. If they don't, it's your problem. (I included some obvious docs like bank statements w/o translations - but it was probably not necessary AND I knew quite well the processing office has staff that read that language - and after all, the only things to read were deposit/withdrawal/balance and dates).

Personally I think it's safer to just go to a certified translator. Penny wise and pound foolish mostly to not just do it right, the process is long and you don't want to risk making it longer.

 

[montyspons]

Formally IRCC requires a certified translator, but for non-official docs, you do not need the notarization of the original copy. (The meaning of the notarization is that the 'original' is a valid and real copy of that official document; so notaries in some places will not notarize copies of eg official documents from other countries or informal things or random docs or whatever).

-What exactly is 'notarized with affidavit of accuracy'? Seems to me only a certified translator could issue an affidavit of accuracy that would have any meaning. (In which case if they're ok with the translation, they might as well say it's their own translation - the translator's stamp just means 'this is a true and accurate translation' after all, and in some places, that's the actual text on the stamp).

-Sometimes people here have said they've submitted 'hand translations' and had IRCC accept, or at least not object, particularly if it's obvious or supplemental material. If they don't, it's your problem. (I included some obvious docs like bank statements w/o translations - but it was probably not necessary AND I knew quite well the processing office has staff that read that language - and after all, the only things to read were deposit/withdrawal/balance and dates).

Personally I think it's safer to just go to a certified translator. Penny wise and pound foolish mostly to not just do it right, the process is long and you don't want to risk making it longer.

Thank you for the detailed response. I too concur that is is probably safer to go with a certified translator as opposed to making a risky attempt to save a few bucks. Are you familiar with any certified translators here in Canada that are able and willing to translate unofficial documents? I've heard of docsbase.ca and taontario.ca, but if you or anyone else on this forum have any other suggestions, I'm open. Furthermore, how long do certified translators usually take to do this? I personally would not want to wait several weeks to get this done.

 

[pooky73]

Thank you for the detailed response. I too concur that is is probably safer to go with a certified translator as opposed to making a risky attempt to save a few bucks. Are you familiar with any certified translators here in Canada that are able and willing to translate unofficial documents? I've heard of docsbase.ca and taontario.ca, but if you or anyone else on this forum have any other suggestions, I'm open. Furthermore, how long do certified translators usually take to do this? I personally would not want to wait several weeks to get this done.

I have used docsbase. The turnaround time was only a couple days, the price was reasonable, and my documents were accepted by IRCC.

 

[armoured]

Thank you for the detailed response. I too concur that is is probably safer to go with a certified translator as opposed to making a risky attempt to save a few bucks. Are you familiar with any certified translators here in Canada that are able and willing to translate unofficial documents? I've heard of docsbase.ca and taontario.ca, but if you or anyone else on this forum have any other suggestions, I'm open. Furthermore, how long do certified translators usually take to do this? I personally would not want to wait several weeks to get this done.

We found one ages ago for the specific language we needed through (i think) the Ontario translators' official thing (whatever called), turnaround has always been a day or two, all by email, not expensive. Just find one and ask.

 

[steaky]

Thank you for the detailed response. I too concur that is is probably safer to go with a certified translator as opposed to making a risky attempt to save a few bucks. Are you familiar with any certified translators here in Canada that are able and willing to translate unofficial documents? I've heard of docsbase.ca and taontario.ca, but if you or anyone else on this forum have any other suggestions, I'm open. Furthermore, how long do certified translators usually take to do this? I personally would not want to wait several weeks to get this done.

Here's a search website for certified translator services in BC:

https://stibc.org/find-translator-interpreter/certified-translator/#/cid/1715/id/3101

 

[montyspons]

Actually, I had another question about this. My spouse and I were doing voice/video calls twice a week since the start of our relationship. We do it daily now that we're married. Would it be better to take screenshots of that and send to IRCC as opposed to getting our chats translated (we were chatting everyday)?

 

[armoured]

Actually, I had another question about this. My spouse and I were doing voice/video calls twice a week since the start of our relationship. We do it daily now that we're married. Would it be better to take screenshots of that and send to IRCC as opposed to getting our chats translated (we were chatting everyday)?

There are some things you just have to decide for yourselves.