Clear answers on certified translation in Singapore: what ICA accepts, the difference between a certified true copy and a notarised document, which languages and documents we cover, how long it takes and what it costs. If your question is not here, ask us and we will add it.
A certified translation is a complete translation of a document accompanied by a signed statement from the translator confirming it is accurate and complete. In Singapore that statement carries the translator's name, credentials, the language pair, the date, a signature and the translation company's stamp. It is what ICA, MOM, IRAS, ACRA, HDB and the Courts ask for whenever an original document is not in English.
In Singapore, yes — the two terms are used interchangeably. There is no separate government register of "official" translators here, so when an agency or authority asks for an official translation they mean a certified one: a full translation plus a signed declaration of accuracy from a qualified translator, stamped by the company.
ICA does not publish a list of approved vendors. What it requires is that the translation is complete, accurate and accompanied by a certification from the translator or a translation company, and that the original is produced alongside it. Acceptance therefore comes down to whether the certification block, the formatting and the treatment of stamps and seals meet the expected standard. We have submitted over 510,000 documents in this format.
Strictly speaking, no. ICA does not certify or licence individual translators. The phrase is shorthand used online for a translator whose certified work is routinely accepted by ICA. When choosing a provider, ask how many documents they have had accepted and whether they will redo the work free if it is rejected on translation grounds — that is more meaningful than a title.
Almost always, yes. Singapore authorities generally want to see the original or a certified true copy of the original alongside the English translation, so they can check that the two match. This is one reason we translate from a photo or scan and never ask you to surrender the original.
ICA, MOM, IRAS, ACRA, HDB, LTA and the Traffic Police, the Singapore Courts, the Family Justice Courts, local universities and polytechnics, hospitals and insurers, and most foreign embassies in Singapore. For a foreign government abroad, notarisation and legalisation are usually needed on top of certification.
No. A certification of accuracy has to come from an independent qualified translator, not from the person the document belongs to. A self-translated document — however good the English — will be rejected because the person certifying it has an interest in the outcome.
The translation itself does not expire. What can expire is the underlying document — a police clearance certificate, for example, is often only accepted within three or six months of issue. If your original is time-limited, check the authority's window before ordering, because a fresh original means a fresh translation.
A sworn translation is one produced by a translator who has taken an oath before a court or government body — a system used in countries such as France, Spain, Indonesia and Brazil. Singapore has no sworn translator register, so a certified translation is the local equivalent. If a foreign authority specifically demands a sworn translation, tell us the country and we will advise whether notarisation here will satisfy them.
Yes, described rather than reproduced. Each stamp, seal, watermark and signature is recorded in the translation as a bracketed note — for example [Round seal: Shanghai Public Security Bureau] or [Signature: illegible]. Officers check that every mark on the original appears somewhere in the translation, so leaving them out is a common cause of rejection.
Not a translation. You may still need a certified true copy if the authority wants a verified duplicate rather than your original. Tell us the authority and we will confirm which of the two you actually need.
Both. The certified PDF is always included. A printed copy carrying the physical company stamp and a wet signature is couriered free anywhere in Singapore, or held at our Suntec office for collection if you prefer.
A certified true copy is a photocopy of an original document that an authorised person has examined against the original and endorsed as a faithful duplicate. It is not a translation. It exists so you can submit a verified copy while keeping the original in your possession.
A Notary Public commissioned by the Singapore Academy of Law is the safest choice and is what most authorities and overseas bodies expect. Depending on the receiving body, a Commissioner for Oaths, a practising lawyer, or in some cases the issuing authority itself may also be accepted. Always confirm with whoever is receiving the document before paying for one.
A certified true copy confirms that a copy matches the original. A notarised document is one where a Notary Public has witnessed and verified a signature — for a translation, the translator's signature on the certification. They answer different questions: one is about the copy, the other is about who signed. Some submissions need both.
No. Certification is the translator's own signed declaration of accuracy and is included in our standard price. Notarisation is an extra step in which a Notary Public verifies that signature, charged as a separate statutory fee. For submissions inside Singapore, certification alone is usually enough.
A letter whose signature has been witnessed and attested by a Notary Public. The notary is confirming the identity of the signer and that the signature was made in front of them — not vouching for the truth of the letter's contents. Common for consent letters, authorisations and declarations sent abroad.
Normally no. Certification is the standard requirement for Singapore government submissions. Notarisation tends to be required when a document is going to a foreign government, an overseas court, or certain embassies. Send us the checklist you were given and we will tell you which level applies rather than defaulting to the more expensive one.
Legalisation is the step after notarisation: the Singapore Academy of Law authenticates the notary's seal and signature, confirming the notary is genuine. Some destination countries then require their own embassy in Singapore to add a further stamp. The chain runs certification → notarisation → legalisation → embassy attestation, and you only go as far along it as the receiving body demands.
Singapore joined the Apostille Convention in 2021, and the Singapore Academy of Law issues apostilles for documents going to other member countries. Where the destination country is a member, an apostille replaces the longer embassy legalisation chain. Tell us the destination country and we will confirm which route applies.
Not quite. Attestation is a general word for an official confirming a document, and is often used for the embassy stamp at the end of the chain. Notarisation specifically means the act performed by a Notary Public. In practice, when someone says "attested", ask which body they need the stamp from — that is the question that decides the work.
The certification itself does not carry an expiry date. The receiving authority sets the window, and many will not accept a copy certified more than three or six months earlier. If your submission has been delayed, check before reusing an older copy.
We arrange it. Where notarisation or legalisation is needed, we coordinate the Notary Public appointment and the Academy of Law step on your behalf and pass the statutory fees through at cost. You do not need to make a separate appointment or attend in person.
Yes — birth certificates are the single most common document we handle for ICA submissions. The details officers verify are the full names, the date and place of birth, the parents' names, the issuing authority and the registration number, so those are checked individually at review stage.
Yes, including marriage certificates, divorce decrees, decrees absolute, annulment orders, deeds of separation and name change deeds. These are used for PR and citizenship applications, dependant passes, HDB flat applications and remarriage registrations.
Yes. Death certificates are commonly needed for estate administration, insurance claims, pension transfers and repatriation. Where the original includes a cause-of-death entry in medical terminology, it is handled by a translator with medical experience rather than a general linguist.
Yes. A certified English translation of a foreign driving licence is what the Traffic Police and LTA ask for when converting a licence or driving on a foreign one. These are usually single-page jobs and are frequently completed the same day.
Yes — transcripts, degree and diploma certificates, mark sheets, SPM and STPM certificates, GCE results, school leaving certificates and recommendation letters. Grading scales are preserved as they appear in the original with an explanatory note added, rather than being converted, because admissions offices need to see the original values.
Yes. Certificates of no criminal conviction, police clearance certificates and Garda vetting letters are routine work. Note these often have a validity window set by the receiving authority, so order the translation close to when you intend to submit.
Yes — discharge summaries, specialist reports, prescriptions, test results, vaccination records and insurance claim documentation. Test result tables are preserved in their original structure rather than rewritten as prose, because reviewers cross-reference them line by line.
Yes. Incorporation certificates, business licences, memoranda and articles, board resolutions, shareholder registers, company profiles and tax registration documents. For multi-document filings we agree a terminology list first so names and titles read identically across the whole set.
Usually yes. Readability matters far more than age or condition — we routinely handle handwritten entries, faded stamps and decades-old certificates. If part of a page genuinely cannot be made out, we tell you before starting so you can send a clearer copy, rather than guessing.
Yes, and it is more common than you would think — often after a rejection. We translate afresh from your original rather than editing the previous version, because correcting a flawed translation tends to leave the original errors in place.
Over 200, including every language commonly needed in Singapore: Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Malay, Tamil, Hindi, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, Burmese, Tagalog, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Bengali, Urdu, Punjabi, Nepali, Sinhala, Khmer, plus French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Italian, Dutch, Polish and many more.
Yes, and it is our highest-volume pair. Both Simplified and Traditional Chinese are handled, including mainland Chinese, Taiwanese and Hong Kong document formats — household registers, notarial certificates, hukou records and academic documents each follow different conventions.
Yes. Malay to English and English to Malay are core pairs, covering Singapore and Malaysian civil documents, SPM certificates, employment records and court documents. Malaysian document formats differ from Singaporean ones and are handled by translators familiar with both.
Yes. Burmese, Sinhala, Khmer, Dari, Pashto, Mongolian, Amharic, Estonian and similar pairs are all covered. Because these depend on a specific translator's availability, we confirm the delivery date before quoting rather than assuming a standard turnaround.
Yes. English into Chinese, Malay, Tamil, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Arabic and most other pairs, for documents going overseas — Singapore-issued certificates for use abroad, for example, or contracts for foreign counterparties.
Every translator is a native speaker of the target language, holds a recognised translation credential or equivalent professional record, and is assigned by document type as well as language. A Vietnamese court order and a Vietnamese school transcript go to different people.
Yes — consecutive and simultaneous interpreting for court hearings, business meetings, medical appointments and official interviews, in the same 200+ languages. Interpreting is booked by the hour or half-day and needs advance notice, so contact us with the date, language and setting.
Yes. Audio and video transcription in the source language, and transcription combined with translation where a recording in one language needs an English transcript. Common for court recordings, interviews, board meetings and research. Pricing is quoted by recording length and audio quality.
Standard turnaround is 24 hours for most single civil documents and 24–48 hours for longer or specialist ones such as legal, financial and medical files. The clock starts when you approve the quote, not when you first send the document.
Yes, for a SGD 20 surcharge per document, subject to a translator genuinely being free. Send the document before 11 AM for the best chance of same-day delivery. We confirm same-day availability before you pay rather than promising and hoping.
Notarisation typically adds one working day, and Academy of Law legalisation a further two to three. Embassy attestation, where required, is entirely dependent on the embassy's own schedule and can take a week or more. Exact dates are confirmed in your quote.
Our office runs Monday to Saturday, 9 AM to 6 PM. Enquiries arriving on a Sunday or a public holiday are answered the next working morning, and notary and courier steps pause on those days too. Factor that in when working back from a deadline.
Often, yes — message us on WhatsApp rather than emailing, and say the deadline in the first message. We will tell you honestly within minutes whether it can be done. We would rather decline than take the urgent surcharge and miss your slot.
Yes, by splitting the work across several translators against a shared glossary, and by delivering in stages so you can start submitting before the whole batch is finished. Thirty to forty documents in five working days is a realistic pace.
From SGD 40 per page for civil documents such as birth, marriage and police clearance certificates, SGD 45 for business, financial and medical documents, and SGD 50 for legal and court documents. Certification, the company stamp, the translator's declaration and courier within Singapore are all included in that figure.
Because Singapore authorities accept and certify documents page by page. A birth certificate may contain ninety words but still needs full formatting, a certification block and an independent reviewer. Per-page pricing also means you can work out the cost before sending anything.
The notary's fee applies rather than a translation fee, and starts from SGD 85 per document. Where you need both a certified true copy and a translation, we quote the two together so you can see exactly what each part costs.
Yes, applied automatically: 10% from five documents, 15% from fifteen, and custom terms from fifty. Discounts apply to a single submission, so a family filing six certificates together qualifies the same way a company would.
Almost certainly not, and we would be cautious of whoever is. A very low per-page rate usually means certification, stamping or delivery is billed separately, or that the work is machine-translated and lightly edited. What we do promise is that the figure in your quote is the figure you pay.
PayNow, bank transfer and major credit cards. Payment is made after you approve the quote and before the certified file is released. Corporate accounts can arrange monthly invoicing instead.
If a submission is rejected because of an error on our side, we re-translate and re-certify free of charge and move it to the front of the queue. Across 23 years and 510,000+ documents this has applied to well under 0.1% of files, but the commitment is unconditional.
No. Every document is translated by a qualified human native speaker and reviewed by a second linguist. Machine output is never certified under our name, because a certification of accuracy is a statement of legal responsibility and software cannot carry that.
We follow the spelling on your passport or NRIC unless you tell us otherwise, and note any variation from the original in a bracketed comment. Mismatched name spellings are one of the most common reasons a submission is queried, so tell us your preferred spelling when you send the document.
Tell us within seven days of delivery and we will amend it free of charge — a name rendered your way, a date format the authority prefers, an address written as it appears on your other paperwork. Genuine amendments are free; retranslating because the underlying document changed is quoted as new work.
We guarantee the translation, not the wider application. If a document is rejected on translation grounds we redo it free. Rejections caused by the underlying document — an expired certificate, a missing annex, an application issue — sit outside what any translation can fix, and we will flag that risk while quoting if we spot it.
Only the assigned translator, the reviewing linguist and your project coordinator. No one else on the team can open the file. Every linguist works under a signed confidentiality undertaking covering all files they handle.
Yes, on request and before you send anything. This is standard practice for law firms, corporate clients and anyone handling a sensitive personal matter such as adoption, divorce or medical records.
Source documents and translations are securely deleted 30 days after delivery unless you ask us to retain them for a repeat submission. We are a Singapore-registered company and handle personal data under the Personal Data Protection Act.
No. Client documents are never sold, shared with third parties, or used to train any language model. They exist to be translated, delivered and then deleted.
Yes. Law firms, multinationals, accounting practices, HR departments and corporate secretarial firms are a large part of our work. Corporate accounts get a named coordinator, an NDA covering all files, monthly invoicing and a maintained terminology list.
Yes, using a client glossary agreed before work starts and translation memory across the account. Company names, job titles, product names and defined contractual terms then read identically in the twelfth document and the first.
Yes for corporate accounts. Monthly consolidated invoicing, agreed payment terms and a single point of contact can all be arranged. Contact us with your expected volume and we will set it up.
Yes. Multi-language due diligence packs are handled by splitting across teams while keeping one shared glossary, so terminology stays consistent even when Chinese and Korean documents are being worked on in parallel.
Yes — audit reports, financial statements, bank statements, tax filings and supporting schedules. Figures, dates and account descriptions are checked individually at review, and original table layouts are preserved so reviewers can cross-reference page by page.
Send a clear photo or scan of every page by WhatsApp, email or the form on this page, and tell us which authority it is going to. You will get a fixed quote, usually within 15 minutes during business hours, and nothing is charged until you approve it.
No. The entire process runs remotely from photo to certified PDF to couriered hard copy. You are welcome to visit our Suntec Tower One office if you prefer to hand documents over or collect in person.
Yes, and no charge within Singapore. Printed, stamped originals are couriered to any Singapore address, usually adding one working day. Overseas courier is available at the carrier's cost.
Yes, at SGD 10 per additional set while we still hold the file — which is 30 days after delivery unless you asked us to retain it longer. After that the document would need to be re-certified.
Yes. We work with clients worldwide who need documents certified for use in Singapore, or Singapore documents certified for use abroad. Everything is handled remotely, with tracked international courier where a hard copy is required.
No answer matches that yet.
Ask us directly — we reply within 15 minutes during business hours, and we add good questions to this page.
Send us the checklist or letter you were given. We will read it and tell you whether certification alone is enough, or whether a true copy, notarisation or legalisation is genuinely required — before you pay for anything.
Attach your document or the request letter you were given. We tell you exactly what certification level is required, what it costs and when you get it back.
Reply within 15 minutes · No spam
Send a photo of your document and get a fixed price for certified translation, a firm delivery date, and confirmation of exactly what your authority requires.