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If your company is looking for fast and reliable Sworn Translations, check out everything you need to know about this type of translation, below.
Certified Translation is a specific type of translation performed on Brazilian documents that will be sent abroad, or on international texts that need to be validated in Brazil. For such purposes, the documents must be translated by a certified (sworn) translator who has passed an official examination.
Additionally, public translators and commercial interpreters can only act in the translation of texts and interpretation in their state, as established by the legislation governing the exercise of such activity.
Also known as public translation, the activity involves the translation of texts in Portuguese and other languages, where main difference is that it publicly attests to the accuracy of the translated document, certifying that it represents a faithful translation of the original document.
We have developed this guide to explain what a certified translation is, how it works, and when it needs to be used. Keep reading and learn more!
FAQ
Sworn translation, also known as public translation, is any translation performed by a sworn translator (also known as a public translator, or a “public commercial translator and interpreter”, as this professional is officially called in Brazil) who is duly appointed and registered with the Board of Trade of the state where the translator resides.
Brazilian law requires any document in a foreign language to be presented to government authorities with a sworn translation into Portuguese in order to be legally valid. In the case of sworn translations from Portuguese into another language, the acceptance of sworn translations by Brazilian sworn translators is determined by the laws of the destination country.
Therefore, sworn translation is always necessary when documents and court proceedings require “legal authority to attest documents” or need to be filed in court. The following documents usually need to undergo certified translation:
If not translated by a certified translator, no document — even if it is legalized in its country of origin — will be considered legally valid in Brazil.
Plus, public translation allows texts to be recognized in courts of law and other bodies linked to public authorities.
A sworn translation is usually required when you need to submit an international document to a Brazilian authority and certify that the translation represents a faithful reproduction of the original text. In this case, the original document must be accompanied by the respective sworn translation. This is also true when you need to translate a Portuguese-language document into another language for submitting to a foreign authority that requires an ‘official’ translation.
Additionally, consular legalization of the foreign document may be required; In other words, the authentication of the document by the Brazilian consulate in the country of origin of the respective document. Without this consularization, the authenticity of the original document and the validity of its translation may be questioned, or even invalidated.
Only Brazilian individuals who have undergone a public selection process, attained the required score on an official exam, and are properly registered with the Board of Trade in their state of residence, can act as sworn translators.
Sworn translators must faithfully follow all resolutions and obligations of sworn translation, and charge the amounts pre-established by official price schedules. Sworn translators from São Paulo follow the fee schedule established by the São Paulo State Board of Trade.
Contrary to what many people believe, “public commercial translator and interpreters” are not civil servants, do not receive fixed pay, and are not entitled to paid vacation or benefits in this category. They are simply licensed to perform sworn translation services; their compensation will depend exclusively on the volume of pages translated.
Sworn translators can also act as interpreters in court, civil law notary offices, or other venues where interpreting from one language to another is required.
In other situations, such professionals may act at weddings between Brazilians and foreigners, in the purchase and sale of real estate by foreigners, in registering children born to foreigners in Brazil, at public hearings, and so on. This shows that sworn translators are versatile and necessary for our economy.
Unlike normal translation, which in theory can be done by anyone, sworn translation can only be done by sworn translators who have passed a public exam and have a very specific purpose: publicly attest to the accuracy of the translated documents, i.e., such documents are able to produce legal effects in government offices in Brazil and abroad, certifying that the translated text faithfully reflects the content of the original document.
Any translation of documents such as passports, financial statements, powers-of-attorney, contracts, to name a few, will not be legally valid in Brazil if not made by a sworn translator, with proper credentials to certify that the translated content reflects exactly what is stated in the original document. Only then will any foreign document have legal effect and validity at all state and federal government offices.
Plus, sworn translation (officially known as public translation) also allows documents, mandates or representations to have validity in courts and organizations directly linked to and overseen by government authorities.
As mentioned earlier, any document that must be translated by a professional who is publicly sworn to attest to the accuracy of the translated text will require a sworn translation. We can mention the following examples:
Court decisions
Contracts, meeting minutes and powers-of-attorney
Academic diplomas issued by public institutions
Passports
ID Card
Criminal background certificates;
Documents of a private nature that have been previously notarized by a notary public or competent public authority.
BTS is a translation company that offers the best services for you to obtain a certified translation of any document.
The prices of sworn translation used to follow the fee schedule established by the Board of Trade of the public translator’s state of residence.
However, there was a recent change in the law that did away with the price schedule as a rule for charging for services, and established free negotiation between certified translators or translation firms and their clients.
No entanto, houve uma mudança recente na lei que extinguiu a tabela de preços como norma de cobrança e institui a livre negociação entre os tradutores juramentados ou empresas de tradução e os respectivos clientes.
A BTS seguia os valores estabelecidos na Official Table of Emoluments of the São Paulo State Board of Trade but currently practices prices compatible with this new market reality, always seeking to offer an excellent cost–benefit ratio.
According to Decree 10278, dated March 18, 2020, all official bodies are authorized to receive digitalized documents. Therefore, certified translation is valid in both print and digital formats.
The decree explicitly states the following:
“Public translations may be performed electronically with the use of a digital certificate or other means that allows the unequivocal identification of the authorship and integrity of the documents by electronic means.”
“Any digitalized document intended to be equivalent to a physical document for all legal intents and purposes, and to prove any act before a legal entity governed by domestic public law, shall:
I – be digitally signed with digital certification in the Brazilian Public Key Infrastructure standard – ICP-Brasil, to ensure the authorship of the digitalization and the integrity of the document and its metadata;”
Digital certification for sworn translation services in Brazil was created during the COVID-19 pandemic as a solution to ease the misgivings of handling physical copies of documents and being infected by the novel coronavirus.
Sworn translation with digital signature offers greater speed, lower costs and more practicality by eliminating the need to print out the documents, and has been a tremendous facilitator in the process of sworn translation.
Certification by Hague Apostilles was established by the Hague Convention of October 5, 1961, a treaty aimed at simplifying the legalization of documents between the more than 100 signatory countries, enabling the mutual recognition of Brazilian documents abroad and foreign documents in Brazil. It works in a similar way to a notarization, but with greater validity and acceptance, guaranteeing the signature in foreign institutions at any Civil Registry Office.
The “Apostille” is a certificate of authenticity issued by the signatory countries of the Hague Convention and annexed to a public document to attest to its origin (signature, capacity of the public agent, seal or stamp of the institution), and corresponds to the former consular legalization of foreign documents (US documents).
Issuance of apostilles of Brazilian documents is done in Brazil only by notary offices authorized by the National Council of Justice (CNJ) and must be provided whenever it is necessary to present documents in a country other than the one in which the original document was issued, and provided that such country is part of the Convention.
According to the CNJ website, “only public documents or those of a private nature that have been previously recognized by a notary or competent public authority, with the legal capacity to attest to such documents, can be apostilled. Article 1 of the Convention establishes that public documents are: a) documents emanating from an authority or an official connected with the courts or tribunals of the State, including those emanating from a public prosecutor, a clerk of a court or a process-server; b) administrative documents; c) notarial acts; d) official certificates which are placed on documents signed by persons in their private capacity, such as official certificates recording the registration of a document or the fact that it was in existence on a certain date and official and notarial authentications of signatures.
BTS’ services are carried out by a highly qualified and trained team. Translations and interpretations are performed by experienced professionals highly skilled the following languages:
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