These papers prove your company is real. The certificate of incorporation. The articles. The statutes. A board resolution. No registry, bank or notary looks at them until they sit in the right language. With the right stamp on top. That is the whole job we do here.
Our company document translation work runs both ways. British firms send us their papers before opening a branch abroad. Overseas firms send us theirs before filing at Companies House. A named specialist prepares each file. A second reviewer goes over it. A signed accuracy statement is attached.
Certified company papers start at £55 each. They come back in 2 to 3 working days. Notary work, legalisation and embassy stamping are organised here too. You pay nothing until you have read the finished pages. If any office queries our wording, we put it right free.
What you get with every order
Unclear what your registry actually wants? Send the file across with the destination country named. You hear which papers need translating. Which need a stamp on top. Which can be left out entirely. All before you spend a penny.
Company paperwork is never one page. It is a stack. Each paper is read by a different office. For a different reason. Judged against a different rule. Below is what usually sits inside a pack. Against each one: what it proves, and who asks to read it in their own language.
One page that proves your company legally exists. It is almost always the first thing a foreign registry or bank asks for. It nearly always needs a stamp on top.
Asked for by: overseas registries, banks, notaries, Companies House.
The rulebook for how the company runs and who may decide what. It is the longest paper in the pack. Because of that, it is priced by word count, not per document.
Asked for by: registries, corporate lawyers, investors.
The founding paper signed by the first shareholders. Many European registries treat the statutes as the master document. They read it before they read anything else you send.
Asked for by: European registries, notaries, group head offices.
Written proof that your directors agreed to something. Opening a branch. Naming a signatory. Approving an account. These are short papers, but every word has to be exact.
Asked for by: banks, registries, notaries, joint venture partners.
Who owns what, and what each owner is allowed to do. Names, percentages and share classes must match the original digit for digit. One wrong figure and the file is queried.
Asked for by: investors, banks, the Register of Overseas Entities.
A live snapshot from the register. It shows your directors, your address and your status today. Many offices only accept an extract issued in the last three months.
Asked for by: banks, tender boards, overseas registries.
Proof your company is active, and has filed all it owes. Foreign banks and tender boards ask for this. Far more often than British offices ever do.
Asked for by: overseas banks, tender boards, licence offices.
The paper that lets one person sign for your company in another country. It nearly always needs a notary first. An apostille usually follows after that.
Asked for by: notaries abroad, registries, property lawyers.
Day to day rules on meetings, voting and signing limits. Partners and joint venture teams read these closely before they put their name to anything.
Asked for by: joint venture partners, investors, auditors.
Nobody orders these papers because they want to. Someone has asked for them. A registry. A bank. A lawyer with a deadline. Below are the reasons this job reaches a desk in the first place. Find the one that matches yours. You then know which papers, and which stamp, your file needs.
A foreign registry has sent you a list. It wants your incorporation papers in its own language, with a stamp on top.
An overseas company is setting up in Britain. UK law says the charter must be filed with certified English beside it.
A foreign company holds UK land. Owner records and company papers have to be filed in English. Otherwise the entry is blocked.
A bank compliance team holds the account shut until it has read your records. In a language it works in.
An investor or a foreign bank is reading your company records. Before money moves either way.
Both sides need identical wording. A data room full of foreign-language records slows the whole deal down.
A plain translation is rarely enough for company papers. The office receiving them decides what has to sit on top. Getting that wrong costs weeks, not days. There are three levels. Below is what each one is, and which kind of filing needs it. Order the right one first time.
A signed statement of accuracy attached to the translation. It carries the translator's name, signature, date, both languages and our company details.
Order this for:
Included free with every order.
Either a court-registered linguist in that jurisdiction. Or a notary public who examines the work before signing. A British declaration on its own gets turned away in these markets.
Order this for:
From £75 per document.
A government stamp added on top of the notary signature. Hague countries take an FCDO apostille. Gulf states want their own embassy in London to stamp it instead.
Order this for:
From £95 plus official fees.
The same certificate of incorporation is handled two completely different ways. It depends on which border it is crossing. One direction needs a foreign stamp. The other only needs certified English. Pick your own side below. Up comes the exact pack that filing takes, from first page to final stamp.
Opening a branch. A subsidiary. Or a bank account in another country. That registry has never heard of Companies House. It will not read a word of English.
The pack they usually want:
Tell us the country first. It decides whether you need sworn, notarised or apostilled work. That single answer changes both your price and your date.
Registering a UK establishment. Joining the Register of Overseas Entities. Opening a British bank account. UK rules say a foreign-language paper must be filed with certified English beside it.
The pack UK offices usually want:
No apostille is needed this way. British offices only want the certified English filed alongside your original. Nothing more.
There is no mystery to this, and no long onboarding. Five steps from your first email to the finished pack in your hand. The point of setting it out here is simple. You can see where your job is at any moment, and what has to happen before the next step starts.
Scan or photograph them. A phone picture is fine. Tell us which registry, bank or notary is waiting, and in which country.
We confirm the level you need, the price, and a realistic date. It is all in writing. Nothing changes later.
A linguist whose first language is the target one, and who spends the week on corporate filings. No machine drafts, ever.
Someone other than the drafter compares finished pages against your originals. Names, dates and share numbers get their own pass. It is the check ISO 17100 exists to enforce.
We handle the notary, the FCDO or the embassy. You read the finished pages. Only then do you pay.
Two firms can send us the same certificate and pay different amounts. The language, the stamp and the deadline all move the figure. So the table below shows where each kind of job begins, not what yours will come to. Under it we set out every factor that decides your own number.
| What You Are Sending | What That Usually Means | Usual Delivery | Rough Guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single certificate, certified | Incorporation certificate, good standing, register extract | 2–3 working days | £55 / document |
| Articles, statutes or bylaws | Longer papers, counted on your original | 2–4 working days | £0.09 / word |
| Full company formation pack | Certificate, articles, resolution and register extract together | 3–5 working days | From £150 |
| Sworn or notarised version | For Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Poland and notaries abroad | 3–5 working days | £75 / document |
| Apostille or embassy legalisation | Added on top for Hague countries or the Gulf states | 5–10 working days | £95 + official fees |
| Express turnaround | When a registry or bank deadline lands tomorrow | 24 hours | £0.13 / word |
| Multi-country pack | Same records into three or more languages at once | Set per project | From £0.07 / word |
Nine things decide where your figure lands above those starting points. Some push it up. Some pull it down. All 9 get worked through before a number reaches you. That is why the quote takes an hour rather than a second.
Your figure is built on what you hand over, not on the pages we hand back. That distinction matters. A German version can run a fifth longer than its English source. You should not be billed for the difference.
Common pairs like French and Spanish sit at the lower end. Rarer ones cost more, simply because fewer qualified people work in them. A pair that also needs a court-sworn linguist costs more again.
Certified is included free. A sworn or notarised version costs more because a second professional signs it. An apostille or embassy stamp adds another step on top. The receiving office decides this, not us.
Spain wants a sworn translator. The UAE wants its embassy in London. A Commonwealth registry may take plain certified English. Naming your country is the single biggest thing that moves your price.
Standard work sits at the base rate. A 24-hour turnaround means paying a linguist to drop other jobs. Same-day costs more again. If your date is flexible, say so and you pay less.
A clean PDF is quickest. Faded photocopies. Photographs taken at an angle. Margin handwriting. All of it takes longer to read and rebuild. Send the clearest copy you have.
Every figure on this page is shown before VAT. Notary, FCDO and embassy charges are set by those bodies, passed on at cost and listed separately on your quote. Purchase orders, monthly invoicing and agreed annual rates are available for firms that file regularly.
English in, German out. Polish in, English out. Our company statutes translation covers over 120 languages and travels in either direction. Listed below are the pairs company filings use most often, taken from work that actually comes through this desk. Beside each of them is what that market insists on beyond the words themselves.
| Language | What company filings there usually need |
|---|---|
| German | Exact wording, court-sworn translator for registry work, apostille for the Handelsregister |
| Spanish | Sworn translator plus apostille for almost every registry and notary filing |
| French | Sworn translation for company registration in France, Belgium and much of West Africa |
| Arabic | Embassy legalisation for the Gulf, especially trade licence and branch applications |
| Chinese | Simplified for the mainland, Traditional for Hong Kong and Taiwan, legalised at the embassy |
| Italian | Sworn translation filed at the Camera di Commercio, apostille on top |
| Polish | Sworn translator for KRS filings, common for manufacturing and logistics groups |
| Dutch | Certified work for the Netherlands and Belgium, apostille for some notary steps |
| Portuguese | Sworn and apostilled for Portugal and Brazil, formats differ between the two |
| Japanese | Formal register expected, apostille required, translator credentials often requested |
Also regularly translated: Ukrainian, Greek, Korean, Norwegian, Czech, Malay, Swedish, Thai, Hungarian, Danish, Russian, Indonesian, Romanian, Finnish, Vietnamese, Turkish.
Most refusals have nothing to do with poor language. They come from small habits that a registry reads as a warning sign. We see the same six over and over, usually on work done somewhere else. Here is each one, why it fails, and what we do differently on your job.
A registered name is a legal fact, not a phrase. It stays exactly as registered, with a bracketed meaning beside it if the office asks. Change it and the paper looks like a different company altogether.
Wet stamps, embossed seals and signature blocks all have to be accounted for. The translation says so, and shows where each one sat. A missing seal is one of the most common reasons a pack comes straight back.
People skip the schedules at the back of the articles to save money. Registries notice. If the original runs to forty pages, the certified version has to cover all forty.
Certified English is right for a UK filing and refused by a Spanish notary. Ordering the cheaper level first usually means paying twice and losing a fortnight in between.
Many registries only accept an extract or a good standing certificate issued in the last three months. Translate an old copy and the whole pack fails, however good the wording is.
It belongs on the notary's signature, bound into the bundle in the right order. Stapled to the wrong sheet, the receiving office treats the entire file as unverified.
Turning a sentence into another language is the straightforward part. Real effort goes into defending that file when a registry queries it. Or when a filing date shifts without notice. Below are the habits that decide whether a pack clears first time. They are also why most clients settle here after one job.
Share percentages, company numbers, incorporation dates and officer names get pulled out. Each is verified on its own, apart from the prose. A sentence that reads beautifully but carries a wrong percentage still gets your filing thrown out.
A notary will not sign over an anonymous certificate. Ours carries a person, their qualification and a number that can be rung. That is the difference between a smooth appointment and a wasted one.
Legalisation offices and consulates move at their own speed. We quote you the date those queues actually allow, not the one you would prefer to hear. Missed dates cost you more than honest ones.
A director title rendered one way in Warsaw and another in Lisbon invites questions from both. We hold your settled terms on file, so the third country reads exactly like the first.
Insurance certificate, data policy, supplier questionnaire, VAT details. Ask once and the bundle comes back the same day. No buyer should be stuck waiting on a vendor form while a registry clock runs.
Registries want the full set together, so a part delivery helps nobody. Everything is held until the last paper clears review. The lot then goes out with one covering note listing the contents.
Written and checked by [Name], [MITI, Dip Trans], Head of Corporate Translation at Business Translations UK.
Last reviewed: · Next review: [Month Year]
Real company filings we handled, each with the paper, the language pair and the time it took. Look for the one closest to your own registry or your own bank. That way you can judge a realistic date for yourself before you commit to a filing deadline you cannot move.
These are the questions that come up once the paperwork is actually in front of someone. Not general questions about translation. Real ordering doubts about company filings. Yours not below? Send the document over on WhatsApp. An answer reaches you within minutes during working hours.
The whole thing, schedules at the back included. A certified translation states the document is true and complete. A partial version cannot carry that statement. Registries compare page counts, and a short version is an easy refusal.
Usually the current consolidated version, because that is what the company runs on today. Some registries also want the amending resolutions to show how you got there. Ask the receiving office, and send us both if you are unsure.
The clock runs on the original, not on us. Order a fresh extract first, then send it. If you translate an older copy, the pack is refused however recent our certificate is.
A named translator signs it, with our company details underneath. Offices want a human they can trace, not only a stamp. If your filing needs the translator's qualifications listed as well, say so and we will include them.
They are described in place rather than copied, so the reader knows exactly what sat there. Digital certificates are normal now and most registries accept them, though a few still ask for a printed copy.
No. It stays exactly as issued, with a short note naming the register it comes from. Reformatting a company number to look local is one of the quickest ways to have a filing questioned.
Three languages, but a single round of groundwork. The wording is settled once, then carried into each version. So version 2 and version 3 cost less than the first. Stamps are still organised market by market.
Yes, and most clients order it that way. One quote, one contact, one invoice. That saves you running after a linguist, a notary and the FCDO in parallel while a filing date closes in.
Send us the rejection notice with the file. The notice normally names the exact fault, which makes the repair quick. In most cases it is a missing seal, a partial translation or the wrong certification level.
A wrong figure sits with us, and we insure against it. Each certified page carries a person's name and signature. Someone is attached to the work, rather than a logo. Your board can hold our insurer's details and cover level ahead of a first order.
Translation is the whole of what we sell. This desk holds no solicitor, no accountant and no formation agent, so nothing here advises you on filings or structure. A registry abroad decides on a bundle under its own rules, and that decision stays entirely theirs.
Send the file and name the registry, bank or notary that is waiting. We will confirm the level, the stamp, the price and the date, all in writing. You pay nothing until you have read the finished pages yourself and told us you are happy with them.