Sample: consulate-certified translation into Turkish

Documents travelling into the Turkish system are certified in a way that has no UK equivalent. Understanding what the consular stamp does — and what it does not do — saves people from buying the wrong product twice, which is the single most common complaint we hear about translation for Türkiye.

What the sample shows

The specimen is a UK certificate translated into Turkish and certified at a consular notary unit. Its structure is fixed: the Turkish text mirroring the English original page by page; the translator's declaration in Turkish, signed, naming the language pair and the document; then the consular certification block, with the officer's stamp, the date, a register number (yevmiye no) and the fee noted. The apostille on the English original is translated too, so a Turkish reader sees what was legalised and by whom.

What the stamp certifies — and what it does not

• It certifies a signature. The consular notary confirms that the translator, who is on the mission's own register, signed the declaration. It is not an opinion on the accuracy of the translation.
• The translator must be on the register. Where an outside translation is required, it has to come from a translator registered with the consulate, and the certification then takes place at its notary unit.
• The original comes first. A UK-issued document is apostilled by the FCDO before the translation is made, not afterwards.
• Some documents need no outside translation at all. The London Consulate's information note states that no outside sworn translation is requested for British passports, birth certificates and marriage certificates — it handles those itself, which is why the birth and marriage registration checklists on this site tell you not to order one.
• One act, one appointment. Consular notary work is booked act by act, and fees are charged per A4 page.

Where we fit, honestly

We are not on any UK consulate's registered translator list, so we cannot produce the document in the sample. What we do produce is the other route Turkish authorities accept: a translation made in Ankara and notarised before a Turkish notary, which nüfus müdürlükleri, tapu offices, YÖK, SGK, banks and courts in Türkiye take in the ordinary course. For most people that is the cheaper and faster path, because it avoids a consular appointment altogether — but it is the right answer only when the document is going to a body inside Türkiye. If the paper has to be handed across a counter in London, Manchester or Edinburgh, use a translator from the consulate's list. We would rather lose the order than sell you something that will be refused.

About the specimen and the cost comparison

The sample is anonymised: names, dates, register numbers and the fee line are invented, and no real consular document was reproduced. As a rough comparison, an English-into-Turkish translation from us is £6.50 per 1,000-character page; adding Ankara notarisation costs the notary's tariff, around £13.50 per page in 2026, plus a £5 handling fee. Consular certification is charged by the consulate at its own published rate per A4 page and requires an appointment. Which route applies to your document is set out on notarised translation in Türkiye and compared in sworn translators in Türkiye and the UK.