Spanish to English Certified Translation

A certified Spanish to English translation is a complete English version of every word on your Spanish document, including the stamps, seals and marginal notes, issued with a signed certificate of accuracy that names the translator and states the translation is true and complete. That certificate is what USCIS, courts, universities and licensing boards ask for, and at Eagle Translate it is 24.95 for each page of up to 250 words with delivery in 2 to 3 business days.

What USCIS asks for when your document is in Spanish

The federal rule is narrow and specific. A document filed in a foreign language must be submitted with a full English translation, and the translator has to certify that the translation is complete and accurate and that they are competent to translate from Spanish into English. Notarization is not part of that rule, although some state courts, county clerks and consulates ask for it on top. The instructions from whoever receives your document govern, so read them before you order.

Complete means complete. If your Mexican acta de nacimiento carries a validation footer on the reverse, that footer is part of the document. If a marriage record has three rubber stamps around the signature block, those stamps are part of the document. Leaving out the parts that look decorative is one of the most common reasons a filing comes back with a request for more evidence.

Spanish language documents that most often need certifying

The records that arrive here week after week are civil registry documents and school files. Birth records come as an acta de nacimiento in Mexico, a partida de nacimiento in Peru, Argentina and much of Central America, a registro civil de nacimiento in Colombia, and a certificación literal de nacimiento in Spain. Marriage and death records follow the same naming pattern country by country.

Alongside those we see the certificado de antecedentes penales or carta de no antecedentes penales used for police clearance, divorce decrees from a juzgado de familia, the Spanish libro de familia, professional credentials such as a título profesional and a Mexican cédula profesional, and academic files made up of a título de bachiller, a certificado de estudios and a historial académico or boleta de calificaciones. Spanish and English is one of the pairs on our languages page, and every combination inside those eight languages is available.

Why two surnames cause trouble on American forms

Spanish naming uses two surnames. In María Fernanda Gómez Ruiz, Gómez is the father's first surname and Ruiz is the mother's first surname. Neither one is a middle name and neither one is optional. US forms usually give a single box for a last name, which tempts people to drop a surname or hyphenate the pair, and then the name on the translation stops matching the name on the passport.

A certified translation does not fix that by rewriting the name. It reproduces the name exactly as the registry recorded it, accents included, so Muñoz stays Muñoz and José stays José rather than turning into Jose or Joseph. Married names written in the older style, such as Ana Ruiz de Gómez, are carried across in the same form. If the spelling on your record genuinely differs from your passport, that is something you explain to the receiving agency, not something a translator can quietly smooth over.

Reading dates on a Spanish or Latin American record

Spanish speaking countries write the day first. 05/03/1990 is 5 March 1990 and never 3 May. Reversing that on a birth certificate is a fast route to a rejected filing.

Older registry entries make it harder by spelling the whole thing out. A Mexican acta may state that the registration took place a los cinco días del mes de marzo del año mil novecientos noventa, with the time of birth given as a las catorce horas. A careful translation carries the written form across instead of silently converting it into a short numeric date, because the reviewer is comparing your English page line by line against a document they cannot read. Month names are lower case in Spanish, so enero and marzo appear that way in the original even though English capitalizes them.

Marginal notes, seals and the parts people skip

The notas marginales down the side of an acta are not decoration. They record what happened after the original entry, including a later marriage, a divorce, a recognition of paternity, a court ordered correction of a name, or a death. Agencies read them closely, and a translation that leaves them out is incomplete even when the main body is flawless.

The same applies to the registry apparatus around the entry, meaning the libro, tomo, foja, folio, acta number, oficialía and the name of the Registro Civil office. Records issued through the Mexican government portal add a CURP, a QR square and a long validation string, and those are described in place rather than dropped. Where handwriting genuinely cannot be read, the translation marks it as illegible instead of guessing, which is the honest treatment and the one reviewers expect.

Grades on a Spanish or Latin American transcript

Grading scales differ by country. Mexico and Argentina mark out of 10, Colombia out of 5, and Spain pairs a mark out of 10 with words such as sobresaliente, notable, aprobado and suspenso. A certified translation reports what the transcript says and translates the wording. It does not convert anything into a US grade point average, because that is credential evaluation, a separate service from an evaluator who will usually ask to see the certified translation first.

Price, page count and turnaround

One page is up to 250 words of the source document, and the count is taken from your actual file rather than estimated, so the total appears before you pay. Certified translation is 24.95 a page and comes back in 2 to 3 business days. Premium is 39.95 a page, translated ahead of other work, and delivered in 1 to 2 business days. Standard at 19.95 is a professional translation without the certificate, delivered in 3 to 5 business days, which suits business and personal use but not an official filing. The comparison is laid out on our services page.

Remember that an apostille attached to your record is itself a page of text and normally has to be translated with it. Online orders run up to 50 pages. For anything larger, get in touch and we will quote it.

If an agency rejects the translation

If a translation is rejected because of a translation error we made, we correct it at no charge. If the corrected translation is rejected again for that same error, we refund what was paid for it. Tell us within 30 days and send the written rejection. The exact wording is in our refund policy. Anyone who receives one of our certified translations can also confirm it is genuine on our verification page.

How to order a Spanish to English certified translation

Upload the document as a PDF, choose Spanish to English, pick a service level, then pay by card once the measured price is on screen. The four steps are set out on how it works, and if you are still working out what kind of translation you need, start with what is a certified translation or the full question list.

Have your acta, título or antecedentes penales ready as a PDF and start an order. The price is shown before you pay, and a certified translator takes it from there.