Birth certificate translation to English

[5yrstoday]

Hi there,
I'm applying for naturalisation and registering my kids at the same time - I am using form AN online, and adding the kids in the same application.
When we get to the "Documents" stage, the system issues a checklist of all required documents we need to submit. These include "birth certificate (showing details of both parents)" for both our kids.

Is translation required for the birth certificates?

I checked all the guidance notes for forms AN and MN1 and found nothing about translation to English.
I found other posts where people have submitted certified translations of birth certificates in order to obtain their first UK passport. But that will happen after naturalisation/registration so it does not apply to our case (yet?).

Thanks!

[alterhase58]

Don't think it is necessary to translate foreign birth certificates for MN1 (or passport application) - what has to be clear is that parents are named on the document. Case workers will know what they looking at.

[secret.simon]

On the other hand, I would presume that a translation is required for both.

It is all very well saying that the parents should be named on the birth certificate, but if the birth certificate is in non-Latin characters (such as Cyrillic or Devanagari or Traditional Chinese, etc) how is a British caseworker expected to identify the parents' names? It would need to be translated into English.

Even assuming that the script is Latin, there can be translation/transliteration issues (the Turkish "Cihangir" is pronounced "Jehangir" in English, for instance).

For the avoidance of doubt, I would suggest getting an acceptable translation of the birth certificate for all immigration applications.

[5yrstoday]

Thank you secret.simon and alterhase58.
Interesting to see opinions are split on this!

I wonder if anyone has anecdotal experience on this.

I think I will submit original versions, and if translation is needed I guess the caseworker will request it.

In my particular case, documents are in Spanish, which means names and dates do match our passports.

[AmazonianX]

Thank you secret.simon and alterhase58.
Interesting to see opinions are split on this!

I wonder if anyone has anecdotal experience on this.

I think I will submit original versions, and if translation is needed I guess the caseworker will request it.

In my particular case, documents are in Spanish, which means names and dates do match our passports.

Better to not leave to chance of CW asking for it. As you are questioning yourself about translation already....if in doubt sort it out.

[imbik]

I just did the exact same application yesterday for my wife and daughter.

Birth certificate issue is even worse in my country. They give you an A6 size card where you will only see the surname of the baby, no parents and/or baby's first name for instance if your surname is Jackson then you were "baby Jackson" in your certificate when you were born.

That is the reason why I requested (for my both children) a letterhead (stamped and signed) from hospital where I can see full names (parents and baby), date of birth, gender, etc. I mean everything I might need in the future. Then I got it translated by a certified translator. By the way I have got other translations of the same certificates like Bulgarian (wife is Bulgarian citizen) and Spanish and I have been using the same translations for almost 15 years wherever needed and never had any issues.

I would have some empathy for the case worker and try to make her life easier and get the certificate translated into English even if everything is clear in your language.

[5yrstoday]

In the end, we decided to request a certified translation for the birth certificates.
I am not really convinced it is necessary though, but we may need those translations in future anyway, so I think it won't be a complete waste of money.

Sorry to those future visitors to this post wanting to know if you can submit originals without translations !!
Good luck to everyone who commented, and thanks for the help