Birth certificate translation in Germany – certified, online and near you

Key facts at a glance

• ✓Certified by court-authorised translators – generally recognised throughout Germany
• ✓Names in Cyrillic, Arabic or other scripts are carefully transliterated, on request with the spelling used in your passport
• ✓No-obligation quote with a fixed price and delivery date before any costs arise
• ✓Original delivered by post, as a PDF by email in advance or for collection at our office
• ✓A photo or scan is all we need for a quote – drop-off in Mülheim an der Ruhr also possible without an appointment

Why do I need a certified translation of my birth certificate?

You need a translation of your birth certificate as soon as you submit a foreign-language certificate to a German authority, because the official language is German (Section 23 of the Administrative Procedure Act, Verwaltungsverfahrensgesetz). In justified cases, the authority may expressly require a certified translation; registry offices (Standesamt) generally do so for foreign certificates. Typical occasions include:

• Getting married in Germany: When giving notice of marriage, both partners prove their civil status with public documents (Section 12 of the Civil Status Act, Personenstandsgesetz, PStG) – usually with their birth certificate. If you have been married before, you will also need proof relating to your previous marriage; find out more on our page marriage certificate translation.
• Subsequent registration of a birth abroad: If a German national was born abroad – your child, for example – the birth can be registered in the German birth register (Geburtenregister) on application (Section 36 PStG). The German registry office then issues birth certificates.
• Naturalisation: The checklist of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) for naturalisation applications lists your own birth certificate from your home country with a translation, and with an apostille or legalisation where applicable.
• Pensions and social benefits: The German Pension Insurance (Deutsche Rentenversicherung) and other social benefit providers may also require a translation of foreign-language documents (Section 19 of Book X of the Social Code, Zehntes Buch Sozialgesetzbuch).
• Choice of name: For declarations regarding your family name or first name, the birth certificate serves the registry office as proof of your previous name.

How do I get my birth certificate translated and certified?

At RAGUNATHAN, you can have your birth certificate translated and certified in four steps – online from anywhere in Germany or in person in Mülheim an der Ruhr.

1. 01
   Send your certificate

   photo, scan or PDF of all pages via our enquiry form, by email or via WhatsApp – or drop it off at our office without an appointment.

2. 02
   Clarify the spelling

   If necessary, enclose a copy of your passport or residence permit so that the names match across all your documents.

3. 03
   Receive a quote

   You receive a fixed price and delivery date in advance, without obligation, and can then decide at your leisure.

4. 04
   Receive your translation

   An authorised translator confirms the translation with a certification statement, stamp and signature. You receive it as an original by post, as a PDF in advance or for collection at our office.

Is there a translation agency for birth certificates near me?

For people in the Ruhr area, RAGUNATHAN is a translation agency nearby: our office is at Limburgstraße 7 in Mülheim an der Ruhr, in the Styrum district on the border with Duisburg and Oberhausen. You can drop off your birth certificate without an appointment from Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, and collect the finished translation there too.

If you live further away, distance is no obstacle. A certified translation is generally valid throughout Germany – regardless of the federal state in which the translator is authorised by the court (ermächtigt). You can then place your order via the enquiry form, by email to info@ragunathan.de or via WhatsApp. For Essen and Duisburg, you will find dedicated information on our pages translation agency in Essen and translation agency in Duisburg.

What applies to Russian, Ukrainian and other birth certificates in a foreign script?

With birth certificates in Cyrillic, Arabic or another non-Latin script, the key issue is the correct transliteration of names. Some registry offices expressly require transliteration according to an ISO standard – the registry office in Cologne, for example. In your passport, however, the same name often appears in a different spelling, for instance one based on English. So please send us a copy of your passport as well: on request, we will additionally note the spelling from your passport so that queries from the authority can be avoided as far as possible.

This applies, for example, to the Russian birth certificate (Свидетельство о рождении) and the Ukrainian one (Свідоцтво про народження). We translate patronymics, stamps, marginal notes and later entries in full. Our 170 languages and dialects also include Arabic, Farsi, Dari, Pashto, Kurdish, Tigrinya, Amharic, Tamil and Urdu, among others. For Turkish certificates, find out more on our page certified Turkish–German translation.

Do I need an apostille, or is an international birth certificate enough?

Whether you need an apostille, a translation or both depends on the issuing country and on the office where you submit the birth certificate. Sometimes a multilingual certificate even replaces the translation.

Apostille and legalisation

The apostille is a certificate of authenticity under the Hague Convention of 1961. It is affixed by an authority of the country that issued the document – a translation agency cannot issue it. For documents from countries that have not acceded to the Convention, legalisation by the German mission abroad is used instead. Our advice on the order: obtain the apostille before the translation. We will then translate it into German as part of the same order.

International birth certificate under the CIEC Convention

In 1976, Germany and other countries agreed on multilingual extracts from civil status records – for birth, marriage and death – in the Vienna Convention of the International Commission on Civil Status (CIEC). In the contracting states, these certificates are exempt from formalities such as legalisation. In Germany, the international birth certificate is issued by the registry office that registered the birth.

Multilingual standard form under Regulation (EU) 2016/1191

For birth certificates from another member state of the European Union (EU), Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 has applied since 16 February 2019: an apostille is no longer required. On request, the issuing authority provides a multilingual standard form that is attached to the certificate. An authority in another EU country may then require a translation only in exceptional cases. However, not every country offers every form.

Can I have a German birth certificate translated for use abroad?

Yes, RAGUNATHAN also translates German birth certificates in the other direction – for example into English, Polish, Turkish or Arabic. You need this for marriage, study, work or naturalisation in another country, for instance.

Clarify two points with the foreign authority beforehand: first, whether an international birth certificate from the German registry office is sufficient; second, whether it requires an apostille and whether this belongs on the certificate or on the translation. The registry office that issued the certificate will tell you where to obtain the apostille for a German certificate. If you need the English version quickly, use our express certified English translation.

How much does it cost to have a birth certificate translated?

The cost of translating a birth certificate depends on the language pair, length, certification and delivery time – you will find out the fixed price in advance in our no-obligation quote. Birth certificates are usually short. Additional length comes from reverse sides, marginal notes, apostilles or handwritten entries, because a certified translation reproduces everything in full. If you need several certificates, for the whole family for example, send them together. You will then receive a quote for the entire order.

Request a quote for my birth certificate

Why RAGUNATHAN?

• Since 1986

  Experience with civil status documents from all over the world – for registry offices, authorities and courts.

• Authorised translators

  Certified translations with certification statement, stamp and signature, generally recognised throughout Germany.

• 170 languages and dialects

  Over 1,000 language professionals – including for rare languages and non-Latin scripts.

• ISO 9001:2015

  Processes certified by TÜV SÜD; the owner is a member of the BDÜ – the Federal Association of Interpreters and Translators.

Do you have questions about your birth certificate? Call us on +49 208 99 04 77 (Mon–Fri 8:30 am – 4:30 pm) or use our contact page.