translating documents

[katie3234]

“ Translations of documents: Translated documents must be sent with the original document. If the original is written in a foreign language, you must have the document translated into English or French and then have it certified by a Canadian notary or commissioner of oaths.”

I have many emails from my fiancée, we are getting married in May so i am starting to tackle the paper work aspect. We mainly communicate in Albanian when through email (even though I am horrible at it, trying to learn ) ...... is it necessary that I get it certified by a Canadian notary? Or can I just do that in Albania with an Albanian notary?


Thank you!

 

[dlee31]

All my official documents (birth records, family registry, police check, etc) were in Korean.
I translated them myself to save time & money and went to a Korean lawyer to get them notarized.
I don't see how a Canadian official would notarize documents translated from Albanian to English/French,
unless they spoke Albanian themselves

 

[rachel6992]

We translated our documents from Spanish ourselves as well, and then took it to a bilingual notary to verify it. However, there are tons of Spanish-speaking people in Texas. I'm not sure how many Albanian speaking notaries there are! You can probably check online though...

 

[zzyzxroad]

How did you guys translate it? Did you type it up on the computer with the same formatting so it looks generally the same?

 

[canadianwoman]

When they say it must be translated and notarized, they are mainly talking about official documents. Your emails are just evidence of a genuine marriage, so it should be OK to translate them yourselves, or a selection of them, and get them notarized in Albania. Even not notarized would probably be OK for emails.

 

[michaelab]

I got them translated by a certified translator (and got it notarized). I didn't know if they would take my own translation since I am not a certified translator. I found a good comapny online and just waiting for it to arrive in the mail.

I mean my birth certificate from non english/french country..I don't think you would need to have your correspondances between you and your significant other translated by a certified translator. You do it yourself and possibly notarized might be fine I assume.

 

[ashleighash]

So my documents that I get notarized here in Costa Rica, DO NOT need to be notarized in Canada ... Is that correct ?

Thanks in Advance

 

[ariell]

So my documents that I get notarized here in Costa Rica, DO NOT need to be notarized in Canada ... Is that correct ?

Thanks in Advance

No, you do not need to get them notarized again in Canada.

 

[ariell]

When they say it must be translated and notarized, they are mainly talking about official documents. Your emails are just evidence of a genuine marriage, so it should be OK to translate them yourselves, or a selection of them, and get them notarized in Albania. Even not notarized would probably be OK for emails.

Right. You don't need to get unofficial documents like emails translated by a professional. It's fine to do yourself. I would translate a selection of them and then print the contents of your inbox/outbox so that they can see the frequency of your emails to each other. Say that you've only printed a selection and have more available if needed. I don't think you need to get them notarized but it won't hurt either.

 

[campesinaj]

emails are not considered official documents like birth certificates, so it's ok to do them yourself. I wrote a brief note before our emails stating that I was translating them myself since I'm fluent in both languages.

as for finding an official translator for the other documents, you could try emailing the embassy for your country and asking them for suggestions. they should have a list of authorized people.

 

[iarblue]

They dont read your emails.They just want to see the dates you sent back and forth.The email itself has no bearing.The same reason they dont want CD's they dont watch them.
I asked the Canadian Emabasy in Brazil about translating the emails they said they dont even want the emails they just want the part that says from who to who and date.Just to see how long you have been messaging before and after your marriage,or common law.
I cant imagine anyone wants to read what you would do with eachother once you meet up agian ,lol
The only things they want translated are birth certificates,police reports,marriage cert,and any other certified document.

 

[canadianwoman]

It depends. If you just send the inbox with a list of when you got the emails from your spouse and the topic, that may well be enough. Usually people send a selection of the emails themselves - translated, if necessary - to show what they are discussing. The visa officer may request the emails themselves if they are suspicious. I've seen appeal cases where the gov't lawyer argues his case based on one word in an email - one lawyer said, look, the guy said in this email 'We've known each other for years', but they got married less than a year after they met, so he must be lying. The visa officer in our case said one of the reasons she thought our marriage was suspicious is because we discussed immigration issues in an email. They definitely read them.
The safest thing is to send the inbox with the dates and topic headings. If they want the emails themselves, they can always ask. If you don't have much other evidence, though, you may need the emails.

 

[iarblue]

Yes good info,i know i talked to my wife last year about immigration,after we married then waited a year more to apply.But its all in the emails.But i never sent any emails or skype calls to them i just sent a load of pictures and stamped passport showing my visits before and after the marriage.
Al they may do is ask us for an interview,and then we supply them with all of it over two years of email and skype.lolBut my app was approved and sent off to the visa office,and its been there for two months and they have not asked for anything yet fingers crossed.

 

[ariell]

They dont read your emails.They just want to see the dates you sent back and forth.The email itself has no bearing.The same reason they dont want CD's they dont watch them.
I asked the Canadian Emabasy in Brazil about translating the emails they said they dont even want the emails they just want the part that says from who to who and date.Just to see how long you have been messaging before and after your marriage,or common law.
I cant imagine anyone wants to read what you would do with eachother once you meet up agian ,lol
The only things they want translated are birth certificates,police reports,marriage cert,and any other certified document.

I guess it depends who you speak to, but I would completely disagree with the idea that CIC is not interested at all in the contents of your email. And honestly, I think the reason they don't want you sending CDs and DVDs, is because they don't want to get any computer viruses, not that they're simply 'not interested' in looking at them. When I called CIC with questions about emails, they specifically told me that they did in fact want to see the contents of your emails. In fact I was told that they want to see all your emails in their entirety. For me that was a year's worth of emails, and yes, I printed and sent all except for a few. Reading the actual contents of your emails is one way for the visa officer to judge the genuineness of your relationship. Just showing when you wrote to each other really tells them nothing -- you could have been emailing about anything -- the weather, your shoe size, the latest basketball scores, how to scam CIC etc. etc. I really think that they do want to see that you talk to each other in a way that would be 'expected' of two people in love and planning a future together.

An interview could add months and months of delay to your application, not to mention a longer separation from your spouse. I would personally do whatever I could ahead of time to avoid having to go for an interview. I think you're always better off sending in as much evidence as you can to avoid an interview.

 

[ashleighash]

I completely agree with the last comment, why would they care that you just wrote an email, wouldn't they want to see what was said to test the TRUE genuineness of the relationship....

Take everything you read with a grain of salt as some of the information is GREAT and some...well not so great. I know it can be very confusing, but just remember that not all of these people know exactly what their talking about

Not mentioning names, just stating facts, which I think should be a more common practice here !