Certified document translation for Ireland: immigration and court files
The Irish application route determines the translation statement, supporting records and delivery required. A visa submission, citizenship file and court affidavit each have their own instructions.
Identify the application and document set
Begin with the receiving organisation’s current request. Identify the application route, source language, target language, document list and deadline. For an employment-visa file, Immigration Service Delivery expressly requires full certified translation of documents outside English or Irish. That instruction belongs with the translation order so the deliverable can be prepared for the actual submission.
English translations from Polish, Ukrainian or Russian can cover personal records, financial evidence, qualifications and legal documents. Send the final source version. If an adviser has selected the evidence, use that list to distinguish documents being submitted from background material.
Record the person responsible for the translation
ISD’s certified-translation guidance asks for a confirmation that the translation reflects the original seen, a signature and date, the printed name, occupation, address and telephone number. These details identify the certifier and allow the translation to be connected to the underlying record. The statement should accompany the correct document version, with its page count and attachments clear.
Source: Immigration Service Delivery: How to make a certified translation of a document
Keep the issuing country and translation location distinct
The short-stay business-visa guidance distinguishes state-issued records originating outside the EEA or Switzerland from those issued within that area. For birth, marriage, death and divorce certificates issued outside that area, it calls for attestation or apostille by the issuing state’s Foreign Affairs authority. It also addresses where the translation is made: its published instructions require attestation or apostille for translations produced outside the EEA or Switzerland, while translations produced within that area do not need Foreign Affairs attestation.
For assessment, state the record’s issuing country and send any apostille or legalisation already attached. A Ukrainian or Russian record and a translation commissioned in Poland have different places of origin; preserve that distinction when matching the application instructions to the assembled document.
Source: Immigration Service Delivery: Short stay business visa — document translation and certification
Include any multilingual standard form
For eligible EU civil-status records, a multilingual standard form accompanies the original certificate as a translation aid. Ireland’s Department of Social Protection describes forms for birth, marriage, civil-partnership and death certificates used in another EU country. If such a form has already been issued, send it with the certificate before the scope and price of translation are agreed.
Source: Department of Social Protection: Multilingual Standard Form
Court affidavits require a filing arrangement
Order 40 of the Rules of the Superior Courts addresses affidavits made in a foreign language. Rule 18 requires a suitably qualified translator, whose affidavit records qualifications and accuracy and exhibits the foreign-language affidavit and its original translation. The solicitor’s instruction should identify that filing requirement, the final source affidavit and the arrangements for swearing the translator’s affidavit.
In the High Court’s Asylum, Immigration and Citizenship List, HC140 took effect on 3 June 2026 and replaced HC81. Section 7 addresses the deponent’s understanding of English or Irish and requires the translator’s affidavit when a foreign-language affidavit is relied upon. Provide that current direction with the document schedule for a commission within this list.
Source: Courts Service: Rules of the Superior Courts, Order 40 — Affidavits , Courts Service: HC140 — Asylum, Immigration and Citizenship List
Prepare the files for remote assessment
Scan every source page, including reverse sides and attached endorsements. Keep tables, account periods, qualification names and handwritten additions legible. For Cyrillic names, supply the spelling used in the relevant passport or application and identify earlier records with a different spelling. A name-change certificate should stay associated with the documents it connects.
Clients in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick or Waterford can commission the work from the Kraków office without an initial office visit. State whether delivery requires a signed PDF, paper copies or both, and give the destination for any paper documents. For court or corporate files, retain the existing document identifiers and nominate one contact to approve terminology or resolve source-text questions.
Sources and further reading
- Immigration Service Delivery: Employment visa
- Immigration Service Delivery: How to make a certified translation of a document
- Immigration Service Delivery: Short stay business visa
- Department of Social Protection: Multilingual Standard Form
- Courts Service: Rules of the Superior Courts, Order 40 — Affidavits
- Courts Service: HC140 — Asylum, Immigration and Citizenship List
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