Sworn translation of degrees and recognition files
from Tournai to Mouscron and Ath
The architecture faculty, colleges, schools and research teams of Tournai. Architecture, colleges, Franco-Belgian school paths: recognition, application files, bilingual conferences.
1 h
To receive the costing
2
Interpreters per booth and per language
24 h
Express on a diploma
70+
Working languages
The paperwork the education & research sector generates
The UCLouvain architecture faculty has its campus in Tournai and recruits well beyond the border. Alongside it, schools across the district enrol pupils who cross the border every morning, in one direction or the other. Two school systems meet here without overlapping: a French baccalauréat, a Belgian secondary school certificate and a European transcript are not read against the same grid.
Diplomas and transcripts
Diplomas, reports, diploma supplements and course programmes, in sworn form for an equivalence file.
Equivalence and enrolment
A file addressed to the equivalence service of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, or to the offices of a French académie.
Papers and publications
An article, a conference abstract, a dissertation or a research report, read through by a native speaker from the same field.
Mobility and placements
A placement agreement, an Erasmus learning agreement and a deal signed between a Belgian institution and its French or Flemish partner.
Teaching material
Course outlines, timetables, project briefs and distance learning modules.
Applications and funding
Grant applications, letters of recommendation, project outlines and interim reports for a European programme.
The education & research sector ten kilometres from France
UCLouvain has its architecture faculty in Tournai, and a city listed as world heritage for its cathedral and its belfry is a permanent object of study. Students and teaching staff arrive from everywhere, their files are put together in another language, and an application for recognition to the Wallonia-Brussels Federation calls for the degree and the transcript in sworn form. We translate them and have the signature legalised at FPS Justice when the service asks for it.
The border creates a flow of pupils here that you do not see elsewhere. Young people from Wallonie picarde study in Lille or Valenciennes, pupils from northern France enrol in our schools, and each administration wants the papers in its own shape: a Belgian transcript does not read like a French report card, and the marking systems do not convert themselves. So we translate while stating the original marking scale, which stops a file from being wrongly assessed.
In research, conventions change from one discipline and one funder to the next. Articles, abstracts, posters and funding applications follow the publisher's or the programme's exact instructions, then go to a reviser who is a native of the field. In schools, finally, the interpreter is what makes a meeting with non-French-speaking parents actually take place: it is not for the pupil to translate for their parents, and everyone around the table needs to know what the interpreter's role is.
- Degree, transcript, original marking scale explained
- Application file and covering letter
- Article, conference abstract, scientific poster
- Funding application and progress report
Situations that need someone in the room
An architecture jury, a study day and a meeting with parents call for neither the same equipment nor the same technique.
Study days
Simultaneous work from a booth, receivers handed out in the room and a technician on site, including when part of the audience follows online.
Juries and defences
Presenting a project to an international jury, defending a dissertation or sitting an oral admission test.
Meetings with families
Start-of-year meetings, class councils and guidance interviews when the parents do not follow in French.
Visits and delegations
Welcoming a delegation, touring a studio and signing an agreement between institutions.
Equivalence runs on its own rules and they leave no room for approximation. The Wallonia-Brussels Federation expects a sworn translation, often together with a certified copy of the original diploma, and its list of documents shifts with the country and with the level applied for. On the French side the expectations are different. Ask the service before ordering, or you pay the bill twice.
Four steps, from the photo to the document
One project manager keeps your education & research file from start to finish: nothing gets lost between one contact and the next.
- 01
Send the document as it is
A phone photo will do, crooked framing included. Booking an interpreter instead? Give us the day, the address and the two languages in the room.
- 02
Price and delivery date in 1 h
The quote states the amount, the deadline and the route: sworn where an authority demands it, standard everywhere else. Nothing to pay, nothing to sign.
- 03
A linguist from the field takes over
Your text goes to someone who works with education & research terminology daily, and a second person reads it through before anything is sent.
- 04
Delivery or on-site assignment
The document arrives by email; the stamped copy follows by registered post if a counter insists on the original. For a spoken assignment, the interpreter is there on the hour.
A qualification to have recognised before term starts?
Diploma and transcript in sworn form, express in 24 to 48 h when the filing date is close.
What changes once a education & research file reaches us
The proofreader comes from the discipline
An architecture dissertation is not read through like a legal article. The person assigned knows the conventions of your field and those of the journal or jury you are aiming at.
The schedule starts at the deadline
Give us the filing day or the opening of the session. The milestones are set backwards from that date, and if one slips you hear it from us rather than the other way round.
The right specialist, not the first one free
A specialised text goes to a linguist who works in that field. A short deadline does not suspend the rule, it only means searching faster.
Confidentiality put in writing
Anyone who opens your file has signed a confidentiality undertaking beforehand. Files sit on European infrastructure and are wiped the moment you ask in writing.
No line added afterwards
The figure you approve at the start is the one on the invoice. Revision, layout and delivery are already inside it, with nothing surfacing at the end.
The drive is not charged to you
Reaching Tournai, Mouscron, Ath, Lessines, Péruwelz, Comines-Warneton or Beloeil costs you nothing extra in travel.
Frequently asked questions
Does a French baccalauréat have to be translated to enrol here?
The diploma is already in French, so no. The equivalence service does, however, ask for documents that do not always exist in that form on the French side, and that is where files stall. Send us the list you received: we will sort out what has to be produced, translated or merely certified.
And the other way round, for enrolling in France?
A Belgian diploma, report or certificate often travels with an explanatory note, because the headings and the marking scales have no direct counterpart. We render the original designation and add the correspondence in the margin, rather than forcing an equivalence that does not exist.
What do you need before a study day?
The programme, the abstracts and the slides a few days ahead: an interpreter who has read the paper titles holds the terminology better. On the day, two interpreters per language relieve each other every twenty to thirty minutes, booths and technician included.
Do you file apostille requests on a diploma?
No, that step belongs to the authority of the country that issued the qualification, and you file the request. We do take care of legalising the sworn translator's signature at FPS Justice, and we tell you the order in which to run the steps so you do not have to start again.
Get your free quote within the hour
Send us your document or your date: firm price, precise deadline, no obligation. You then decide, with everything in front of you.