Sworn translator in Tournai
documents Belgian counters accept
A birth certificate, a judgment handed down abroad, a degree earned outside Belgium, the articles of a company based in Mouscron: a translator entered in the national register of judicial experts signs and stamps, and the paper joins the file, in Tournai as in Ath, Péruwelz or Comines-Warneton.
1 h
Quote in hand, Saturdays and Sundays too
24 h
Our floor in express
70+
Languages carrying the sworn stamp
16
Municipalities of Picardy Wallonia served
What travels between Tournai, Lille and Kortrijk
The letter you received may say « sworn », it may say « certified true ». Behind either wording lies one service and the same signature.
Births, marriages, deaths
Birth, marriage and death certificates, household composition, certificates of no impediment to marriage, acknowledgements of paternity. Families spread between Picardy Wallonia and northern France move these back and forth all year, in both directions.
Degrees and equivalence
Transcripts, pass certificates, course descriptions, doctoral titles. The sworn version is what opens an equivalence application to the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, enrolment in architecture at UCLouvain Tournai, or a candidacy sent to a school in France.
Court papers
Judgments given outside Belgium, criminal record extracts, petitions, written submissions. The Tournai division of the Hainaut court of first instance sits in town, and a paper in a foreign language is received there only under a sworn stamp.
Notarial deeds
Preliminary agreements, deeds of sale, gifts, marriage contracts, estates opened abroad. One property on each side of the border is enough for the notary's office to ask for sworn translations of the papers it receives.
Company documents
Articles of association, powers of attorney, minutes of general meetings, Crossroads Bank for Enterprises extracts. A subsidiary on the French side, a partner in Kortrijk, a public tender built inside the Eurometropolis: the papers go back sworn.
Vehicles and licences
Registration certificates, driving licences and European certificates of conformity. A vehicle bought on the other side of the border and put back on the road here goes through all three.
A Belgian file does not read like a French one
The border sits ten kilometres from the belfry, and the French spoken on either side of it does not name the same institutions. A town hall is a mairie in France and a commune here, the family record book issued by a French registrar has no exact twin in Belgium, and a Belgian national register number is not a French social security number. One language, two systems.
When a foreign paper has to satisfy a counter in Tournai and a French authority as well, the choice of words stops being neutral. We use the wording expected where the document is going, we keep the original term in view, and we add a translator's note wherever no equivalent exists. Tell us which country your recipient sits in and the rest follows.
One rule holds on both sides of the line, though: the officer who receives you reads neither Ukrainian nor Romanian. A single line gets checked, the signatory's entry number in the national register of judicial experts. An accurate text written by a bilingual friend remains, in that officer's eyes, a text with no author.
- Belgian term kept, French equivalent added
- A translator's note where no equivalent exists
- Register entry checked before we start
- Signed PDF leaves on the delivery day
Four counters that require a signature
An authority that cannot reread the text itself is not judging the translation: it is judging the signatory.
At the population desk
A wedding file, legal cohabitation, registration, a request for Belgian nationality. The sixteen municipalities, Tournai and Ath as much as Lessines or Mont-de-l'Enclus, hold to one and the same rule.
The Tournai division
The Hainaut court of first instance holds hearings in Tournai for the district. Charleroi forms another division of that same court, so read the town printed on your summons carefully. In both, foreign papers have to be sworn.
Recognition of a qualification
Degree equivalence, registration with a professional body, an application to a French or Flemish university. The panel opens only the signed and stamped version.
A file leaving Belgium
Once the paper travels to a consulate or a foreign authority, a sworn stamp no longer always suffices. A legalisation is added, sometimes an apostille.
One question put to your recipient before you order spares you a round trip. Do they want the sworn translation on its own, legalisation of the signature, an apostille? Must the work be bound to the original or to a copy issued by the municipality? Answers differ from one office to the next, and far more from one country to another. We will draft the message with you if you prefer.
Four steps, no appointment to make
Nothing starts until you have seen the figure and the day it lands.
- 01
Photograph the paper
A legible photo taken on your phone lets us count the pages. Send it through the form or by e-mail, from home, from the office or while you wait on the platform.
- 02
Priced quote within 1 h
You read the price per page and the day of delivery, together with whatever has to happen beyond the translation itself: legalisation by the FPS Justice, an apostille you request from the FPS Foreign Affairs, or, very often, nothing further.
- 03
Translation, stamp, signature
Whoever is listed for your pair takes the paper on and follows its layout to the letter, then closes with the three things that give it standing: stamp, signature, statutory wording.
- 04
You receive it
The signed PDF arrives by e-mail on the delivery day. If your recipient insists on paper, the stamped copy follows by registered post.
Is your file stuck for want of a translation?
Send one photo of the paper and we start costing it. Figure, delivery day and the list of formalities land in your inbox inside the hour.
Six commitments that hold in writing
Register number checked
Before any work starts we look the signatory up in the national register of judicial experts, for your pair and in the direction required. A stamp coming from outside that register protects nobody.
Legalisation taken on
We carry the translator's signature to the FPS Justice for legalisation. An apostille, by contrast, is requested from the FPS Foreign Affairs: we tell you which counter to approach and what to do, the application stays yours.
Registered post included
A number of offices still refuse a PDF. In that case the stamped paper travels by tracked registered post to any address you name, in Belgium or abroad.
Express in 24 to 48 h
When the cut-off date closes in, your file moves ahead of the others. The surcharge appears on the quote and the decision stays yours to the end.
Secrecy by contract
Every translator signs a confidentiality undertaking. None of your deeds is dropped into a machine that anyone can open.
Layout reproduced
A clerk reads your translation against the original, line for line. Tables, stamps, handwritten entries and notes in the margin therefore stay exactly where they were, and each is flagged as such.
Frequently asked questions
Three words turn up in the letters: is there a difference?
The word follows the habits of whichever office wrote to you; the service does not change. In Belgium the profession is called sworn translator and the State keeps a national register of judicial experts. That entry is what makes your document acceptable, not the term used in the letter.
My file is going to a French town hall. Does that change anything?
It does, and the difficulty is not the language. Both countries speak French without naming the same institutions: your household composition has no exact twin, your national register number is not a social security number, and a bourgmestre is not a maire. We use the wording expected on arrival and flag the terms that have no equivalent. Just tell us which country the recipient is in.
Cross-border worker: will my Belgian papers pass in France?
That depends on the office. Civil status papers asked for by a French employer or insurance fund are often written in French already, so at most they need a legalisation. It is the papers drafted in another language, a degree earned outside the European Union, a foreign birth certificate, that go through a sworn translator. Send us the list you were handed and we will sort it out.
Do you need the original?
Not to price the job: a legible photo is enough to count the pages. For the translation, the recipient decides. Some accept work done on a copy, others require binding to the original or to a copy issued by your municipality. The quote says which one applies before you confirm anything.
Which of the two formalities applies to your file?
Two separate formalities, often mixed up. Legalisation authenticates the sworn translator's signature, is handled at the FPS Justice, is ours to deal with, and adds 3 to 5 working days to the calendar. The apostille is a certificate reserved for countries party to the Hague Convention and issued by the FPS Foreign Affairs: you apply for it yourself and we explain where and how. The quote names the one your file needs.
How long for a two-page certificate?
Two to five working days on the standard schedule, 24 to 48 hours in express on most pairs. A hearing at the Tournai division, an appointment already booked at the population desk? Give us the date in your first message and the planning is built around it.
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.