TRANSLATION SERVICES
Personal and civil documents
Personal documents are the pages offices use to identify you: a passport, a birth or marriage record, a divorce decree, a criminal-record certificate, a population extract. Asuman Aksoy, based in Fethiye, Muğla, translates them between Turkish and Persian, Dari, Pashto or English, in both directions, when the receiving office wants a written text. The original often still has to be shown. A translation does not replace it.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Anyone whose civil record has to be read in another language.
The usual readers are public offices and notaries. A relative’s experience is a poor guide, because the list follows your purpose and your issuing country.
People registering a family event
A foreign birth, marriage or divorce presented to a Turkish population directorate is a different file from the same paper shown to a university. Ask that directorate which language and which stamps it wants before the translation is signed.
Residence and citizenship files
Family permits and some citizenship files ask for civil records and, often, a criminal-record certificate. The migration or citizenship desk publishes the list. Translation is one line on it, not the application.
Notaries and banks
A power of attorney, a name declaration or a bank file may need the passport bio page, or a civil record, in Turkish. Some desks only want to see the original passport and do not want a translation at all.
People holding Iranian, Afghan or Pakistani records
Persian, Dari and Pashto civil records are confirmed written pairs with Turkish. Iran and Afghanistan are outside the Apostille Convention on the June 2026 status table. Pakistan is inside it, since March 2023. The stamp route follows the issuing country, not the language.
BEFORE WE BEGIN
A checklist for civil pages.
Bring the list that matches your file. You will rarely need every line. You should know which lines the office actually named.
- Passport bio page, only if that office asked for a translation of it rather than the original
- Birth certificate or birth record, including any marginal notes and the reverse
- Marriage certificate or marriage record, and a previous divorce if the office asked for marital history
- Divorce decree or final judgment, including the clause that shows it is final where that is visible
- Criminal-record certificate from the issuing country, and the date it was issued
- Turkish criminal-record print from e-Devlet, if you need it read in another confirmed language
- Population extract or family register, including household members the office named
- Identity card or equivalent, when a bank or a notary has asked for a translation rather than a sight of the card
- Driving licence, when a notary, a rental desk or a public office has asked for a sworn Turkish text
- Any apostille, consular stamp or registry note already attached — those marks are part of the page
- The spelling of your name on the passport you will show beside the translation
A Turkish record you can download with an e-signature is often accepted as it stands. Do not assume a foreign record works the same way. And do not send the scans in the first message.
A THOUGHTFUL PROCESS
From the civil page to a text an office can file.
Civil records fail when a stamp, a marginal note or a name is left outside the translation. The steps keep those on the table.
Match the page to the office
Say whether this is for a population directorate, e-İkamet, a notary, a university, a bank or a consulate. The same certificate is not prepared the same way for each.
Check the stamp already on it
If the issuing country is a convention party, the office may want an apostille on the original first. If it is not, the route is legalisation. Translating a bare photocopy can omit the mark the office will look for.
Confirm the pair
Persian, Dari, Pashto and English, each with Turkish, both ways. A page that mixes Dari and Pashto needs the pair that matches the wording, not the nationality on the passport.
Translate the whole relevant page
Headings, handwritten notes, stamps that contain words, and the reverse side are described. A tidy extract that drops a marginal note is a different document from the one the office holds.
Add the notary only if asked
Many civil-status and migration notes ask for notarized Turkish. That is the notary’s act on the translator’s signature, done in Fethiye or at a notary you agree, and it is not automatic.
Keep the original with the booklet
Offices compare names and stamps. Carry the original, or the certified copy they named, with the translation. The translation does not stand in for the record.
THREE DIFFERENT MARKS
What each mark does on a civil record.
A birth certificate collects these requests more often than almost any other page. They are still separate.
Sworn translation
The translator’s signed rendering of the civil page, under the oath given before a Turkish notary. It is the right request when the office says “yeminli” and does not go on to require the notary’s own act.
Notarized translation
The notary certifies the translator’s signature. e-İkamet’s foreign-document note, and many population files, ask for this specifically. It is a separate fee and a separate appointment. It does not check that the foreign registry was telling the truth.
Apostille or legalisation
This belongs on the public document, usually before the Turkish text is bound to it. Convention countries, including Türkiye since 1985 and Pakistan since 2023, use an apostille. Iran and Afghanistan, absent from the June 2026 table, use the legalisation route the Turkish office describes. The apostille does not translate the names.
Criminal-record certificates go stale on the receiving office’s calendar, not on ours. Some desks want a recently issued page and will not say so in a general brochure. Read the line on your application. A translation cannot refresh an old certificate.
WHERE IT IS USED
Which desk sees which page.
Use this as a map, then confirm it against the current list. Desks change their rows.
Passport
Border control wants the original. A university, a notary or a bank sometimes wants the bio page translated as well. Ask before you pay for a translation of a booklet nobody asked to read in Turkish.
Birth, marriage and divorce
Population directorates use these to record civil status. Migration files use them for family links. A divorce decree is a judicial document in many countries, so its apostille, when the convention applies, is often on the judicial side of the issuing country, not at a district governor’s desk.
Criminal record
Foreign certificates are a common residence and citizenship attachment. A Turkish adli sicil you download for yourself is a different object from a foreign certificate that still needs a stamp and a Turkish translation.
Driving licence
A foreign licence shown to a Turkish notary, a rental desk or a public office may need a sworn translation into Turkish. The translation does not replace the licence and does not, by itself, authorise you to drive.
COMMON MISTAKES
Civil pages that come back.
The wording can be excellent and the file still fails, if the wrong layer is missing.
Translating a passport nobody asked for
The original passport is the usual evidence. A sworn booklet of every visa page is a cost, not a requirement, unless a desk has named it.
Dropping stamps and marginal notes
Registries write the legally interesting part in the margin. If the translation is silent there, the officer is looking at a different record from the one you hold.
Using a certificate that the desk will call old
Criminal-record pages in particular are often wanted “recent”. The translation does not reset the issue date. Order the certificate when you are close to filing, then translate that version.
Mixing Dari and Persian as one pair
They are related, and TürkiyeRota confirms them as separate written pairs with Turkish. The wording on the page chooses the pair. A Pashto line needs the Pashto–Turkish pair.
PRACTICAL TIPS
Before you photograph the certificate.
A readable page is a shorter job than a crease through a name.
- Photograph or scan every side the office might read, including stamps, in daylight, without cutting off the edges.
- Write the names as they appear on the passport you will carry, and flag any letter that has been rendered two ways.
- If the certificate is not yet apostilled or legalised, ask the receiving office whether that must happen first.
- Keep a note of the issue date of a criminal-record certificate so you can compare it with the list on filing day.
- A Turkish e-Devlet print and a foreign certificate are not substitutes. Say which one you hold.
- For a Fethiye notary appointment, say the date you can attend. Written translation and the notary’s hour are different calendars.
TIMING
Civil pages are scheduled one file at a time.
A single readable certificate in a confirmed pair is a different plan from a family set: birth, marriage, divorce and a criminal record, each with stamps. We confirm a window after seeing the type, the length and whether a Fethiye notary, or another notary, has to follow. The window covers the translation. It does not cover the registry that must reissue a stale certificate, the apostille queue, or the day the population directorate can see you. No fee and no number of days is quoted on this page, because both follow the file in front of us.
A LITTLE MORE CLARITY
Your questions,
answered.
Every situation is different. Here are a few helpful starting points.
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Explore serviceREQUEST A QUOTATION
Describe the civil page, not the whole life story.
Tell us the document, the languages, the issuing country and the office that will receive it. We reply on WhatsApp with the scope before any sensitive copy is shared. Asuman works from Fethiye.
+90 553 000 59 00