Sworn Albanian-French translator

Prepare your document for a translation accepted first time

A few checks before sending avoid most delays and requests for missing items:

• Every page, front and back: the apostille, marginal notes and stamps on the reverse are part of the record and are translated with it.
• A flat, sharp scan or photo with no glare or cropped edges: every record number, date and stamp must be legible.
• Names are reproduced exactly as they appear on the record, with their Albanian letters (ë, ç). If your French papers use another spelling, say so when you order.
• If the authority requires a recent document (birth certificate under six months old for a marriage, criminal record under three months old), have it issued before having it translated.
• If an apostille is required, have it affixed before the translation: an apostille added afterwards would have to be translated separately.

A translation certified by a judicial expert is valid throughout France

Registration with a court of appeal grants nationwide authorisation. The court is not a geographic limit: a translation certified in Douai is received the same way in Paris, Lyon, Marseille or Annemasse. It is required in particular by:

• prefectures and sub-prefectures (residence permit, naturalisation, family reunification), OFII and OFPRA;
• town halls (marriage, PACS, transcription of records), notaries and courts;
• CAF, CPAM, France Travail, pension funds, banks and insurers;
• universities, schools and diploma-recognition bodies (ENIC-NARIC), as well as employers and professional bodies.

A sworn translation has no expiry date of its own; the source document may (for instance the birth certificate under six months old required for a marriage, or the Albanian criminal record valid for three months).

How to tell whether a translator is really sworn

Only a natural person can be sworn, never an agency or a platform. An agency selling a “sworn Albanian translation” hands your document to a freelance translator it does not always name, whose authorisation you cannot check before paying. Three checks are enough:

1. the translator’s name appears on the list of judicial experts of their court of appeal, under translation (H-02.08.01) and not only interpreting;
2. the translation bears their name, stamp, signature and court of appeal, with the translation’s registration number;
3. the person answering you is the one translating.

Hysni Bajraktari has been on the list of judicial experts of the Douai Court of Appeal since 2011, under Albanian-language translation and interpreting. The official list is available online, and our directory lists the other sworn Albanian translators in France, court by court.