In this guide
  1. Three papers people mix up
  2. The language Bolivia asks for
  3. What Bolivia accepts on the Spanish pages
  4. Per-page cost and turnaround

Three papers people mix up

Almost every muddle on this route comes from treating three quite different things as one. The first is a photocopy you made yourself: an image, with no standing of its own. The second is a certified extract, which a register issues and signs. The third is the translated text, which a translator writes and signs.

Certified translation into Spanish in Edinburgh produces only the third of those. It cannot turn a photocopy into an extract, and it cannot make an out-of-date entry current again. Knowing which of the three you are short of tells you whether your next call is to a register or to a translator.

The language Bolivia asks for

A Spanish text is required for papers used in Bolivia, whatever language the record was written in. That applies to a Scottish entry in English just as much as to a paper issued somewhere else, so the language rule here bites on almost every file that leaves Edinburgh for a Bolivian reader.

What Bolivia accepts on the Spanish pages

Bolivia takes a certified translation carrying the translator's certificate of accuracy. The translator states that the Spanish matches the paper it was made from, names that paper, and signs under their credential as a certified translator. No oath in front of a court sits behind it, and no separate body has to countersign the sheets.

Order the extract before the Spanish pages, because the words on the extract are what the translator copies across. Where a Scottish civil entry is involved, a fresh certified copy can be ordered from the register at any time, which is why the one already in your drawer never needs to go anywhere.

Per-page cost and turnaround

About £25 buys a page. Standard work is back in 2–3 business days and the express route in 24 hours. A certified translation for Bolivia is priced by how much paper there is, not by how weighty the subject is, so a two-page entry and a two-page contract cost the same.

Because the register step and the translating step are separate purchases, they are worth costing separately too. The extract has its own charge and its own wait; the Spanish pages have theirs. Adding them up before you start is what stops a straightforward errand turning into a surprise.