In this guide
  1. One file answering two questions
  2. What ITI and CIOL stand for here
  3. The form of certification used
  4. Cost and days
  5. Where a clean source comes from

One file answering two questions

Every certified set answers two separate questions at once. The first is what the document says, and the Somali text answers that. The second is who says so, and a British qualification answers that. People tend to think only about the first and forget that the second is what turns plain text into something official.

What ITI and CIOL stand for here

These are the British bodies whose members hold a translation qualification, and the credential used on this route is an ITI or CIOL-qualified certified translator. Membership is not a badge somebody prints at home. It is admission by a body with its own standards, which is why a name plus a credential means far more on a signed page than a name by itself ever could.

The form of certification used

The certificate here is the kind of certified translation UK authorities such as UKVI and GRO accept, signed and dated by the translator and fastened to the Somali pages. That describes the certificate itself rather than promising anything about a particular desk overseas. What the set carries is a named, qualified signature and a plain statement that the two languages say the same thing.

Cost and days

The rate is £25 for each side of paper as issued, and the total is that count and nothing else. Standard work runs 2–3 business days from the arrival of a readable scan, and the express route closes it inside 24 hours. Because the count is agreed before writing begins, the figure you are quoted is the figure you end up paying.

Where a clean source comes from

Stoke-on-Trent Register Office hands out fresh certified copies of civil records from the Civic Centre on Glebe Street, and handles everything by post. Starting there gives a translator a clean sheet to read and keeps your own certificate out of the mail entirely. A clean source also means fewer marks that have to be written down as unreadable when the Somali pages are drawn up.