Frequently Asked Questions

Turnaround times for certified/sworn and legalized translations are dictated by the Italian Court, the Prefect’s Office and the Public Prosecutor’s Office respectively.

A Sworn translation (which is a certified translation that goes through an additional process known as “asseverazione” in Italy) can be produced as soon as the translation is ready provided the Court is open on that day and at that time for the service in question.
The Court of Padua, for example, provides the service on Mondays and Thursdays, while there is the option of going before a Justice of the Peace on Wednesdays.

Translations legalized through the Prefect’s Office take 1 day once the documents have been lodged.

Translations legalized through the Public Prosecutor’s Office take between 2 and 5 days once the documents have been lodged.

Legalization (or authentication) consists in an official certificate that proves that the public official who has signed a document is legally qualified to do so, and authenticates their signature.
A translated document is lodged for legalization with the Italian Public Prosecutor’s Office once the sworn translation procedure is complete.
Documents and certificates produced in Italy are legalized so that they are recognized by countries outside Italy. nce the translation has been produced and then sworn before the Court, if the document is to be recognized by a country outside Italy or by foreign embassies or consulates, it may also need been to be legalized with the addition of an apostille.
An apostille is added in the event the country where the document is to be used in a country that is a signatory to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961, otherwise the document gets a “single legalization” stamp, which is recognized internationally by countries that are not signatories to the above-mentioned Convention.
In both cases, legalized translations are signed by the Italian Public Prosecutor or Delegate thereof.

The regular translation and certification/sworn translation service is carried out from and into Italian for all the usually required language combinations.

You might be planning to do a master’s degree or a postgraduate course, or maybe you are looking to do business overseas… in many cases, the host country may require you to produce a certified translation of the documents attesting to your qualifications.
Degree Certificates, Study Programmes or Attendance and Assessment Certificates all need to be translated into the target language and certified. When the foreign organization asks for the documents, it is important to establish straight away whether they require the original documents to be submitted or just copies, and whether they also require them to be legalized through the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Here at Soget Est, we have experience and expertise to “support” Italian families planning to make an adoption application.
The bureaucratic procedure also involves a language component with quite a hefty set of documents that need to be translated into the official language of the destination country.
Each translated document has to be sworn separately before the Italian Court, and then has to be legalized through the Italian Public Prosecutor’s Office. The documents then have to be submitted to the relevant Embassy in Rome. The documents in question include registry office certificates (birth, marriage, etc.), certificates of residence, affidavits, self-certification of income, as well as notarial deeds/powers of attorney, in addition to Juvenile Court and local health authority records.

We can provide a sworn translation of driving licences issued by any foreign country.

The service is quick and simple. Just email us a scanned copy of the original document, whether this is a printed licence or a file. Once we have translated the content, we will print the document with the relevant translation duly stamped with the revenue stamps required by Italian law, and then take it to the Court to complete the sworn translation.

To get a quote for a certified/sworn translation of any document, simply fill out the quote request form, and we will get back to you straight away.
We will lay out the different costs, as well as any charges that do not incur VAT, and also give you an accurate delivery timeframe.

To connect to our Webdisk space, you will need an FTP Client (e.g. WS_FTP, FTP commander, Filezilla, etc.) installed on your PC.
Many of these programs are available for easy download free of charge from the internet.

Once you have installed the program, you will need to set some parameters.

First, you will need to create a new tab to access our FTP space. Enter the name “Soget Est” if required.
While this parameter is not strictly necessary, it acts as a reminder so that the settings are retrieved for future access.

Ask Soget Est for the following connection details and login credentials: ftp server/host, remote folder path, username and password.

in the “ftp server” or “host” field, enter: (ftp server/host, provided by Soget Est)
if the “server type” field is present, type: “ftp server”
if the “remote folder” field is present, type: (remote folder path, provided by Soget Est)
in the relevant fields, enter your username and password (these are case sensitive):
username: (username, provided by Soget Est)
password: (password, provided by Soget Est)
upload one file at a time (if you have more than one) according to the procedures prescribed by the FTP Client used.

Once you have finished uploading, please email to advise us so that we can delete the file(s).

Delivery times are calculated based on the number of words in the source text.
A professional translator can usually produce between 1,500 and 2,500 words a day, depending on the type of text and the language required. However, if you want to receive the translation earlier than the proposed date, you can specify a deadline, and we will do our best to meet it, at no extra charge: urgency is the norm in today’s world!

Lastly, we can handle projects with a high word count that need a fast turnaround, creating teams comprising a number of translators and revisers working with the aid of IT systems to share glossaries and translation memories.

The page count — equivalent to 1,500 keystrokes — is a now-defunct parameter that used to equate to the number of characters that would fit on a standard sheet of foolscap typed with a fixed-pitch typewriter, namely 25 lines of 60 keystrokes each.

With the advent of PCs, this standard page was converted into 1,500 keystrokes including spaces.

The use of non-alphabetic languages and new IT standards have meant the “word” count has taken over as the preferred unit of measurement both for translations and for compiling glossaries and translation memories.

The word count is easy to check with tools provided by various software applications, such as Microsoft Word.

Soget Est has tools for counting words in files in all major formats.

The word count is done using an automatic counter program that counts text but does not take into account any words in a graphic format.
If the document you submit features text in an image format and you would like this translating too, please point this out, so we can count any said words manually.

We can handle the page layout of translated files using either your digital format or new layouts.
The resulting page layout in any language (including Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Russian) always retains the same printed text and layout characteristics as the original documents.
Where you ask us to handle a page layout in formats such as Adobe InDesign®, Adobe FrameMaker®, QuarkXpress® and so on, we will quote this separately from the actual translation.

Translated documents are returned to you in the same format as the originals when you provide them in an editable format, such as Microsoft Word®, Excel®, PowerPoint® or Html.
Otherwise, where the originals have a non-editable format — such as hardcopy documents, PDFs or images — the translation will be delivered in Word with a standard layout.
On request, we have a page layout service for handling or producing complex layouts in Adobe InDesign®, FrameMaker®, etc.

The term transcreation, or creative translation, is used to mean a package of services created for clients who work in the world of advertising, branding collaterals and, more generally, business communication.

It consists in some clever rewriting of the translated text, which is done by native-speaking copywriters or copy editors, to retain and boost the effectiveness of the promotional or marketing intent and its message or emotional punch in any language.

With transcreation, the aim is to get the message across powerfully and effectively without altering, losing or changing the meaning it had in its original version. Even where there are several target languages involved, the sense of the message is always consistent across them all, wherever it is used.

Our team of translators, copywriters and consultants work together to extend the reach of copywriting globally without a proportional increase in costs.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) translation involves a series of technical and language activities aimed at improving a website’s indexing, and hence its search result ranking, in the end language.

The technical activities behind SEO translation include analysing the relevance of the keywords translated, using tools that enable them to be inserted in the web pages’ code, and verification with a check tool when the page is being published.

This translation service also covers all meta tags that are relevant to search engines: title, description, keyword.

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) translation extends these activities to content (number of keywords used, redundancy of the main keyword, text length, etc.).

Turnaround times for certified/sworn and legalized translations are dictated by the Italian Court, the Prefect’s Office and the Public Prosecutor’s Office respectively.

A Sworn translation (which is a certified translation that goes through an additional process known as “asseverazione” in Italy) can be produced as soon as the translation is ready provided the Court is open on that day and at that time for the service in question.
The Court of Padua, for example, provides the service on Mondays and Thursdays, while there is the option of going before a Justice of the Peace on Wednesdays.

Translations legalized through the Prefect’s Office take 1 day once the documents have been lodged.

Translations legalized through the Public Prosecutor’s Office take between 2 and 5 days once the documents have been lodged.

Legalization (or authentication) consists in an official certificate that proves that the public official who has signed a document is legally qualified to do so, and authenticates their signature.
A translated document is lodged for legalization with the Italian Public Prosecutor’s Office once the sworn translation procedure is complete.
Documents and certificates produced in Italy are legalized so that they are recognized by countries outside Italy. nce the translation has been produced and then sworn before the Court, if the document is to be recognized by a country outside Italy or by foreign embassies or consulates, it may also need been to be legalized with the addition of an apostille.
An apostille is added in the event the country where the document is to be used in a country that is a signatory to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961, otherwise the document gets a “single legalization” stamp, which is recognized internationally by countries that are not signatories to the above-mentioned Convention.
In both cases, legalized translations are signed by the Italian Public Prosecutor or Delegate thereof.

The regular translation and certification/sworn translation service is carried out from and into Italian for all the usually required language combinations.

You might be planning to do a master’s degree or a postgraduate course, or maybe you are looking to do business overseas… in many cases, the host country may require you to produce a certified translation of the documents attesting to your qualifications.
Degree Certificates, Study Programmes or Attendance and Assessment Certificates all need to be translated into the target language and certified. When the foreign organization asks for the documents, it is important to establish straight away whether they require the original documents to be submitted or just copies, and whether they also require them to be legalized through the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Here at Soget Est, we have experience and expertise to “support” Italian families planning to make an adoption application.
The bureaucratic procedure also involves a language component with quite a hefty set of documents that need to be translated into the official language of the destination country.
Each translated document has to be sworn separately before the Italian Court, and then has to be legalized through the Italian Public Prosecutor’s Office. The documents then have to be submitted to the relevant Embassy in Rome. The documents in question include registry office certificates (birth, marriage, etc.), certificates of residence, affidavits, self-certification of income, as well as notarial deeds/powers of attorney, in addition to Juvenile Court and local health authority records.

We can provide a sworn translation of driving licences issued by any foreign country.

The service is quick and simple. Just email us a scanned copy of the original document, whether this is a printed licence or a file. Once we have translated the content, we will print the document with the relevant translation duly stamped with the revenue stamps required by Italian law, and then take it to the Court to complete the sworn translation.

To get a quote for a certified/sworn translation of any document, simply fill out the quote request form, and we will get back to you straight away.
We will lay out the different costs, as well as any charges that do not incur VAT, and also give you an accurate delivery timeframe.

We only use professionals who translate into their native language, who are specialized in the relevant sector, and are familiar with the specific technology (e.g. electronics/telecommunications, software, electrical/medical, etc.).
Professionals are selected in compliance with standard EN 15038.
The qualification and monitoring of translators/suppliers is covered in our Quality Manual.

In order to achieve and maintain an appropriate level of quality, and deliver service continuity, we ensure that we have the same translators working on a single Client’s projects over the years.

Technical and language services are managed by our Project Managers.

Each Client is assigned a Project Manager with proven experience, who will act as:

• your direct contact person
• resource manager
• quality manager, checking work at incoming, in-process and delivery stages.

The Project Manager’s duties include creating a multi-layered structure wherein a number of translators and revisers are working at the same time on a single, large set of documents, or other value-added management tasks (consolidating and applying a glossary, coordinating production across different Soget Est departments, e.g. translation + page layout).

Each service delivered is formalized in a document generated directly by the Management Software Program, the Quality Plan, which contains all the information pertaining to each job, such as the subject matter, human resources, software, tech and glossaries used, checks performed, in addition to the name of the Project Manager.
This document also means Clients are ensured continuity, consistency and traceability of the product/service time after time.

To connect to our Webdisk space, you will need an FTP Client (e.g. WS_FTP, FTP commander, Filezilla, etc.) installed on your PC.
Many of these programs are available for easy download free of charge from the internet.

Once you have installed the program, you will need to set some parameters.

First, you will need to create a new tab to access our FTP space. Enter the name “Soget Est” if required.
While this parameter is not strictly necessary, it acts as a reminder so that the settings are retrieved for future access.

Ask Soget Est for the following connection details and login credentials: ftp server/host, remote folder path, username and password.

in the “ftp server” or “host” field, enter: (ftp server/host, provided by Soget Est)
if the “server type” field is present, type: “ftp server”
if the “remote folder” field is present, type: (remote folder path, provided by Soget Est)
in the relevant fields, enter your username and password (these are case sensitive):
username: (username, provided by Soget Est)
password: (password, provided by Soget Est)
upload one file at a time (if you have more than one) according to the procedures prescribed by the FTP Client used.

Once you have finished uploading, please email to advise us so that we can delete the file(s).

Delivery times are calculated based on the number of words in the source text.
A professional translator can usually produce between 1,500 and 2,500 words a day, depending on the type of text and the language required. However, if you want to receive the translation earlier than the proposed date, you can specify a deadline, and we will do our best to meet it, at no extra charge: urgency is the norm in today’s world!

Lastly, we can handle projects with a high word count that need a fast turnaround, creating teams comprising a number of translators and revisers working with the aid of IT systems to share glossaries and translation memories.

The page count — equivalent to 1,500 keystrokes — is a now-defunct parameter that used to equate to the number of characters that would fit on a standard sheet of foolscap typed with a fixed-pitch typewriter, namely 25 lines of 60 keystrokes each.

With the advent of PCs, this standard page was converted into 1,500 keystrokes including spaces.

The use of non-alphabetic languages and new IT standards have meant the “word” count has taken over as the preferred unit of measurement both for translations and for compiling glossaries and translation memories.

The word count is easy to check with tools provided by various software applications, such as Microsoft Word.

Soget Est has tools for counting words in files in all major formats.

The word count is done using an automatic counter program that counts text but does not take into account any words in a graphic format.
If the document you submit features text in an image format and you would like this translating too, please point this out, so we can count any said words manually.

We can handle the page layout of translated files using either your digital format or new layouts.
The resulting page layout in any language (including Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Russian) always retains the same printed text and layout characteristics as the original documents.
Where you ask us to handle a page layout in formats such as Adobe InDesign®, Adobe FrameMaker®, QuarkXpress® and so on, we will quote this separately from the actual translation.

Translated documents are returned to you in the same format as the originals when you provide them in an editable format, such as Microsoft Word®, Excel®, PowerPoint® or Html.
Otherwise, where the originals have a non-editable format — such as hardcopy documents, PDFs or images — the translation will be delivered in Word with a standard layout.
On request, we have a page layout service for handling or producing complex layouts in Adobe InDesign®, FrameMaker®, etc.

To get a quote for a certified/sworn translation of any document, simply fill out the quote request form, and we will get back to you straight away.
We will lay out the different costs, as well as any charges that do not incur VAT, and also give you an accurate delivery timeframe.

Our business is covered by a liability insurance policy.

Each product or service delivered by Soget Est is formalized by quotes/offers issued by our Sales Department or Project Managers. Where products/services involve more than one type of service (for example, translation, interpreting, page layout, transcreation, proofreading, etc.), these are described in detail.
You can request a quote by email or use the online forms.
Without waiting for the final order, you can choose to return a copy of the quote signed to acknowledge your acceptance to speed up the process, so we are ready to go. Once we receive a signed copy of the quote or order, we will review the contract (in accordance with the procedures set out in our company Quality System) and draw up the Quality Plan, which is identified by a relevant reference number. You will be advised of this number when the job is delivered and will see it on the invoice.

Our Sales Managers will be happy to meet with you to determine the needs and goals of each translation project, the availability of human resources, compatibility of hardware and software resources, job timeframes, your ultimate expectations, and any other conditions to be factored into the service provided, suggesting various solutions tailored to the specific job.