 So this next video is for Humberto Di Candia and he says, I want to start working as a freelance translator, but besides the normal translations such as books or articles, I want to make certified translations for documents being used for immigration or for some legal or official purposes such as birth certificates. Do I need a special license to make these certified translations and where do I get these license? Where do I get that license? I just wanted to reply to this in a video because it's actually quite an interesting topic that comes up and I think there's a lot of confusion surrounding certifications being certified and certified translations. First of all, these can mean many different things in depending on what country you're in, what region of the country you're in and what areas you're dealing with. Some countries actually do need a translator to be certified quote unquote by the state, but they're few and far between. When a client asks for a certified translation, usually what they want is for the translation to be certified by a notary or a lawyer, basically for it to be notarized. Usually the notary can't verify the translation. They can't see if the translation is done well or not because they don't speak both languages, but what they'll do is they'll ask the translator to be there in person or to personally say, I did this to the utmost of my ability and they can verify your signature and that's what they put as a stamp. Now, this can get a lot more complicated. A notary, a notary public in the States is someone who could usually you can find them in many places, UPS or anything like that and they'll just see your signature, notarize it and that's it. If you go to other places like I remember in Switzerland, it's actually a very big deal and these are done by lawyers and it has to be more of a process and also costs a lot more. Also, if you're in Europe, you might deal with something called an apostille or apostille, that's another type of stamp done for the EU and again, this will involve lawyers. Now, because Umberto here mentioned birth certificates, that's what I figured he might mean. He might need certified translations. Maybe some client said, oh, we need a certified translation of this birth certificate and usually that's what they mean in that case. They need the translation certified by whomever by a translator obviously who can translate it well and then usually either this translator someone else will go to the notary, go to a lawyer and have it certified, have it notarized by that lawyer. So if this is something you're dealing with, then usually you can just find a notary or a lawyer or someone who can do this for you and then you can offer this as a service. Obviously, it costs you something, but you can charge a client for it, right? Because it's a legitimate cost. However, if you are looking for some sort of personal certification, that's something different. Now, there are various places which you can get quote unquote certified. In fact, there are lists and there are schools that offer it, etc. Unfortunately, these will depend on what country you're in and also on your language combination. The main places to check if I were you, if you're in the US, you'll probably want to look up the ATA, the American Translators Association, and see which languages they can certify in. If you translate from, say, Italian to English, I know they have certification there for Italian to English. It basically means taking a test. They give practice tests that you can take for free online and they'll tell you if you would have passed or not, but then you have to go physically and take the test in one of the prescribed times. And, you know, if you pass, you're certified. If not, you're not. And you have to try again. If you're in the UK, you can search for the Chartered Institute of Linguists. This will bring you to a page where basically they offer their own certification. I don't know too many details about this program. From what I understand, it's basically more or less the same idea. If you deal with a different language combination, if you're in a different country in a different region, what I would suggest is that you search in your own language from wherever, whichever country you're in, search for certified translation being certified as a translator, certified translators, etc. And chances are something in your region will come up. Also, keep in mind that very often you don't need this particularly if you get hired by a local court or a local government or even a local school system very often, then you can be their official translator, which means you're basically quote unquote, a certified translator for them. So you can show this to potential clients. You can say, I'm the official translator for Gwinnett County when they ask for translation certification. Very often something like this will count if they're looking for your personal certification because they say if the local government or local court system legal system uses this translator, then they're legitimate and that counts to them as a certification. But obviously this really depends on client to client and it also depends what they're looking for. Once again, they might just want the translation itself, the document to be certified, they want it to be notarized or they want a stamp on it or they want you to be certified. Very often, keep in mind they don't know themselves. They just hear certified translation and so they say, I want a certified translator. So you're going to have to get a feel for it. You're going to have to talk to them and see what it is exactly that they're looking for. You don't want to have to risk dropping a client when you could have had them just because you're not certified. If they, all they wanted was a notary stamp. So look into it and see which one applies to you and which one helps you out. So hopefully you found this useful. If you have any other input on this, let me know. I don't know too much about certification because I work on it with some clients specifically, but I haven't really explored other avenues for this. So if you do have other opinions or other comments, feel free to let me know in the comments and because I'm happy to know more about this as well. But from what I've come across, this is usually the case and they either want the translation to be certified or they might want the translator to be certified. You need to make sure that you know which one they're talking about. You need to make sure they know which one they're talking about. Otherwise, I hope you found this useful. If you did, please click like, please click thumbs up because that always helps. And otherwise, I'll see you in the next video. And don't forget to subscribe if you want more videos like this talking about freelance translation. Okay, thanks. Bye.