“Apostillar Documentos en Trenton NJ”: Habla español?

New Jersey law set restrictions on the recording of documents written in a language other than English. If the document is in a foreign language, it must be translated and the translation must be certified. Thereafter the certified translated document along with the original document can be submitted for an apostille certification.

This process should not be confused with the country of intended use requiring a translated copy of the document. Let us look at an example:

You live in New Jersey. You got divorced in New Jersey a few years ago. But life is good now because you are excited about your upcoming wedding in Ecuador. However, the authorities in Ecuador find out about your divorce. The authorities in Ecuador need an apostille certification with your divorce decree. And they mandate that you must submit a Spanish-translated copy of the divorce decree as well.

In the above-mentioned case, the translated copy has nothing to do with getting an apostille for the divorce decree by the Secretary of State in Trenton NJ. Your divorce decree is in English. Your divorce took place in New Jersey. Again your apostille in Trenton NJ has absolutely nothing to do with the requirement of the Ecuadorian authorities that the divorce decree must be translated from English to Spanish. That issue is separate from the apostille process.

The ideal playbook for the above-mentioned scenario is to hire a Notary to obtain a certified translated copy of the divorce decree. The Notary should then attach the certified translated copy of the divorce decree to the original divorce decree and submit both documents as one to the get the apostille certification. This is the clean, efficient, hassle-free way to get the job done.

On the other hand, if you have an original apostillar documentos in a foreign language, then a certified translated copy of the original document is required by New Jersey’s Secretary of State. A Notary should use a reputable, cost-efficient translation service. The price of the translation is usually done on a per page basis. Some languages are more difficult to translate than others (e.g. Eastern European languages, Hebrew, Mandarin to name a few). The per page cost might vary depending on the degree of difficulty of the language. You should now have a better idea of the apostille process as it relates to documents in foreign languages.