What to do if a crucial Canadian citizenship by descent document isn’t in English or French

Like a growing number of Americans, you’ve spent months tracing a family line back to Canada. You’ve written to a records office in another country, waited, paid, and waited again.

Then the envelope arrives. Your grandfather’s birth certificate is real, official, and entirely in a language you can't read.

This confuses a lot of people. It shouldn’t. A document that is not in English or French is still a valid document for a proof of Canadian citizenship application.

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It just has to arrive at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) with two extra documents – a full translation, and a sworn statement from the translator confirming the translation is accurate.

Here’s how translation works for a citizenship by descent application, who is allowed to do it, and the mistakes that get packages sent back.

First, confirm the document is the one you asked for

IRCC asks for ‘authentic, reliable and verifiable documents’ for every generation in your family line, issued by the original authority, such as a national civil registry, a provincial vital statistics office or a state archive.

That said, foreign records offices do not always send what you requested. For example, you may have asked for a full birth record and received a short-form version.

Before you pay a translator, get a rough sense of what you’re holding. A phone camera translation tool or a free online translator will tell you whether the heading says “birth,” “baptism,” “marriage” or “death,” and whether the names and dates match the person in your family line.

What IRCC actually requires for a translated document

For every document in a language other than English or French, you submit three things together:

• The document itself, as a clear colour copy
• A full English or French translation
• An affidavit from the person who did the translation

There is one exception. A translator certified in Canada — meaning a member in good standing of a provincial or territorial association of translators and interpreters — does not need to supply an affidavit.

How to find a certified translator in Canada

For a citizenship-certificate application, using a Canadian certified translator generally removes the need for a translator’s affidavit or related notarial appointment.

Certification in Canada is handled province by province, not nationally. A translator earns the title by qualifying with the association in their province, and most of those associations belong to the Canadian Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters Council (CTTIC). Quebec’s professional order, OTTIAQ, has its own certification framework.

The main bodies:

• Ontario — Association of Translators and Interpreters of Ontario (ATIO)
• Quebec — Ordre des traducteurs, terminologues et interprètes agréés du Québec (OTTIAQ)
• British Columbia — Society of Translators and Interpreters of British Columbia (STIBC)
• Alberta — Association of Translators and Interpreters of Alberta (ATIA)
• Manitoba — Association of Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters of Manitoba (ATIM)
• Saskatchewan — Association of Translators and Interpreters of Saskatchewan (ATIS)
• Nova Scotia — Association of Translators and Interpreters of Nova Scotia (ATINS)
• New Brunswick — Corporation of Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters of New Brunswick (CTINB)

These bodies provide online directories or member listings. Because some directories also include candidates or associate members, confirm that the person is currently listed as a certified translator, not merely a member or candidate for certification.

Search tools vary by association. Many allow searches by language combination, and some also allow filtering by specialization.

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Translations cannot be done by you or your relatives

IRCC’s list of excluded family members is long: parent, guardian, sibling, spouse, common-law or conjugal partner, grandparent, child, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew and first cousin.

This trips up families constantly, because the person who speaks Italian or Tagalog or Ukrainian is very often the aunt who started the family research in the first place. It does not matter how fluent she is, or how well qualified. A translation in her name will not be accepted.

If you mail applications for several family members in one package and one of them is incomplete, IRCC returns all of them. CIC News weighs filing together against filing one at a time.

So, it’s worth spending on a translator who has handled these types of records before.

About the affidavit

If you do not use a certified Canadian translator, an affidavit from the person who completed the translation must be included.

An affidavit is a short sworn statement. In this case, the translator signs a document saying they are fluent in both languages, and that their translation is a true and accurate version of the original. They sign it in front of someone legally authorized to take oaths. That makes it a sworn statement rather than a claim, and it gives IRCC someone accountable for the accuracy of the words an officer is reading.

In Canada: The affidavit must be sworn in the presence of a notary public, a commissioner of oaths, or a commissioner for taking affidavits. Which of these can act varies by province and territory.

Outside Canada: The affidavit must be sworn in the presence of a notary public. Rules on who may administer an oath vary by country.

In the US, notaries are commissioned by individual states rather than federally. They’re common and usually inexpensive.

Some options to look into:

• Your bank or credit union. Many notarize free for account holders.
• Shipping and mailbox stores. Most locations have a notary on staff during business hours.
• Public libraries and county clerk offices. Often free or a few dollars.
• Law offices and title companies. These also provide reliable options.
• Your state’s secretary of state website. Most run a public notary search.

If the document is in French, you’re already done

Canada has two official languages. A record in French needs no translation at all.

That matters for a large share of these applications. Records from Quebec, from Acadian communities in the Maritimes, and from France, Belgium, Haiti and parts of West Africa all come through in French and can go straight into the package.

If you’re unsure whether a record will hold up — or whether you need a letter of explanation or a no-record letter alongside it — an immigration lawyer may be able to provide more guidance.

This article is provided for general information purposes only, and does not constitute legal advice.

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