It is hard indeed to notice anything for which the languages available to us have no description.
Alan Wilson Watts
And also your Bulgarian company documents for use abroad
Translation and legalization can be not only expensive, but also crucial for the successful outcome of your business project. Especially in a country (like Bulgaria) that doesn‘t use the English alphabet.
Certification, Apostille/Legalization and Certified Translation. What is the difference?
The language barrier – translation
If you own or represent a non-Bulgarian Company and you intend to open subsidiary in Bulgaria (ie your foreign Company becomes shareholder of Bulgarian Company), you want to open bank account of your foreign Company in Bulgaria, setup a Trade Representative Office or perform any other official activity, you will have to provide the statutory documents of your foreign Company alongside with a current Certificate of Good Standing.
These documents are usually issued from your country’s Commercial (Trade) Register. In some countries like the UK, it is the “Companies House”. In other countries, the certificates are issued by the local municipalities, etc. In any case, the Company documents have to be originally signed and stamped (certified) by the issuing authority.
Legalization
The next step is the already certified Company document to be legalized. You get a public document “legalized” by asking your government to confirm that the public official’s signature, seal or stamp on the document is genuine. For the countries, members of the Hague Convention of 1961, the legalization of the documents is done by means of placing an apostille stamp (sticker). If the issuing country is not a member of the Hague Convention, the process is somewhat more complicated. Please get in touch with us if the latter is the case. You can read more about apostille and the contracts for legal aid that Bulgaria has signed with different countries.
The Bulgarian foreign ministry
The ultimate step is translating the legalized document and legalizing the translation with the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is of utmost importance to take into consideration that the translation has to be done by a special (so called “sworn”) Bulgarian translator who is registered and authorized by the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry to perform translations. Only such translations will be finally legalized by the Ministry and with that last step, the document is ready for official use in Bulgaria.
Some (important) details
Some practical tips: Sometimes some Names (ie person’s names, company’s names, streets, even cities, etc.) can be translated into Bulgarian differently, due to the Cyrillic alphabet’s particularities. If you want these names to appear, or more importantly to match some predefined criteria, please communicate that with so we can inform the translator about this in advance. If such “adjustments” are acceptable for the translator, it is perfectly legal to implement them. Another important thing is that one page of translation means 1800 characters (including spaces) output text. For example, English text results in about 20% more Bulgarian output text, so this has to be also taken into account.
How can we assist with your translation and legalization needs
Or knowledge and expertise
First and foremost we know what needs to be done and how it has to be done. Translating or legalizing your documents in an inappropriate way, even with the right translator (ie sworn translator) or certifying authority will jeopardize the whole certification process, or the so called “chain of actions”.
Interaction with the Bulgarian Embassies worldwide
We will process the whole batch of documents on turnkey basis in order to save the customer the hassle of running to all different institutions (authorized translation agencies, etc.) . When legalization is required from Bulgarian embassy abroad, we will arrange this formality too. In the unlikely event that there is no embassy is present, we will arrange the legalization with the authorized embassy of another country or with the Bulgarian embassy in another state that is authorized for that particular country.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us for free appraisal of your particular translation and legalization needs.