Frequently Asked Questions

When you must submit translation (deed or other document) for a procedure prescribed by a legal rule, and the legal rule stipulates that the translation must be certified. In Hungary, certified translation can be done exclusively by OFFI Ltd unless the law provides otherwise. Also known as attested translation, certified translation is controlled by revisers, proofreaders and drafters (in accordance with ISO and Hungarian Standard No. 17100); consequently the price of certified translation is higher than “non-certified” (technical) translation.

If you are not obliged by any legal rule to have a certified translation prepared, we offer you our technical (also known as specialized) translation service.

• Is the translation for an individual or a company? (Whom should OFFI invoice?) It is necessary to provide the exact company name, invoicing address, tax number, as well as the name and phone number of a contact person.
• Into what language do you want the document translated?
• When do you want to receive the translation?
• For what purpose will you use the translation?
• Lower prices mean a longer time limit. Does this suit you?
• Are you sure that you need a certified translation?
• Shall we attach the prepared certified translation to an original document, or to a copy certified (notarized) by a notary public?
• If you are unable to present the original document (i.e. you only have a photocopy), are you sure that the translation will be appropriate with the header “Certified translation from a non-certified photocopy in … language?

Administration takes about 10 minutes, but only if you arrive well prepared, and know the answer to all our questions. In exceptional cases, e.g. subsequent delivery/presentation of the source language document, administration can last up to half an hour, but at least 20 minutes. In the case of a special issue (e.g. name checking for re-writing) it may happen that we cannot deliver the translation to you on the same day.

In order to be able to fulfil your request, you are kindly requested to arrive no later than 1 hour before our cash desk and office is closed. The issue of serial numbers is stopped 45 minutes before the closing of the office.

We thank you for your co-operation and understanding.

YES. At our Budapest Customer Service, our desk clerks are listed by name on the monitor when you take a number. If you are a returning customer, it is worth choosing a clerk you already know.

If your clerk does not work on a given day, you can contact any other staff.

YES. You can pay with a credit card in all our offices personally when you place your order or pick up the finished translation.

You can also pay with a card when you order translation online, through the client portal.

Yes, of course. For several years now, technical translations can be ordered via our online client portal. (ATTENTION! For the time being, certified translation cannot be ordered online.)

You can have access to our client portal at this link; please first register HERE for use.

For the time being certified translations cannot be ordered online. The reason for this is that we must check the authenticity of the document, and this can only be done face-to-face in our offices. You can receive the finished certified translation attached to the original document personally in our offices.

For years now, non-certified translations can be ordered through our online client portal. You can have access to our client portal at this link; please first register HERE for use.

If you are not obliged by legal rules to present certified translation, you should order technical translation, which is more favourably priced.

However, if you need to have a deed or another document translated for a procedure prescribed in a legal rule, and it is expressly stipulated in the legal rule that translation must be certified, you need a certified translation which may be prepared exclusively by OFFI under the legal rules in force.

In some cases (e.g. preparation of draft documents for discussion with an attorney at law, translation of corporate marketing materials, or translation of a material required for understanding a contract), when technical translation is also sufficient. In this case the translation is not reviewed by a proofreader, and therefore you can use our translation service at a more favourable price.

YES. “Revised translation” means that the translator’s work is revised by a highly qualified and experienced reviser also known as language editor. 

Non-revised translations are not checked by revisers, and therefore can be prepared faster and at a lower price.

If you need double-checked professional translation, you may want to order a revised translation. In such a case you must consider two additional factors: longer translation time and higher price.

What is the same? Both kinds of translation are prepared by excellent professionals.

What is different? There are basically two differences between “certified translation” and “technical translation”: time and price.

Each “Certified translation” is checked by a reviser (also known as language and/or technical editor), i.e. the translator’s work is revised by another highly qualified and experienced professional.

“Non-certified translations” are not revised, and are therefore prepared faster and at a lower price.

However, if you need a double-checked, i.e. professional translation, you can of course request revised translation. In such cases you must consider two additional factors: the translation will take longer and the price will be higher.

Act CXXX of 2016 on the Code of Civil Procedure effective as of 01 January 2016 provides for customer-friendly and legal cost-efficient practices of courts, whereby it is not required in every case to submit certified translation of non-Hungarian documents in civil law matters. This means that the certified translation prepared by OFFI is only needed if it is specifically prescribed by another legal rule, or is expressly ordered by the court.

In the absence of such legal provision or express request from a judge, it is sufficient to submit more favourably priced non-certified translations. Similarly to certified translations, OFFI prepares superior quality non-certified translations.

From our database of 500 translators we choose according to your specific needs. You can order non-certified (also known as technical) translations online HERE. (The price of non-certified translations ordered via the client portal is always more favourable than the price of services ordered face-to-face.)

As of 16 February 2019, the recognition of public documents issued by the authorities of 28 Member States of the Union, as well as, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland and to be presented in another Member State will become simpler. The new provisions of the relevant EU Regulation cover the documents serving to certify the following facts:

• birth, a person being alive, death
• name
• marriage, marital status, divorce, legal separation or marriage annulment
• registered domestic partnership, as well as the dissolution or annulment thereof
• parenthood, adoption
• domicile and/or residence
• nationality
• absence of a criminal record.

Pursuant to the rules, at the request of each Union citizen, the issuing authority must also attach a multilingual standard form containing the translation of the essential data of the document to the document issued to him/her for the purpose of certifying the above. Find out more HERE.

Yes. Unless otherwise provided for by law, certified translation may exclusively be prepared by OFFI. However, companies register extracts, certificates of incorporation, data to be entered in the companies register and corporate documents may be translated to any official language of the European Union not only by OFFI, but other translators holding translator or translator-reviser qualification.

OFFI regularly translates extracts from the companies register and other certificates of incorporation for its clients, at more favourable prices than those of certified translations.

For the time being, translations of Companies Register Extracts at reduced-rate prices are available in the following language pairs:​

From the following foreign languages into Hungarian:

• • English (companies register certificate issued in English in the Netherlands)
  • Romanian
  • Slovak
  • German (certificate of incorporation issued in German in Germany)

From Hungarian into:

• • English
  • German
  • Slovak
  • Romanian
  • Italian
  • Russian
  • Spanish

Translations of companies register extracts or certificates can be ordered in the form of certified or non-certified translation.

NO. “Official translation” is not an official designation; it is used by translation agencies not entitled to prepare “certified translations.” “Official translation” does not replace “certified translation” prepared by OFFI. It is important that you always inquire at the authority requesting the translation whether the “certified translation” of OFFI is expected, or whether a simple “technical translation” is sufficient. (The latter group includes the translation called official.)

We are at your disposal in case you need “technical translation”. The pricing of technical translation is more favourable, as it is not increased by the price of proof-reading.

For more information about certified translation, click HERE, and about technical translation, click HERE.

During web search you can meet the terms “certified technical translation,” “attested technical translation” or “certified professional translation.” Currently, OFFI is the only entity authorized to prepare certified translation, save for some exceptions mentioned in legal rules. Apart from these exceptions, any so-called “certified” or “attested” translation that has not been issued by OFFI should be considered non-certified translations. Consequently, the term “certified (or attested) technical (or professional) translation” which can be found on the internet can be easily misunderstood, as this term is not included in legal rules in force. Find out more about certified translation here, and about non-certified translation here.

Hundreds of translators, revisers, senior and terminologists work to deliver the orders, including colleagues with decades of translator’s experience. Admission to OFFI’s database of translators and revisers of OFFI is subject to specific professional and quality criteria. Our in-house staff choose the translator whose professional skills are best suited to your order.

Our translators have to go through a quality assurance procedure, and the translation of our high-priority clients are managed by a specially established project management department.

Quality is particularly important for OFFI, and therefore we provide training courses and consultations for our revisers and translators. We also organize conferences to promote continuous development. Professional publications are prepared by OFFI Academy.

Of our mentor programme, new translators who passed the admission procedure are assigned to a mentor with many years of experience. Translator students are trained on the basis of strict principles laid down in our trainee programme. Our mentor and trainee programmes ensure that sufficient numbers of translators are available for translation into any foreign language commissions in Hungary by the appropriate deadline, even during the summer holidays.

OFFI translates many different types of documents and certificates. Our specialists have decades of experience in the field of document translation. We undertake to translate certain types of documents at fixed prices, irrespective of the actual number of characters, consequently your cost can be accurately planned in advance.

The most frequent types of documents include certificates of birth, death or marriage, proof of life certificates, nationality certificates, identity cards, address certificates or address cards, passports, certificates of criminal record, certificates proving qualification, diplomas, language proficiency examination certificates, issued either in Hungarian or foreign languages.

The rules of the Hungarian transliteration of foreign common nouns and proper nouns are determined and published by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in its publication entitled “The Hungarian Spelling Rules”. The rules valid from 1 September 2015 can be found in the 12th edition of the abovenamed book. According to Point 218, proper nouns taken over from languages with non-Latin alphabets must be transliterated with the Hungarian alphabet directly from the source language, without involving any pivot language. This rule is not under the discretion of translators, and therefore they translate foreign language personal status documents (e.g. foreign language civil registration certificates) according to the rules of the Academy referred to above. The name in the translated document is transliterated from the source language by the translator. If the Hungarian transliteration differs from the English transliteration in the passport issued abroad, OFFI Ltd attests in a clause that the two different name forms indicate the same person.

OFFI Ltd is a 100% state-owned company providing translation certification and certified translation services for remuneration. OFFI Ltd. fulfils its mandate as a public task, on the basis of a service provision obligation, and not as a market activity. OFFI has liability insurance and ISO 9001:2008 certification, it has duty of service provision, its data protection system guarantees that personal and other data included in the documents cannot be obtained by unauthorized persons.

All translations ordered from us are characterized by high quality standards and safe data handling. All our employees are highly qualified specialists working on the basis of our Code of Ethics. OFFI has a perfectly closed administration system that fully complies with data protection requirements, and therefore your private or company documents are safe with us.

OFFI Ltd has been granted a Facility Security Clearance Certificate issued by the National Security Authority. The certificate consists of a data processing licence and a computer system licence and also determines the maximum level of classified contracts where the economic operator can be involved, as well as the level of classified data that it has the licences to process.

For OFFI Ltd:
The data processing licence issued by the National Security Authority (with file No. IV-NBF/1/929-1/2014) allows for the use and closed storage of classified data up to the classification levels "Top secret!"(national level), NATO SECRET, SECRET UE/EU SECRET.
The computer system licence issued by the National Security Authority (with file No. 30710-1/1175-4/2020.TÜK) on the electronic management of classified data allows for processing and creating classified data electronically up to the classification levels "Top secret!"(national level), NATO SECRET, SECRET UE/EU SECRET.

Based on the decision of the Minister of Defence (registration No.: 1288-12/2010), OFFI has been granted the “Suitable Supplier for NATO” (hereinafter “SSN”) certification within the framework of the Security Investment Programme of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Having the title of NATO Supplier, OFFI may participate in NATO tenders.

Together, the Facility Security Clearance Certificate issued by the National Security Authority and the SSN title allow for OFFI to participate, beyond general tenders, also in tenders with specific requirements (NATO – European Defence Agency: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/62249.htmopens new window, https://www.eda.europa.eu/opens new window) where the capacity to process and create data classified as "Top secret!"(national level), NATO SECRET, SECRET UE/EU SECRET is a prerequisite.

OFFI may participate in these tenders both as a contractor or as the sub-contractor of other companies.
Our company is listed in the NATO Supplier Information website operated by the Ministry of Defence, as well as the List of Current NATO Supplier Companies: http://www.natotender.gov.hu.opens new window