Request a Translation, Without the Guesswork
Every translation project begins with a request, and most delays begin there too. This page walks you through what our request form asks and why, how to prepare your files so nothing has to be re-sent, and exactly what happens after you press submit. A few careful minutes here save rounds of back-and-forth later.
- Clear guidance on photographing and scanning documents
- Know what happens after you submit, step by step
- Confidential handling from the first upload
- No obligation until you approve the quote
Three things to have at hand before you start
You do not need to know any technical vocabulary to request a translation. You only need the document, a little context, and the official spelling of the names inside it.
First, the document itself — complete. That means every page, including pages that look blank, and both sides of any sheet that carries a stamp, an endorsement or a handwritten note on the reverse. In our experience of reviewing incoming files, the single most common gap in a request is not a missing document but a missing part of one: the back of a certificate where the registrar stamped it, the last page of a contract where the signatures sit, or the annex a court referred to.
Second, the destination. Where will the translation be submitted — a UAE court, a notary public, a government department, a foreign embassy, an immigration authority abroad? The answer decides more than you might expect: it determines the certification format the finished translation must carry, whether attestation enters the picture, and sometimes the order in which those steps must happen. If you are not sure yet, say so in the request; an honest "I do not know" is far more useful to us than a guess, because we can help you find out before any work begins.
Third, the names. Any person or company named in your document already has an official spelling somewhere — a passport, an Emirates ID, a trade licence. The translation has to match that spelling letter for letter, because a one-letter difference between the translated document and the identity document in front of the receiving officer is among the most common reasons files get queried at the counter. Having those references ready when you submit means the spelling question is settled once, at the start, instead of surfacing at the worst possible moment.
What the request form asks — and why it asks it
Your document
We ask what kind of document you are sending — a certificate, a contract, a court bundle, a corporate set. This is not bureaucracy: it routes your request to the right specialist from the first minute, and it tells us which questions to ask you next, so you never face a wall of fields that do not apply to your situation.
Language direction
From which language, into which language. Direction matters more than people assume: translating into Arabic for a UAE authority is a different drafting exercise from translating out of Arabic for a foreign one, and documents that mix Arabic with English involve genuinely bidirectional text whose display order follows a formal Unicode algorithm, not the typist's intuition.
Where it is going
The receiving authority defines what "certified" means for your file. A UAE court, a common-law court in a financial free zone, a British visa officer and a Canadian immigration officer each expect a different certification package. Naming the destination in your request lets us build the right package the first time.
Your files
The upload step accepts scans and phone photos alike. What matters is that every page is present, every edge is inside the frame, and every stamp is whole. The preparation guide further down this page shows exactly how to get that right with nothing more than a phone camera and a flat table.
Names, exactly as registered
We ask you to tell us — or attach a reference for — the official spelling of every personal and company name in the document: passport, Emirates ID, trade licence. Transliteration is the single largest source of avoidable rejection risk, and this one field removes most of it.
Your details and your deadline
How to reach you, how you prefer to receive the finished work, and when you actually need it. Tell us about a hearing date or a submission window plainly. We will tell you just as plainly what is achievable — and we will never quietly drop quality steps to manufacture speed.
The destination decides the deliverable
One question in the form does more work than all the others: where is this translation going? The reason is simple and rarely explained. Certification is not a universal stamp; it is whatever the receiving authority says it is, and authorities differ in writing. The UAE government portal states that documents presented to UAE courts must be in Arabic and, where they are not, must be translated by a legal translator approved by the UAE Ministry of Justice. That is the baseline for onshore litigation — and it is a rule about who may translate, before it says anything about format.
Cross into the DIFC and the rule changes shape. The Rules of the DIFC Courts require a claim form served in the UAE outside the DIFC to be accompanied by a certified Arabic translation, and they spell out what must travel with it: a statement by the translator that the translation is correct, together with the translator's name, address and qualifications. Leave the UAE entirely and the pattern continues: UK Home Office guidance asks a certified translation to carry confirmation of accuracy, the date, the translator's full name and signature, and contact details, while Canadian immigration expects the translation to arrive with an affidavit from the translator and a certified photocopy of the original. Same document, four destinations, four different deliverables.
This is why we will never quote you a generic "certified translation" without knowing the recipient. It is also why the honest answer to "will it be accepted?" is never a guarantee — no provider controls a government counter — but a method: identify the recipient, meet the recipient's stated requirements precisely, and flag anything that needs confirming with the authority itself before you submit. That method is built into the first screen of our request form.
Want this checked for your own document?
Preparing your files: the checklist we wish every client had
- Lay the document flat on a plain surface in even daylight, hold the phone directly above it, and let the camera focus before you shoot — a flat, square-on capture beats a clever angle every time.
- Capture every page, including pages that look blank — registrars and notaries often stamp or annotate the reverse, and a stamp we never saw is a stamp we cannot account for.
- Keep all four edges of the paper inside the frame. Stamps, seals and security features live at the margins, and a cropped corner at upload time becomes a question at the counter later.
- If a seal or endorsement on your document is in a third language — neither the source nor the target — include it clearly. It is part of the document and may need translating in its own right.
- For multi-page documents, send one file with the pages in order where you can, or number the images. Page order is legal information, not housekeeping.
- Send the document itself, not a screenshot of it. Screenshots shrink resolution, crop margins and strip the file of useful detail — open the original file or re-photograph the paper instead.
- Attach a reference for the official spelling of every person named: the passport photo page or Emirates ID does this in one image.
- For companies, give us the exact registered legal name as it appears on the trade licence — not the brand name on the website or the sign above the door.
- If earlier documents in the same matter were already translated and accepted, attach them. Matching previously approved wording, defined terms and name spellings is far easier before work starts than after delivery.
- Tell us about damage honestly: a torn corner, a faded seal, water marks, an illegible signature. We would rather plan for it with you than discover it mid-project.
Phone photo or flat scan? An honest answer
A phone photo is enough when…
- The document is a single sheet or a few pages in good condition
- Print is dark, recent and machine-typed rather than handwritten
- Stamps and seals are crisp and fully visible in the frame
- You are requesting a quote and can supply a better capture before work begins
Ask for a flat scan when…
- The document is old, faded, creased or previously folded
- It carries embossed seals, fine security print or a QR code that must stay readable
- It runs to many pages where consistent lighting matters — court bundles, corporate sets
- The receiving authority will compare the translation page by page against the source
Upload mistakes that cost days — and their simple fixes
The mistakeThe photo crops the edge of a stamp, the QR code or a security feature, and nobody notices until the receiving officer does.
The fixBefore sending, zoom into your own photo and check every corner. If any mark touches the edge of the frame, re-shoot from slightly higher.
The mistakeOnly the front of each page is sent, though the registrar's endorsement, the notary's stamp or a continuation of the text sits on the back.
The fixTurn every sheet over once before you finish. If anything at all is printed, stamped or written there, capture it.
The mistakeA messaging app compresses the images on the way, and the fine print that was readable on your phone arrives as grey fog.
The fixSend images as files or documents rather than inline photos, or use the upload field in our request form, which does not recompress your files.
The mistakeThe request says "translate the attached contract" but the attachment holds only the odd pages, or the annexes are missing.
The fixCount the pages of the paper document, then count the pages of the file. The two numbers should match before you press send.
The mistakeNames are typed into the message from memory, and the spelling differs from the passport by one letter.
The fixNever type names from memory. Attach the identity document, or copy the spelling from it character by character.
The mistakeThe text of the document is pasted into the message body instead of the document being attached, losing the stamps, layout and signatures that make it a document.
The fixAlways attach the document as an image or file. For official use we translate the document, not a transcript of it.
The mistakeThe deadline is left out of the request "to see the price first", and the schedule question restarts the whole conversation a day later.
The fixState the real deadline and what drives it — a hearing, a flight, a submission window. Scope and schedule are quoted together, honestly.
Documents ready and destination known? That is everything the form needs. A person — not a queue — reads every request that arrives.
Start your requestAfter you press send: what actually happens to your request
A confirmation, then a human
You receive confirmation that the request arrived, and it lands with our coordination team — not in a generic inbox. From this moment your files are already inside our confidentiality practice: access limited to the people who need it to prepare your quote.
The file check
Before anything is priced, a human looks at what you sent: are all pages present, are stamps whole, are names referenced, is anything illegible? If something needs a better capture or a missing page, we ask now — at the start, when it costs you a minute, not mid-project when it costs the schedule.
Your quote, in plain terms
You receive a quote describing exactly what will be delivered, for which destination, in what form. Nothing starts until you approve it, and asking questions about it commits you to nothing. If your document turns out to need something we do not provide, we say so.
Assignment and setup
On approval, your document is assigned to the translator whose specialisation fits it. For repeat clients and related matters we set up the terminology first: earlier approved translations, defined terms and name spellings become the working reference before the first sentence is translated.
Translation, then a second pair of eyes
We work to the model the international quality standard for translation services describes: the translator translates and self-checks, then a second linguist revises the target against the source line by line. The translator's own check never substitutes for that independent revision, whatever the deadline.
Delivery — and availability afterwards
You receive the finished translation in the form your destination requires, with the certification elements that destination expects. If the receiving authority later queries anything, you are not alone at the counter: come back to us with the query and we will address it with you.
Have a question about your case?
Who sees your files — and who never will
The documents people send us are rarely trivial: divorce papers, medical reports, shareholder disputes, wills. So the confidentiality question deserves more than a padlock icon. Inside MANJAZ, your files are handled on a need-to-know basis — the coordinator who prepares your quote, the translator assigned to your matter, and the reviser who checks the work. Nobody else has a reason to open them, so nobody else does.
Your documents are never pasted into public machine-translation websites or consumer AI tools. Those services may retain and reuse what is typed into them, which is incompatible with handling a client's legal papers. The translation technology we do use is professional tooling under our control, chosen with a simple test in mind: where do the data sit, and who can access them.
The law reinforces this. The UAE's federal Personal Data Protection Law — Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021, in force since early 2022 — governs how personal data is processed, and the framework contemplates written terms between a client entrusting personal data and the provider processing it. If your organisation requires a non-disclosure agreement or written data-processing terms before uploading anything, ask for that in your request; we treat such paperwork as a normal part of professional service, not an obstacle.
One honest nuance: the UAE runs more than one data-protection regime. A company established in the DIFC, for example, sits under the DIFC's own data protection law rather than the federal statute. Which rules apply to your documents can therefore depend on where you are established — a point we confirm case by case rather than assume, and one worth raising in your request if your matter is data-sensitive.
The words you will meet in the form
- Source and target language
- The language your document is written in, and the language it must end up in. Together they form the language direction — and direction shapes drafting, layout and typesetting, not just vocabulary.
- Certified translation
- A translation issued with a formal declaration of accuracy in the form the receiving authority requires. What that form is — a signed statement, stated qualifications, an affidavit — is defined by the recipient, which is why the form asks where your document is going.
- Legal translation
- Translation of documents with legal effect — contracts, judgments, powers of attorney. In the UAE, documents presented to the courts must be in Arabic, translated where necessary by a legal translator approved by the Ministry of Justice.
- Translator's declaration
- The block on the finished translation in which the translator formally confirms its accuracy. Some authorities specify its content precisely — the DIFC Courts, for instance, require the translator's name, address and qualifications with the statement.
- Attestation
- A separate procedure from translation: authorities validate the document or the signatures on it. A foreign judgment to be enforced in the UAE, for example, requires attestation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in addition to Arabic translation. If you need both, say so in the request so the order of steps can be planned.
- Transliteration
- Rendering a name in the other script. There is rarely one "correct" spelling in the abstract — the correct spelling is the one already on your passport, Emirates ID or trade licence, which is why the form asks for those references.
- Bidirectional text
- Text mixing right-to-left Arabic with left-to-right elements — numbers, case references, Latin-script names. Its display order is governed by the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm, and handling it correctly is part of professional Arabic typesetting, not an optional polish.
- Quote
- Our written offer describing scope, deliverable and schedule for your specific request. Requesting one commits you to nothing; work begins only after you approve it.
Situations we see every week — and what to do in each
All I have is a phone photo of a certificate issued decades ago, and the circular seal has faded.
What is usually neededSend the best capture you can make in daylight and tell us it is the only copy. We will tell you honestly what is legible. Where an element genuinely cannot be read, professional practice is to describe it transparently rather than guess — an invented name in a translation is far worse than an honest note — and we will flag before submission anything the receiving authority may query.
My document has an endorsement on the back and I am not sure it matters.
What is usually neededIt matters. Endorsements, stamps and marginal notes are part of the legal content of a document, and the working principle in certified work is that nothing on the page is silently dropped. Photograph both sides of every sheet and let the translator decide what needs rendering — that decision is our job, not yours.
The seal on my certificate is in a third language — neither the source nor the target of my request.
What is usually neededInclude it clearly in your capture and mention it in the request notes. A seal is part of the document, and a receiving authority may need its content accounted for. Naming the third language, if you know it, helps us plan the right linguist from the start.
I am outside the UAE entirely and cannot visit an office.
What is usually neededThe request, the quote, the questions and the delivery of the translation can all be handled remotely — the form works the same from any country. What deserves early attention is the physical dimension: whether your receiving authority needs a hard copy with original stamps, and how that copy will reach you or the authority. Raise it in the request and we plan it with you.
I have a court bundle and a hearing date that is uncomfortably close.
What is usually neededSay the hearing date in the request, plainly. Some things compress well — setup, sequencing, translating independent documents in parallel. One thing does not: the independent revision of the translation by a second linguist, which we do not drop under deadline pressure. You will get an honest answer about what is achievable, and you will get it quickly.
This is the fifth agreement in a series, and the earlier four used very specific wording.
What is usually neededAttach the earlier approved translations, or tell us they exist. We build the matter glossary from them — defined terms, party names, recurring clauses — so the fifth agreement speaks the same language as the first four, and the reviser checks consistency against the series as well as against the source.
What to attach, and what to tell us
| Document set | Attach | Tell us |
|---|---|---|
| Personal certificate (birth, marriage, divorce) | Both sides of every page; passport or Emirates ID of each person named | Which authority will receive it, here or abroad |
| Court documents and case files | The full bundle in page order, annexes included | The court, the case reference and any hearing date |
| Corporate set (MoA, resolutions, licences) | The trade licence alongside the documents, for exact registered names | The registrar or authority the set is prepared for |
| Power of attorney | The draft or executed POA; identity documents of principal and attorney | Whether notarisation is part of your plan, so sequencing can be considered |
| Academic records | Certificates and transcripts together, including any stamps on the reverse | The purpose — employment, further study or equivalency — and the destination country |
The strongest request is not the longest one. It is the one where every page, every stamp and every name arrives exactly as the receiving authority will see them.
Not sure which route applies to your document?
Around your request
Questions people ask before they press send
For requesting a quote, clear phone photos are almost always enough — the comparison earlier on this page shows when a flat scan is the better choice. Whether the receiving authority will want to sight original documents at submission is a separate question that depends on the authority, and we will flag it for your destination before work begins.
We need to see it, even if it turns out to be empty. Stamps, endorsements and continuation text on the reverse are part of the document, and certified work follows the principle that nothing on the page is silently dropped. Turning each sheet over takes seconds; discovering a missed stamp at the counter costs a resubmission.
Usually yes, with honesty on both sides. We translate what is legible and, where an element genuinely cannot be read, professional practice is to describe it transparently rather than invent content. We will also tell you before submission that the receiving authority may query the illegible element, so the decision to proceed stays informed — and stays yours.
The coordinator preparing your quote, the translator assigned to your matter, and the second linguist who revises the work. Access follows need-to-know, not convenience. Your documents are never pasted into public machine-translation sites or consumer AI tools, and if your organisation needs an NDA or written processing terms first, ask in the request — we treat that as normal professional practice.
Keeping project records serves you — it is what lets a later document in the same matter match the earlier wording. But retention is your call to influence: if you want your files deleted after delivery, or retained for consistency with future work, say so in the request or afterwards and we will agree the position with you in writing. UAE data-protection law also gives individuals rights over their personal data, including correction of inaccurate data.
The request, quote, clarifications and digital delivery — yes, entirely. The one thing to plan early is physical paper: some receiving authorities want a hard copy bearing original stamps, and couriering that copy across borders takes time you will want on your side. Mention your country and your authority in the request and the plan is built around them.
Exactly as it appears on the identity document you give us as reference — passport, Emirates ID or trade licence. Where your documents disagree with each other, we raise it with you before translating rather than choosing silently, because the receiving officer will compare the translation against whichever identity document is on the table.
Come back to us with the query, in whatever words the authority used. No honest provider can promise in advance what any government counter will decide, and we will not pretend otherwise. What we commit to is the method that prevents most refusals — meeting the recipient's stated requirements precisely — and to standing with you if a question does come, addressing it rather than leaving you alone with it.
They are different procedures — translation renders the content, attestation validates the document or its signatures — and some journeys need both. A foreign judgment headed for enforcement in the UAE, for instance, requires attestation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in addition to Arabic translation. Ask about both in one request; sequencing them correctly for your destination is exactly the kind of planning the request stage exists for.
Submitting the form commits you to nothing. It opens a conversation: we review your files, ask anything that needs asking, and send a quote. Work begins only after you approve that quote. If you decide not to proceed, tell us — and if you would like the files you uploaded deleted at that point, say so and it is done.
You can submit documents and quote requests online at any time through the request form, WhatsApp or email. Translation, review and stamping are scheduled during working hours, and the team confirms when your job will be handled once it has been reviewed. If a court or embassy deadline falls right after a weekend, send the file beforehand so it can be planned properly.
Yes. Send clear scans or photos of every page, including stamps and reverse sides, by WhatsApp or email, and state the target language and the authority that will receive the translation. MANJAZ reviews the file and replies with a quote and a delivery estimate. Files sent this way are handled confidentially, and originals are only needed if the receiving authority requires them.
Acceptance depends on the receiving authority, not on how the request was placed. Ordering online is simply a delivery channel; the translation is still prepared by a legal translator licensed by the UAE Ministry of Justice and stamped in the usual way, with a physical stamped copy delivered when required. Some entities accept scanned stamped translations, while courts and notaries generally still expect originals. Ask the authority first.
Official references
- u.ae — Litigation procedures: Civil cases (UAE Government portal)
- u.ae — Data protection laws (UAE Government portal)
- DIFC Courts — Rules of the DIFC Courts, Part 9
- GOV.UK — Guide to supporting documents: visiting the UK
- IRCC Help Centre — Language of supporting documents
- Unicode Consortium — UAX #9: Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm
This page is general information about translation services, not legal advice. Requirements are set by the authority receiving your document and can change — always confirm with the receiving authority or ask us to check for your specific case.
Ready to translate your document?
Send the document and we confirm the exact certification the receiving authority expects.