Polish Birth Certificate Translation
Polish birth certificate translation to English for USCIS, a passport office, a school or a court, and from English into Polish for a Polish consulate or Urząd Stanu Cywilnego. We translate the odpis skrócony and the odpis zupełny aktu urodzenia, the multilingual odpis, and the older register copies that Polish families still hold.
- Up to 250 words per page
- $25 per page
- Standard turnaround
- From 24 hours
- Certificate of accuracy
- Signed & stamped
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Written for Polish birth certificate records
Which copy of the Polish akt urodzenia do you have?
The Urząd Stanu Cywilnego never hands out the original act. It issues an odpis, and the kind of odpis decides what the English copy can prove.
Odpis skrócony or odpis zupełny
The odpis skrócony is a one-page extract: the child's names and surname, sex, date and place of birth, and the parents' given names and nazwiska rodowe. The odpis zupełny reproduces the whole act word for word and adds the wzmianki dodatkowe, the notes written under it after an adoption, a paternity acknowledgment, a name change or a correction. USCIS accepts either, but a reader checking a changed name needs the zupełny. Both are usually one page at $25.
Nazwisko rodowe and inflected names
A Polish act lists the mother's nazwisko rodowe, her surname at birth, and the newer forms list the father's too. US forms have a field for the mother's maiden name only, so the translation labels each one. Older acts write the parents in the genitive, syn Jana i Marii z domu Nowak, and a woman's surname can appear as Nowakowa or Nowakówna. The translator writes the name in its base form and keeps the diacritics in ł, ś, ż and ń, since the passport does.
Register copies from before 1946 and from the Kresy
Civil registration in Poland was unified in 1946. Before that, a birth in the former Russian partition was entered by the parish in Russian from 1868 to 1915, in the Prussian partition by a Standesamt in German, and in Galicia in Latin or Polish. Births in towns that are now in Ukraine, Belarus or Lithuania are copied from the księgi zabużańskie held by the USC in Warsaw. We translate the Polish cover odpis and the historical entry together and mark what the archive copy has made illegible.
Who is asking for your Polish birth certificate translation?
The translation is the same. What changes is whether the recipient wants anything added to it.
USCIS
USCIS asks for a complete English translation and a signed certification from the translator. No notarization is needed.
US passports and the Department of State
The Department of State wants the translation notarized. Add notarization at checkout and we handle the rest.
Consulates abroad
Consulates receive the translation of a US document, often with an apostille on the original. Tell us the consulate in your order notes.
Before you upload
Three things that save a day of back and forth on a Polish birth certificate.
Scan the whole page
Include the back, the margins and any marginal notes. A later correction or a recognition of paternity is often written in the margin, and the recipient needs to see it translated.
Give us the English spelling of each name
If your passport or green card spells a name without an accent, tell us at checkout. The translation keeps the names as the certificate writes them and notes the spelling you use.
Order the format the recipient asked for
If they want the long form, send the long form. We translate what you upload and cannot add parents' details that a short-form extract leaves out.
Details and pricing
What is included in a Polish birth certificate translation
One price per page covers the translation and its certification. A page is up to 250 words, and the quote tells you the page count before you pay.
Everything on the birth certificate is translated, including stamps, seals and handwritten notes. Tell us the English spelling you use for each name when you order.
Certified Translation
Word-for-word translation with a certificate of accuracy for official use.
$25
USD / page
up to 250 words per page
Included
- Signed & stamped certification of translation accuracy
- Certified by a professional translator
- Digital delivery via PDF
- Review and approve final translation
- 100% Guaranteed Acceptance
- Standard turnaround starting at 24 hours
Optional services
- Expedited turnaround
- Priority handling when your deadline is shorter than the standard turnaround.
- By deadline
- Notarization
- A notary public signs and stamps the certification statement.
- $20 per order
- Physical copy
- A wet-ink original of your translation, mailed by express courier.
- $35 per order
- Apostille
- Authenticates the notary’s signature and seal for use in Hague Convention countries.
- $180 per document
What the certificate of accuracy states
Your translation arrives with a Certification of Translation Accuracy issued by ImmiTranslate. It is the page the receiving organization checks first.
- The translation is complete and accurate.
- The document title and the language pair.
- The translator is competent in both languages.
- A signature and the ImmiTranslate certification stamp.
- Our American Translators Association corporate membership.
Our translation process
Our goal is to make the translation process as simple as possible for you. Our service is streamlined specifically for documents of this nature.
Polish Birth Certificate FAQ
Most questions about pricing and turnaround can be answered faster by requesting a quote.
- Do I need the odpis zupełny for USCIS, or is the skrócony enough?
- For most petitions the odpis skrócony is enough, since it gives the names, the date and place of birth and the parents. Order the zupełny if your name has changed, if you were adopted, or if paternity was acknowledged after the birth, because only the full copy shows those notes. Any USC in Poland can issue either copy of an act registered anywhere in the country, and you can request it online with a Profil Zaufany.
- My odpis is on the multilingual form. Does it still need a translation?
- Usually yes. The odpis wielojęzyczny, issued under the 1976 Vienna convention, prints its headings in several languages, English included, but the entries, the issuing office and the stamp are in Polish, and the United States is not a party to that convention. A US recipient that wants a translation wants the whole page. We translate the entries and keep the printed English headings as they are.
- Can you translate a US birth certificate into Polish for the consulate?
- Yes, with one limit. A Polish consulate or USC registering a US birth by transkrypcja accepts a translation made by a tłumacz przysięgły listed in Poland or by the consul, and we hold neither appointment. Our Polish translation suits a Polish school, an employer, a bank or a family matter, and we can notarize it. For transkrypcja, the consulate's own page lists what it takes.
- How much does a certified translation cost?
- Certified translation is $25 per page, with a page counted as up to 250 words. Notarization, a mailed physical copy and an apostille are optional and priced separately.
- How long does a certified translation take?
- Standard turnaround starts at 24 hours and depends on the length and language of your documents. If you have a deadline, include it in your quote request.
Other Polish documents we translate
Birth certificate translation in other languages
Each of these pages is written for that language's birth certificate records.
Sending it with an application? Read the USCIS translation requirements, Apostille service before you order.