One World, Many Languages,
One Company, Worldwide™
Email a good quality copy of your document to Julien at frenchcontact@aol.com. Specify your ideal deadline.
Julien will email you a quote with the suggested turnaround time.
If you accept the quote, sign and date the quote, add your mailing address, and email it back to Julien. The payment is usually due before the translation process starts.
Once the translation is ready, Julien sends it to you by regular mail.
A quote is free. It includes the translation, the certification, and regular mail shipping costs.
Turnaround time is always relative to Julien’s current workload, so we recommend that you request a translation well in advance.
We do not need to physically have your original documents to issue a quote or a translation. A good copy will do. However, a scanned version of your document is much more legible than a picture taken with a cell phone.
Please do NOT snail mail original documents for fear they might get lost in the mail. We are not responsible for originals that get lost in the mail.
Expedited shipping and additional copies of the translation come at an extra cost.
Unfortunately, you may not pick up the translation in person. Translations are mailed only.
The translation is not valid without the original document, or without an original certification bearing the translator’s original signature and stamp. Scanned translations/certifications are usually not accepted.
Julien is not an employee of the French government or the US courts. Therefore, we suggest you check with them what exactly needs to be translated.
Clients usually ask: “are you certified?”. The question is: certified by whom? Anyone can “certify” something or someone, so that word doesn’t really mean anything. Julien is approved by the Consulate General of France in San Francisco. He is also a registered French court interpreter in California. There is no certification for French in California courts. He is, however, professionally qualified to work as an interpreter in federal courts.
An attestation of translation is a synonym for certification of translation. It means that the translator is competent in both languages and attests that their translation is complete and accurate to the best of their knowledge and ability.
In the US, a notarization is a document prepared by a notary public that says that the document they are notarizing was signed by the person who proved to them to be who they say they are. This means that a notary public cannot notarize a translation. Rather, they notarize the signature on the translation. Usually, clients do NOT need a notarization.
After you have translated your documents, the entity you give them to (for example, the French Consulate in San Francisco) may need to legalize them, which means they will add their own stamp, recognizing the translation as approved by their own services. This is an extra step that the client will usually have to do themselves. It is not included in our services.
Feel free to contact Julien.