Answers to Ontario certified translation questions about IRCC, OINP, ATIO, notarization, pricing, driver licences and turnaround times.
Yes. For IRCC applications, regular certified translation is usually sufficient.
For most immigration files submitted to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, you do not need the more expensive ATIO route. Regular certified translation is the normal option for birth certificates, marriage certificates, police certificates, diplomas, transcripts, military records, employment letters, and other supporting documents. Our free checker lets you compare Canadian immigration programs with your profile; it provides information, not an immigration decision.
Each translation we issue for IRCC is accompanied by a signed translator declaration, full contact details, and the seal of the agency. IRCC reviewers can verify our translators if needed. We have been issuing translations for IRCC applications since 2008 without rejections related to format.
If your specific receiving officer or program (such as OINP, refugee files routed through specific case-officer teams, or WES via IRCC) names a stricter requirement, send that instruction with your file and we will switch you to the ATIO route at no extra fee. Read the full IRCC guide, or go directly to birth certificate, marriage certificate, police certificate, or diploma and transcript guides.
OINP usually requires ATIO-certified translation, not regular certified translation.
If the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program asks for translation of your supporting documents, regular certified translation is generally not enough. This is one of the clearest cases where ATIO-certified translation is the safer and more appropriate choice from the start.
The reason is procedural: OINP wants verifiable provincial certification, and the Association of Translators and Interpreters of Ontario (ATIO) is the recognised provincial body. An ATIO translator carries a registration number that the program can look up. Regular certified translations - even from experienced agencies - do not always pass this verification step.
If you are not sure whether your specific OINP stream requires ATIO, send us the requirement page from your case officer and we will confirm before you pay. Read the full OINP guide.
The difference is who certifies the translation and which receiving body needs that level.
Regular certified translation is the standard option for most Canadian official-use cases (IRCC, schools, employers, most banks). It includes a translator declaration of accuracy, full translator contact information, and the agency seal. Price starts at $59 for a one-page document, turnaround is 1-2 business days.
ATIO-certified translation is completed and stamped by a translator registered with the Association of Translators and Interpreters of Ontario. It carries a provincial certification number. Required by OINP, Service Ontario driver licence exchange, some courts, and professional licensing bodies such as PEO, CPSO, NDEB, OCT and PEBC. Price starts at $99, turnaround 2-4 business days depending on language availability.
Notarized translation adds a notary public's verification on top of the translation. The translator swears the affidavit before the notary. This route is used when the receiving body specifically asks for notarization, or when the source language has no ATIO-certified translator available. Price starts at $99, turnaround 2-4 business days.
Read the full guide on certified vs ATIO or see certified vs notarized.
A regular certified translation starts from $59 per document for a standard one-page personal document.
Typical 2026 starting prices for the most common requests:
Final price depends on document length, language pair, formatting (tables, stamps, handwriting), and turnaround. We quote in writing before any work starts. Taxes (HST 13%) are not included in the prices above. See the full pricing page.
Per-word pricing applies to business and technical translation, starting from $0.10 to $0.25 CAD per source word.
Personal documents (certificates, licences, transcripts) are priced per document or per page, not per word - that is industry standard. The fixed-price model exists because short certificates carry a lot of certification overhead (declaration, stamp, layout) that does not scale linearly with word count.
For business and technical work, our 2026 ranges are: $0.10-$0.14 per word for general business material, $0.15-$0.20 for legal and marketing, $0.18-$0.25 for technical, medical, and patent translation. ATIO-certified business translation is priced separately on request.
If you need a price for a specific document, send it to us - a real quote takes ten minutes and is much more accurate than averaging per-word rates. See the pricing page or upload your file for a quote.
Upload a photo of both sides of your foreign driver's licence and we deliver an MTO-accepted certified translation in 1-2 business days, starting from $59.
For DriveTest licence exchange in Ontario, the Ministry of Transportation accepts translations from ATIO-certified translators or notarized translations sworn before a notary public. We produce both formats; the ATIO route is the cleaner and cheaper option because DriveTest examiners recognise the certification stamp on sight.
The order steps:
Read the full driver's licence guide or see the MTO-approved translators page.
No. A driver's licence does not automatically require ATIO-certified translation - it depends on where the translation will be presented.
For DriveTest licence exchange in Ontario, regular certified translation is usually enough. But the same translated licence may be needed for an insurance company, a car rental, a U.S. consulate, a school registration, or an employer - and in those cases a regular certified translation is usually enough.
The rule we follow: the requirement comes from the institution that will receive the document, not from the document type itself. Tell us where the licence translation will go and we confirm the right format before billing.
You need notarized translation only when the receiving body explicitly asks for notarization.
Notarization is not the default option for IRCC, most schools, most employers, or most provincial agencies. It is used in narrower cases: some U.S. submissions, some embassy applications, some court matters, and cases where the source language has no ATIO-certified translator available.
Because notarization adds time (2-4 business days instead of 1-2) and cost (from $99 instead of $59), it is best ordered only when it is actually required. If a generic checklist says "notarized translation" without a clear reason, ask the institution first - in many cases regular certified translation will be accepted.
Most regular certified translations are ready in 1 to 2 business days.
Typical 2026 turnaround at our offices:
Business days do not include Saturdays, Sundays, or Canadian holidays. If you order on Friday afternoon, count Monday as day one. For urgent immigration deadlines, mention the deadline in the order notes and we will tell you within an hour whether we can meet it. Read the full 24-hour guide.
Our standard turnaround is in business days only - Saturdays, Sundays, and Canadian statutory holidays are not counted.
If you upload a document on Friday at 5 PM with a "1-2 business day" turnaround, the work starts Monday and delivery is Tuesday or Wednesday. For weekend work, we offer paid rush options for certain document types - contact the office before paying to confirm feasibility.
Yes. Most clients order entirely online and never set foot in our office.
The full online process:
In-person service is available at Toronto Bloor, Toronto Yonge, and Ottawa offices, but it is not required for IRCC, schools, employers, or DriveTest. The digital certified PDF is accepted everywhere a paper copy would be.
Read the full guide to choosing the right translation format.
Upload a clear photo of the entire birth certificate (front and back) and we deliver a certified English translation in 1-2 business days, starting from $59.
Birth certificates are the single most common document we translate. They are used for immigration (IRCC), passport applications, school registration, name changes, marriage, and legal matters. The certified translation includes every visible element on the original - names, dates, registry numbers, stamps, seals, and back-side notes.
For IRCC applications the regular certified translation is enough; you do not need ATIO unless OINP specifically asks for it. If the certificate has both a short-form and long-form version, send the long-form - IRCC and most other Canadian receivers prefer it.
Read the full birth certificate guide or see the service page.
IRCC does not publish an "approved translator list" - they accept work from any qualified translator. ATIO publishes a public directory of its certified members.
What this means in practice: there is no IRCC list to join. Any agency or independent translator can produce IRCC-acceptable work as long as the four requirements are met (complete translation, translator full name and contact details, signed declaration of accuracy, and a sworn affidavit if the translator is not a member of a recognised association). Our certified translations meet all four.
ATIO does maintain a searchable directory at atio.on.ca. The translators we use for ATIO-certified work are listed there - if you need to verify, we can give you the certification number and you can look it up before payment.
For Ontario DriveTest / MTO licence exchange, regular certified translation is usually enough; no separate MTO-approved translator list is maintained. See the MTO-approved translators page.
We have three offices in Ontario: Toronto Bloor, Toronto Yonge, and Ottawa. We serve Mississauga, Brampton, Hamilton, London, and the rest of Ontario online, with mail delivery.
Office addresses:
If you live outside Toronto or Ottawa - for example in Mississauga, Brampton, Hamilton, Markham, Vaughan, Kitchener, Windsor, or London - the online process is identical, and a hard copy can be mailed free of charge to a Canadian address. There is no functional difference between an in-person and an online order; the certified translation is the same document either way.
The most common personal documents are driver's licences, birth certificates, marriage certificates, police certificates, diplomas, transcripts, passports, and immigration records.
These documents are ordered most often for immigration to Canada (IRCC, OINP), school and university admissions (WES, ICAS), licence exchange (DriveTest / MTO), work permits, name changes after marriage, and court matters. We also translate civil records (divorce, name change), military records, medical records, and identity cards.
For each document we have a dedicated guide with the specific requirements: driver's licences, birth certificates, marriage certificates, police certificates, diplomas and transcripts, passports, and name-change documents.
We work with more than 50 languages into English or French for certified translation, and over 250 languages for business and technical translation.
The most common language pairs for certified translation in Ontario: Spanish-English, French-English, Mandarin Chinese-English, Arabic-English, Russian-English, Ukrainian-English, Punjabi-English, Hindi-English, Korean-English, Vietnamese-English, Tagalog/Filipino-English, Persian/Farsi-English, Urdu-English, Portuguese-English, Tamil-English, and Romanian-English.
For ATIO-certified translation the language list is narrower because it depends on certified-translator availability. If we cannot offer ATIO for your language pair, we offer the notarized route instead, which is acceptable to IRCC, OINP, and most other Canadian institutions.
For rare and minority languages (Tigrinya, Oromo, Kirundi, Kinyarwanda, Pashto, Dari, Kurdish, Burmese, Khmer, Lao, and similar) we have specialised translators on call - the turnaround may be slightly longer but the format is identical.
We have a 5.0 rating on Google Maps across our Toronto Bloor and Ottawa offices, with thousands of reviews.
You can read real customer reviews directly on Google:
We were a Consumer Choice Award winner in 2019 and have been operating in Ontario since 2008. Some customers also leave feedback directly through our feedback page.
A clear scan or phone photo is enough. We do not need the original.
Both IRCC and most other Canadian receiving bodies accept certified translations made from a clear copy of the original document. The certification statement refers to the copy that the translator worked from, not to the physical original. There is no need to mail us your only birth certificate or passport.
What matters is image quality: all four corners visible, no glare on stamps, handwriting readable. If your photo cuts off a corner or has a shadow over a stamp, we will ask for a re-shoot before billing.
For documents with a back side (civil certificates, driver's licences), send both sides even if the back looks blank - registry notes and authentication marks are often there.
Special-use cases should be routed by the receiving institution, not guessed from the document type alone.
Courts may require ATIO-certified translation, notarization, or even a sworn translator depending on the file type. WES, IQAS, ICAS and universities usually accept regular certified translation unless the receiving institution explicitly requires ATIO-certified work. 24-hour requests need a feasibility check before payment because some language pairs and certification routes cannot be rushed.
Use the relevant guide first and include the exact institution name in your order notes - that is the single best way to avoid a re-do.
Court guide, university admission guide, 24-hour guide, and format guide.
Yes. We translate legal, technical, marketing, financial, and corporate materials in addition to personal documents.
Typical business work includes contracts, NDAs, terms of service, privacy policies, technical manuals, product documentation, marketing collateral, websites, employee handbooks, financial statements, and patent applications. We also handle AI translation post-editing (MTPE) for clients who have a draft from ChatGPT, DeepL, or Google Translate and need it brought up to publishable quality.
Business pricing typically starts at $0.10 to $0.25 per word, depending on language pair, subject matter, urgency, and the number of revision rounds requested. NDA is provided on request, and we never use client material to train public AI models. See the business translation page.