Notarising Documents in a Language You Do Not Read

You can sign a document in a language you do not read before an Australian notary, but only once you understand it. That usually means a written translation or an independent interpreter at the appointment. The notary must be satisfied you know what you are signing, and may decline if you do not.

Key takeaways

• A notary attests that you signed knowingly. If you cannot read the document, that has to be fixed before you sign, not after.
• A written translation is the safest route for anything that moves money, property or legal rights. A professional interpreter can work for shorter documents.
• The interpreter must be independent: not a beneficiary, not the person who arranged the appointment, and not a family member with an interest.
• Whether the notary can read the document is a separate problem. It limits what the certificate can say, not whether you can sign.
• The receiving authority overseas decides who may translate, whether the translation is notarised, and in what order the steps happen.

Two problems that get tangled together

This comes up more often than people expect. A relative overseas sends a power of attorney in Greek. An employer sends a declaration in Mandarin. A foreign court sends an affidavit in Arabic. You are asked to sign it before an Australian notary, and you cannot read a word of it.

There are really two problems here. The first is that you cannot read the document. The second is that the notary may not be able to read it either. They have different solutions, and solving one does not solve the other. A translation made for you may also serve the notary, but only if the notary is told about it and the certificate records it.

The same rules apply when the document is in English and English is not your first language. The question is always whether you understand what you are signing, not what language the page happens to be in.

Why the notary will not simply take your word for it

A notarial certificate is a statement about what happened in front of the notary. When a notary attests a signature, part of that statement is that the person who signed was identified, had capacity, was acting freely and understood the document. An Australian notary checks identity, capacity and the absence of duress, and may decline if any of those is in doubt. If you do not know what the document says, the certificate would be asserting something untrue, and the authority relying on it overseas has no way to find that out.

So when a notary asks how you know what the document says, they are not being difficult. They are protecting you, and the value of the certificate. A notary never certifies that a document's contents are true. What they certify is who signed it, and in what circumstances. For more on those checks, see how a notary checks capacity and duress.

When you cannot read the document

The notary needs to be satisfied that you know what you are signing. In practice there are three ways to get there, and they are not equally strong.

A written translation. This is the usual course for anything significant. You read the translation, you understand the document, and the notary can properly attest your signature. Where the document is a power of attorney, a property instrument, a company authority, a waiver, or anything that disposes of money or rights, insist on a written translation even if nobody asks you for one. A translation is also something you can keep, which matters if the document is questioned years later.

An independent interpreter at the appointment. For shorter or simpler documents, an interpreter may read the document aloud to you in your language in the notary's presence. This is called sight translation. The notary will normally record that it happened and who the interpreter was, and may ask the interpreter to sign a short declaration.

A certificate that says what happened. Where a translation or interpreter was used, the notarial certificate may record it, along with your confirmation that you understood the document. That is not red tape. It answers the question later if anyone asks whether you knew what you signed.

What will not do is a family member summarising the document for you across the desk, or a promise that you will get it translated after you sign. The notary would be attesting that you signed knowingly at a moment when you did not.

The interpreter must be independent

The person who interprets cannot be the person who benefits from the document, and should not be the person who arranged the appointment. The reason is plain once you say it: an interested interpreter can translate selectively, soften a clause, or describe the document as something it is not, and the notary has no way to detect it. Every protection in the appointment runs through the interpreter's words.

Expect the notary to decline your son, your business partner, the agent who sent you, or the person who will collect the signed document. Expect the notary to ask that person to wait outside. If a notary insists on this, they are doing the job properly. The same thinking sits behind the rules on a notary's own conflicts of interest.

Where the notary speaks the language, practice differs on whether they may interpret for you themselves. Combining the two roles removes an independent check. The cautious course, and the one less likely to be questioned overseas, is a separate interpreter.

When the notary cannot read the document

This is a different problem. It limits what the notary can certify rather than whether you can sign.

Notarial act	Can the notary do it without reading the text?	Why
Attesting your signature	Generally yes	The notary certifies that you appeared, were identified and signed in their presence. They must still be satisfied that you understood it.
Certifying a true copy	Generally yes	The notary compares the copy with the original they sighted. That is a comparison, not a reading.
Describing the contents	No	A certificate that calls the document "a power of attorney appointing a named person" needs a translation or the notary's own command of the language.
Oath on a foreign-language affidavit	Only with a translation	You must understand what you swear to, and the notary should know what the oath covers.

Where the notary needs the text, the fix is a translation for the notary as well as for you. Discuss this when you first make contact, because it changes what needs to happen before the appointment. If the document is a foreign-language affidavit, our page on notarising an affidavit covers the oath itself.

How to prepare, in order

1. Ask the receiving authority what it needs, in writing: who may translate, whether the translation must be notarised or legalised, and whether it wants translation before or after the apostille.
2. Send the notary a copy of the document and those instructions before the appointment, and say plainly that you do not read the language.
3. Arrange a translation or an interpreter the notary agrees is suitable. For an Australian authority, a NAATI-certified translator is the usual standard.
4. Read the translation before the day, and write down anything you do not understand or disagree with.
5. Attend with the unsigned original, photo ID, the translation and, where used, the interpreter with their own ID.
6. Check the certificate records the translation or interpreter, then send the document on for the DFAT step if one is needed.

Translation: two things people get wrong

Who may translate is often decided by the destination, not by you. Some authorities want a translator with a particular accreditation. Some want the translation done in their own country. Some want the translator's declaration itself notarised and then apostilled. For documents going to the Department of Home Affairs, a translation made in Australia should be by a NAATI-credentialled translator, and one made overseas needs the translator's full name, address, telephone number and qualifications. For a document going overseas, the receiving authority sets its own rule.

When to translate is decided by the destination too. Translating before the apostille, when the destination wanted it done after, wastes the translation. Ask for the sequence in writing before paying for anything. Our page on what to do when a translation is rejected covers the common reasons.

A notary can attest a translator's declaration and bind the translation to the original, which is what many overseas authorities want. Be clear about what that means: the notary is attesting the translator's signature and declaration, not vouching for the accuracy of the translation. That is why an accredited translator is still needed. See NAATI-certified translation with a notary for how the two fit together.

A translation made for you is not always the one the authority wants

Here is a point most pages miss. The translation that helps you understand the document before you sign may not be the translation the receiving authority wants attached to it. If the document is going back to the country whose language it is written in, that authority usually needs no translation at all, because it can read the original. Your translation is then a private working copy. It should still be kept, and the certificate may still mention it, but there is no need to pay for it to be certified, notarised or apostilled unless someone asks.

The reverse happens too. A document drafted in English for use in, say, a Spanish-speaking country may need a formal translation for the authority there, even though you read the English perfectly. Keep the two questions apart: what do you need to understand it, and what does the authority need to accept it?

Here is an illustration, not a real case

A woman in Melbourne is sent a power of attorney in Greek by a cousin in Athens, so the cousin can sell a share of a family house. She speaks some Greek but cannot read legal Greek. Her cousin offers to explain it on a video call during the appointment. The notary declines, because the cousin is the person who will act under the power. She instead has the document translated into English by a NAATI-certified translator and reads it at home first. She finds the power is wider than she expected: it also lets her cousin borrow against the house. She asks a solicitor in Greece to narrow it before signing. The notary then attests her signature, and the certificate records that she read an English translation. The Greek registry needed the original only, so the translation was never certified or apostilled.

In short

Understand the document before you sign it, through a written translation or an independent interpreter. Keep the interpreter free of any interest in the outcome. Remember that what the notary can read limits what the certificate can say. Ask the receiving authority who may translate and in what order before paying for any step, and for anything affecting property or legal rights, see a solicitor in the country where the document will be used.

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