01What is a certified driver's license translation?
It is a full English rendering of the license, paired with a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy — a statement from the translator that the translation is complete and accurate and that they are competent to translate from the source language into English. You receive the translation and the certificate together as a PDF. Delivery is digital. We do not provide apostille service, hard copies, interpreting, or legal advice. Notarization is an optional paid add-on: remote online notarization of the translator's certificate, delivered as a notarized PDF. We do not mail paper copies.
02Which fields on the license get translated?
Everything printed on the card, front and back. On a typical license that is the surname and given names, date and place of birth, address, license or document number, the issuing body and country, date of issue, date of expiry, vehicle categories or classes, and restriction or endorsement codes.
Some licenses carry more: a blood type, an organ-donor marker, a national identity number, a document discriminator, a second script alongside the first. Those are translated too.
03What does a driver's license translation cost?
Eligible standard documents are clear, legible birth, marriage, divorce, academic and police records and driver’s licenses. Eligible standard documents are $19.99 per page, with a $19.99 minimum per order. Eligible standard documents, in orders of up to 100 pages, are delivered within 24 hours of order confirmation on business days, or that document is free.
Quote review is for a license a person has to look at first: an image where a line cannot be read, or a license sent with documents that are not standard. It confirms the language, counts the physical source pages, checks that every line is legible, and returns a price and a delivery date. You decide after you have both numbers. Nothing is charged while a file is in quote review.
04What makes a license photo hard to read?
The format, not the length. A license is one card, but it arrives as a photograph rather than a scan, and four things routinely make it unreadable: flash glare across the expiry date, a hologram printed over the license number, a card held at an angle so the bottom line tapers out of focus, and a reverse side that is a code table rather than prose.
A birth record is flat paper and a scanner handles it. A license has to be read off a curved, laminated, deliberately hard-to-copy surface. A clear, legible license orders directly at the flat page price; if any line is hard to read, send it through quote review first.
05How are vehicle categories and restriction codes handled?
They are translated, not converted. A Category B on a European license is rendered as Category B, with whatever description the card itself prints for it. We do not substitute a U.S. class letter, because the two systems are not equivalent and the substitution would be our opinion rather than your license's content.
Restriction and endorsement codes work the same way. Where the card prints a gloss for a code — 01 for corrective lenses, say — the gloss is translated. Where the card prints only the number, the translation carries the number as printed and says so. An invented expansion of a code is a guess wearing a certificate, and we will not sign one.
Need a certified translation for a deadline?
Upload your document now. Eligible standard documents are $19.99/page when the page count is clear. Eligible standard documents, in orders of up to 100 pages, are delivered within 24 hours of order confirmation on business days, or that document is free. Unclear or nonstandard files go to quote review.
06Who asks for a driver's license translation?
People send us a license when a U.S. office has asked to see it in English — for example a state motor vehicle office handling a license application or exchange, an insurance company pricing a policy against a foreign driving history, an employer screening for a driving job, or a court dealing with a traffic matter.
We translate the document. What the requesting office then does with it is their decision, and the only reliable answer about their requirements is the one they give you in writing. Requirements differ by state and they change, so we do not publish a state-by-state table — we cannot keep one accurate, and a wrong answer on this page costs you a trip to the counter.
07Is a certified translation the same as an International Driving Permit?
No, and they are not substitutes. An International Driving Permit (IDP) is a separate document, and we do not issue it. If an office has asked you for an IDP, ask that office where it has to come from.
A certified translation is a different thing altogether: a full English translation of your license with a signed certification of its completeness and accuracy. If the office you are dealing with asked for an IDP, a translation is not what they asked for — and the reverse is just as true.
08Which driver's licenses do you translate?
Licenses in any language, in whatever format the issuing country uses:
Latin America
Mexican licencia de conducir, Colombian licencia de conducción, Brazilian Carteira Nacional de Habilitação (CNH), Argentine licencia de conducir
East and South Asia
Chinese 驾驶证, Korean 운전면허증, Japanese 運転免許証, Vietnamese giấy phép lái xe, Indian driving licences issued state by state, often already bilingual
Middle East
Arabic رخصة القيادة, Persian گواهینامه رانندگی, Turkish sürücü belgesi
Europe
French permis de conduire, German Führerschein, Italian patente di guida, Polish prawo jazdy, Spanish permiso de conducir, Russian водительское удостоверение, Ukrainian посвідчення водія
A language we do not routinely list goes to quote review for availability, price and delivery time.
09What do you need from me?
Two images and one sentence. Photograph the front and the back as separate images, lay the card flat on a dark surface, keep all four corners in frame, and turn the flash off — ambient light near a window reads better than a flash on a laminate. Then tell us the language and what the translation is for.
If a line cannot be read, we do not guess at it: we ask you for a clearer image, or mark the line illegible in the translation. Not guessing is the difference between a translation that matches your card and one that does not.
10What happens if the translation has an error?
If we made an error in the translation or certification, we correct it free — for the life of the document, no time limit. If a translation is rejected solely because of an error on our part, we revise it free or refund the translation fee.
A translation does not decide anything about your application. The office reviewing it does, and no translator has any part in that.
How do I start?
Upload clear images of both sides through Start Your Order at $19.99 per page where eligible. If a line is hard to read, or the license comes with other documents, send them through quote review with the language and the purpose. You get a price and a delivery date back, and nothing is charged until you accept them. If you already hold a quote, pay it through the payment link in your quote email. Phone: (973) 803-2795.
Corpus Localization is an ATA corporate member, #M-189351.
Ready to Get Started?
Tell us about your project. We'll recommend the right service and provide a quote.