Certified translation › Police clearance certificate
Police certificate translation costs €59 per document, certified by a sworn, court-authorised German translator for naturalisation, a residence permit or professional registration. The Ausländerbehörde or Einbürgerungsbehörde accepts a certified translation of a foreign Führungszeugnis, Austrian Strafregisterbescheinigung or Swiss Strafregisterauszug. Any apostille is issued in the certificate's country of origin, not by us — this guide explains where. Fixed price includes certification and shipping.
Court-authorised (sworn) translators · recognised by German authorities nationwide · binding fixed price, from € 0.89 per standard line
Short & clear
A police clearance certificate — certificate of good conduct, criminal-record certificate — issued abroad must be submitted as a certified (Germany, Austria) or notarised (Switzerland) translation whenever it is not already in the local language. You will meet this most often in naturalisation, a residence permit, or registration in a regulated profession. The certificate itself, the certifying translator and the apostille authority differ by country — see the comparison below.
The translation has to come from a court-authorised (sworn) translator — an ermächtigter Übersetzer, under Section 142 (3) ZPO — with a stamp, signature and certification note. The German certificate, the Führungszeugnis issued by the Federal Office of Justice, prints its personal-data fields in German, English and French — the entries themselves are German only — so it needs no translation for use inside Germany. termbase translates the foreign certificate; the decision on your application stays with the authority.
Step by step
A few clear steps, written as the questions people actually ask their case officer.
Ask the case officer whether they need a German Führungszeugnis, a police clearance certificate from your country (or countries) of previous residence, or both. Naturalisation and some permits ask for both; the requirement is individual.
If you have lived in Germany, you request a Führungszeugnis from the Federal Office of Justice (Bundesamt für Justiz) — at your local registration office or online. Under § 30 BZRG anyone aged 14+ can apply. Current German certificates come in German, English and French.
You request a police clearance certificate from the competent authority in your home country, usually through its police or justice ministry, sometimes via the German mission abroad. It is issued in that country's language and format.
Frequently. Many authorities require the foreign document to carry an apostille or legalisation to prove it is genuine. Obtain that in the issuing country first, because the apostille is stamped on the document and is translated with it.
A court-authorised translator produces the certified German translation the authority accepts. Because these certificates often have to be recent (many offices want one issued within the last three to six months), we time the translation close to your submission.
German or foreign — which needs translating?
People often ask which document to translate. The honest answer: usually the foreign one, not the German one.
German certificate
Home-country certificate
EU nationals
| Germany | Austria | Switzerland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The certificate | Führungszeugnis (Federal Office of Justice) — the personal-data fields are printed in German, English and French; no translation is needed for use inside Germany | Strafregisterbescheinigung (colloquially still called Führungszeugnis) | Strafregisterauszug — Privatauszug or Sonderprivatauszug (VOSTRA, Bundesamt für Justiz) |
| Certified by | Court-authorised translator (ermächtigter Übersetzer) | Court-sworn translator (allgemein beeideter und gerichtlich zertifizierter Dolmetscher) | A translator signs to certify accuracy; a Swiss notary then certifies that signature |
| Legal basis | § 30 BZRG (the certificate) · § 142 (3) ZPO (the translation) | § 14 SDG (translation) · Austrian criminal-records law (the certificate) | No single statute cited for certification; VOSTRA practice (Bundesamt für Justiz) |
| Apostille | Issued on request for Hague-Convention countries, or legalisation otherwise | Issued by the Landeshauptmann / Amt der Landesregierung, because the certificate comes from a Landespolizeidirektion or mayor — not by a Landesgericht | Issued by the Federal Chancellery, since the extract is issued by a federal authority — never a cantonal Staatskanzlei |
termbase issues no apostilles itself; the authority named above does.
Don't pay to translate a German Führungszeugnis for a German office — inside Germany it is accepted as issued. Do get a certified translation of any foreign police clearance certificate that is not in German. If you are unsure which your case needs, we will look at what the authority asked for and translate only what is required.
Documents you must translate
The exact set is defined by your authority. These are the documents we most often translate for it.
| Document | Why it is needed | Certified translation |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign police clearance certificate / criminal record | Proves good conduct in your country of nationality or previous residence. | Certified translation if not in German — the core document. |
| German Führungszeugnis | Covers your record while resident in Germany. | Usually no translation in Germany (issued in DE/EN/FR). |
| Court judgment / extract (if any entry exists) | Some authorities want context for an entry on the record. | Certified legal translation — wording matters. |
| Passport / identity page | Ties the certificate to your identity and exact name spelling. | Certified translation if the authority asks. |
| Cover letter / application form (home authority) | Occasionally submitted alongside the certificate. | Certified translation on request. |
The heart of most of these certificates is a single line stating there are no entries. Rendered loosely, that line can read as evasive to a German case officer. We translate the standard "no entries" wording exactly and carry any register terminology precisely, so a clean record reads as clean.
Apostille & legalisation
For a foreign police clearance certificate, German authorities often require an apostille (Hague Convention states) or legalisation to confirm the document is genuine. That is separate from translating it, and it is done in the country that issued the certificate.
The apostille is placed by the competent authority in the issuing country — termbase does not issue apostilles. Obtain it on the original first; we then translate the certificate and its apostille together, so the authority receives one consistent, certified set. Going the other way — using a German Führungszeugnis abroad — the usual requirement is an apostille via the Federal Office of Justice, and sometimes a translation into the destination country's language.
Languages & typical origin countries
We translate criminal-record certificates from German and English into German. The most frequent cases come from:
Non-Latin scripts need rule-based romanisation of your name, matched to your passport — decisive when the certificate is filed with a naturalisation record. See certified German ⇄ English translation →.
Common pitfalls
A police clearance certificate looks simple, which is exactly why the mistakes are avoidable. These are the ones we see.
| Pitfall | Why it goes wrong | How termbase solves it |
|---|---|---|
| Paying to translate a German Führungszeugnis | Only the personal-data fields are German/English/French; inside Germany the certificate is accepted as issued, so translating it for a German office is wasted money. | We tell you plainly when no translation is needed and translate only the foreign certificate. |
| Name spelled differently from the passport | A transliteration guessed by sound diverges from your ID, and the file is queried. | Your name is romanised by the rules and matched exactly to the passport spelling. |
| "No entries" rendered vaguely | A loose rendering of the clean-record line can read as evasive to a case officer. | The standard "no entries" wording is translated exactly, so a clean record reads clean. |
| Certificate too old | Many offices want a certificate issued within the last three to six months; translating a stale one wastes it. | We flag recency requirements and turn the translation around quickly, express if needed. |
| Apostille missing or added after translating | If required and stamped afterwards, the apostille itself is untranslated — and rejected. | We advise apostille first, then translate certificate and apostille as one set. |
This document goes on a permanent record — a naturalisation file, a professional register. A clean certificate has to read as unambiguously clean, and your name has to match your ID exactly. That precision is the whole value of a certified professional translation.
A clean record must read as unambiguously clean.
Exact "no entries" wording, passport-matched name, certified — accepted the first time.
Process with termbase
1 · Upload
2 · Fixed price
3 · Certified + shipping
Quote & price
A police clearance certificate is a short standard document, usually a flat fee per document. Longer records are priced per standard line. We name a binding fixed price after a quick review — certification and postal delivery included.
| Certified translation by a court-authorised translator | ✓included |
| Name romanised & matched to your passport | ✓included |
| Certification note recognised by authorities | ✓included |
| Advance PDF & postal delivery of the original | ✓included |
| Specialist revision & final check | ✓included |
The certificate is billed at a flat fee per document; longer records from € 0.89 per standard line (55 characters incl. spaces). We name the exact amount after a brief review. How the price is made up →
Sources & legal basis
The facts above come from the German authority that runs the Federal Central Criminal Register and the relevant statute.
FAQ
The German certificate of conduct covers only what is registered in Germany, so the office asked for the Ghanaian one on top. termbase translated it with the issuing unit and the reference numbers left intact — the case worker checked exactly those.
Kwame Asante · site supervisor, Kumasi (Ghana) · police certificate → immigration office
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