Standard turnaround covers all seven in 2 business days.
01
Intake and quote.
Send the file, the target languages, and the date you need it. We return a written quote same business day: word count, price per language, and the delivery date. Nothing starts until you confirm scope in writing, so the number you approve is the number you are invoiced.
What to send
The source file, in the format you will publish or print from.
Target languages, plus the script or regional convention if your program has one.
Any glossary, style guide, or previously translated version to follow.
A contact who can answer a question about the source text.
02
Preparation.
The text is checked against terminology you already use: your existing translated materials, any glossary the agency maintains, and the wording your prior notices for the same program used. An ambiguous source (an undefined acronym, a date with no year, a form field with no label) is flagged back to you before translation starts.
03
Translation.
A linguist qualified in the pair translates the document against the prepared terminology, working from the full source so headings, form labels, and legal boilerplate are translated in the context they appear in. A document long enough to divide across linguists keeps one owner for terminology and the final pass.
04
Independent review.
A second linguist, qualified in the same pair and not the one who translated it, reads the full translation against the full source: accuracy, completeness, register, and every number, date, name, address, and amount in the document. Findings go back to the translator and are resolved before delivery. This step is in the schedule of a Priority job exactly as it is in a Scheduled one.
05
Layout and QA.
The approved text is rebuilt into the source layout so the translated file prints and posts like the original.
Encoding and diacritics, verified in the delivered file.
Line breaking, justification, and right-to-left flow where the script requires it.
Text expansion and truncation: every fixed-width field, table cell, and button checked at production size.
Page and section numbering, cross-references, headers, and footers.
06
Delivery and certificate.
You get the translation back in the format you sent, with a signed and dated certificate of accuracy naming the document, the language pair, the page count, and a reference number for reissuing a copy later.
Specimen
Civic Translation
San Francisco, CA
Certificate of Accuracy
I certify that the attached translation of the document identified below, from English into Spanish, is a true, complete, and accurate rendering of the source document to the best of my knowledge and ability.
I further certify that the translation was reviewed by a linguist qualified to translate between these languages, and that I am competent to make this attestation.
Document
Notice of Public Hearing
Pages
3
Reference
CT-20260919-01
Date
19 September 2026
Signature, authorized representative
Certified translation
Specimen of the certificate of accuracy issued with every completed translation.
07
After delivery.
Every delivery carries a revision window, stated in the quote: send the passage and what you think is wrong, and a reviewer reads it against the source. If the translation is wrong we correct it and reissue the certificate at no charge. We retain the source, the delivered file, and the certificate so a copy can be reissued or produced for an audit.
Rush work
A rush compresses the schedule, not the steps.
Standard2 business days
Documents up to roughly 2,500 words, per language.
Priority24 hours
Documents up to roughly 1,200 words, per language. Same-day intake before 11 a.m. PT.
ScheduledBy agreement
Handbooks, manuals, and multi-document programs, delivered on a milestone schedule.
What a rush compresses
Preparation, worked from the glossary you already have instead of building one.
Sequencing: layout preparation starts while translation is still running.
Assignment, to whichever qualified linguist is free first.
What stays constant
The second linguist, checking full translation against full source.
The numbers pass: dates, amounts, deadlines, and addresses checked digit by digit.
The certificate, signed and dated the same as any other job.
Rush intake runs Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Pacific. If your deadline sits outside that, send the file anyway and say so in the subject line.
Terminology
When we disagree with your preferred wording.
Your house wording wins by default. If your program has named a benefit one way in every prior notice, the next notice keeps that term, even a term inherited from an old unreviewed translation.
We note any wording we expect to confuse a reader in writing with the delivery: the term, why, and what we would use instead. You decide. An outright error — a benefit described as its opposite, a deadline stated incorrectly — is raised before delivery, and we hold the file until we have an answer.