If you hold a birth certificate, marriage record, or university transcript written in Farsi, and a Canadian institution has asked for it in English or French, you need a certified Farsi translation that an officer will accept without question. Persian documents carry their own challenges that a general translator can miss: the Perso-Arabic script, the Solar Hijri calendar that has to be converted to the Gregorian date correctly, and official terms from Iran and Afghanistan that have no one-word English equivalent. We are an ATIO-certified translation company in Canada, and we prepare certified Farsi (Persian) to English and English to Farsi translations every week for immigration, school admissions, family law, and licensing. Upload your document and we will return a precise quote, with most standard certificates delivered in 24 to 48 hours.

Certified Farsi (Persian) Translation Services in Canada

This page is written for the people who actually have to satisfy these requests: the newcomer assembling a permanent residence application, the parent enrolling a child in school, the spouse proving a marriage or divorce, the professional getting an Iranian or Afghan degree recognized. Farsi, also called Persian, is one of the larger heritage languages in Canada, and the demand for accurate certified translation has grown alongside the community. Below we explain what makes a Farsi translation certified and acceptable in Canada, which documents from Iran and Afghanistan most often need it, how the Solar Hijri date conversion works, what to do when a document also needs an apostille or authentication, and how our upload-quote-deliver process works. If you would rather skip ahead, you can request a free quote now and send your file for review.

Key Takeaways

• A certified Farsi translation is a complete, word-for-word English or French rendering of your Persian document, stamped by a certified translator whose seal shows a membership number, so a Canadian officer can accept it on sight.
• Farsi (Iran), Dari (Afghanistan), and Tajik are three varieties of the same Persian language; Iranian and Afghan official documents use the Perso-Arabic script, while Tajik uses Cyrillic.
• Iranian official documents are dated in the Solar Hijri (Jalali) calendar, so the translator must convert each date accurately to the Gregorian calendar, a step where careless translations frequently go wrong.
• Common Persian documents needing certified translation include the shenasnameh (birth certificate booklet), the national ID card, marriage and divorce certificates, academic transcripts and diplomas, and military service cards.
• For immigration files, IRCC requires translations stamped by a certified translator, or an affidavit when no certified translator is available, plus a copy of the original document.
• Iran is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so documents moving between Iran and Canada use the older authentication and consular legalization chain rather than an apostille.
• We do not publish fixed prices because cost depends on the document and language pair; upload your file for a free quote and we deliver most standard certificates in 24 to 48 hours.

Why Farsi Translation Is in Demand Across Canada

Persian is a significant and growing language in Canada. Statistics Canada’s 2021 Census of Population, released in its language data, records hundreds of languages spoken at home across the country, and Iranian and Afghan communities form a visible and established part of that picture, particularly in the Greater Toronto Area and Metro Vancouver. You can review the national language findings in the Statistics Canada 2021 Census language release. Rather than quote a population figure here, the practical point is simpler: enough Persian-speaking families now live, study, and work in Canada that certified translation of their personal documents is a routine, recurring need, not a niche one.

Within the Greater Toronto Area, Persian-speaking communities are concentrated in North York and Thornhill, with a strong presence in Richmond Hill as well. On the West Coast, North Vancouver and West Vancouver are long-established centres of Iranian Canadian life. These are precisely the areas where families most often ask us to translate a shenasnameh for a child’s school registration, a marriage certificate for a sponsorship application, or an Iranian university transcript for credential assessment. We serve clients across all of these communities and the rest of the country; if you are local, our pages for certified translation in North York and certified translation in Richmond Hill cover the same service close to home, and you can see every area we cover on our locations page.

Farsi, Dari, and Tajik: one language, three varieties

It helps to be precise about what “Persian” means, because the label covers more than one variety and the differences affect translation. Farsi is the Persian of Iran. Dari is the Persian of Afghanistan. Tajik is the Persian of Tajikistan. Linguists treat all three as forms of the same language, mutually intelligible to a large degree, but they differ in vocabulary, some pronunciation, and crucially in writing system. Farsi and Dari are both written in the Perso-Arabic script, the flowing right-to-left alphabet adapted from Arabic with extra letters for Persian sounds. Tajik, by contrast, is normally written in the Cyrillic alphabet, a legacy of the Soviet era.

For certified translation, this matters in two ways. First, a translator working on Iranian and Afghan documents must be fluent in the Perso-Arabic script and familiar with the specific official vocabulary each country uses, because a birth certificate from Tehran and one from Kabul do not use identical terminology even though both are “Persian.” Second, the variety should be identified correctly on the certification so the receiving institution sees an accurate description of the source language. When you send us a document, we identify the variety and handle it with a translator who knows that country’s records. You can see the full list of languages we work in on our languages page.

What Makes a Farsi Translation “Certified” in Canada?

A certified translation is not simply a good translation. It is a translation accompanied by formal proof that a qualified professional produced it and stands behind its accuracy. In the Canadian context, and especially for immigration, the standard is set by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. IRCC states that if a document is not in English or French, you must supply a translation that is “stamped by a certified translator” or, where that is not possible, “accompanied by an affidavit from the person who completed the translation,” along with a copy of the original document the translator worked from. You can read the requirement directly in the IRCC Help Centre answer on translating documents.

IRCC defines a certified translator precisely. According to its guidance, a certified translator is a member in good standing of a professional translation association in Canada or abroad, and their certification must be confirmed by a seal or stamp that shows the translator’s membership number. Two conditions hold at once: active membership in good standing, and a stamp that carries the membership number. A self-declaration of fluency, a letterhead, or a business card does not meet this bar. When a Persian document is translated by a certified translator and stamped this way, the officer reviewing your file can verify the source of the translation and accept it without asking for a sworn affidavit. We explain the immigration process end to end on our guide to how to get documents translated for IRCC.

Professional regulation of translators in Canada is provincial. In Ontario, the body is the Association of Translators and Interpreters of Ontario (ATIO), and the word “Certified” is a legally reserved title there: only translators ATIO has certified may lawfully call themselves Certified Translators. You can read about the association on the ATIO website. Most provincial associations belong to the Canadian Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters Council (CTTIC), the national federation that administers the standard certification examination; its network is described on the CTTIC website. A translation certified through any recognized provincial body, with a stamp showing the membership number, satisfies IRCC across Canada. As an ATIO-certified company, we deliver Farsi translations to that standard, and you can learn more on our ATIO certified translation page.

The Solar Hijri Calendar: Why Date Conversion Matters

One feature of Iranian official documents trips up inexperienced translators more than any other: the calendar. Iran’s civil documents are dated in the Solar Hijri calendar, also called the Jalali or Persian calendar. It is a solar calendar whose year begins at the vernal equinox, around March 21, and whose year count starts from a different epoch than the Gregorian calendar. A date written on an Iranian birth certificate as 1370, for example, does not correspond to 1370 in the Western calendar; it falls in the early 1990s. Afghan documents have historically used a Solar Hijri calendar as well, with month names that differ from the Iranian set.

For a certified translation, every date on the document, dates of birth, marriage, issue, expiry, registration, must be converted accurately to the Gregorian calendar so that the English or French version matches the dates a Canadian institution expects. A one-day or one-year slip is not a cosmetic error: it can put a date of birth out of step with a passport, throw off an age calculation in an immigration assessment, or make a marriage date inconsistent across documents, any of which can trigger questions or a rejection. A translator who handles Persian documents regularly converts these dates as a matter of routine and double-checks them against other identity documents in the file. This is one of the clearest reasons to use a translator experienced specifically with Iranian and Afghan records rather than a generalist.

Names, transliteration, and consistency

Persian names present a second recurring issue. The same Persian name can be spelled several ways in the Latin alphabet, and the spelling on a passport may differ from a literal transliteration of the birth certificate. A careful translator follows the spelling already used on the client’s passport or existing Canadian documents so that the name is consistent across the whole application, because an officer who sees two spellings of the same person’s name has to reconcile them. We ask clients to tell us the exact spelling used on their passport and other records, and we keep names, places, and parental details consistent across every document we translate for the same person. This kind of consistency is part of what separates a certified translation prepared for official use from a quick informal rendering.

Persian Documents That Commonly Need Certified Translation

Most Farsi translation requests in Canada involve a familiar set of civil and academic records from Iran and Afghanistan. Below are the documents we are asked to translate most often, with notes on what each one is, because the names are not always self-explanatory to a Canadian reader.

The shenasnameh (birth certificate booklet)

The shenasnameh is the Iranian identity and birth certificate booklet, and it is unlike a Canadian single-page birth certificate. It is a small booklet issued at birth that records the holder’s name, date and place of birth, parents’ names, and national identification number, and it is updated through life with entries for marriage, divorce, the names of children, and sometimes death. Because it accumulates life events, a shenasnameh translation has to render not just the birth page but every relevant entry, including stamps and marginal notes, accurately. It is the single most frequently translated Iranian document we see, used for immigration, marriage proof, and identity verification. For the birth-record use specifically, our birth certificate translation page covers what officers look for.

National ID card (kart-e melli)

The Iranian national ID card, the kart-e melli, carries the national identification number that ties together a person’s civil records. It is commonly requested alongside the shenasnameh to confirm identity. Afghan applicants may instead hold a tazkira, the national identity document of Afghanistan, which serves a comparable identifying function and likewise needs certified translation when submitted to Canadian authorities. We translate both, matching the rendered details to the rest of the identity documents in the file. Our passport and ID translation page explains how identity documents are handled.

Marriage and divorce certificates

Marriage and divorce certificates from Iran and Afghanistan are central to spousal sponsorship, family reunification, and any application where marital status must be proven. Iranian marriage and divorce documents include specific legal terminology and registration details, and the dates must be converted from the Solar Hijri calendar as discussed above. A divorce certificate in particular must be translated completely and precisely, because its terms can bear on eligibility and on a person’s legal status. Our dedicated pages on marriage certificate translation and divorce certificate translation go into the requirements for each.

Academic transcripts and diplomas

Iranian and Afghan university degrees, high school diplomas, and detailed academic transcripts are translated for two main purposes: admission to a Canadian school or program, and educational credential assessment for immigration or professional licensing. Persian academic records use their own grading scales and institutional terminology, and the translation must represent grades, course names, and credentials faithfully without converting or interpreting them, since the assessing body, not the translator, decides Canadian equivalency. We translate the full transcript so an assessor can evaluate it. For applicants pursuing credential recognition, our foreign credential and degree translation page explains how this fits into the assessment process.

Military service cards and other records

Iran maintains compulsory military service for men, and the military service completion card, or an exemption card, is frequently requested in immigration files to document a male applicant’s service status. These cards use military and administrative terminology that must be translated precisely. Beyond the documents already listed, we regularly translate Iranian and Afghan death certificates, police clearance certificates, employment and income letters, property and notarial deeds, medical records, and court judgments. Whatever the Persian document, the same certified standard applies. You can see the broader range of records we handle on our document translation service page, and our police clearance certificate translation page covers that specific record.

Farsi Translation for Immigration to Canada

Immigration is the largest single reason Persian speakers need certified translation. Whether the file is permanent residence through Express Entry, family sponsorship, a study permit, a work permit, or citizenship, the translation rule is the same: any document not in English or French must be submitted with a translation stamped by a certified translator, or accompanied by an affidavit if no certified translator is available, together with a copy of the original. IRCC applies this uniformly, and a missing or non-compliant translation is one of the most common avoidable reasons a file is returned as incomplete. The authoritative wording is in the IRCC Help Centre guidance on document translation.

One detail IRCC is explicit about, and that matters for Persian documents in particular, is that stamps and seals not in English or French must also be translated. Iranian and Afghan civil documents are dense with official stamps, registry seals, and signatures, and a translation that renders the main text but leaves these seals in the original script is not fully compliant. Our certified Farsi translations include the stamps and seals, described and translated, so the document is complete in the officer’s eyes. IRCC also does not accept translations done by the applicant or a family member, even a relative who is a professional translator, which is why an independent certified translator is the safe route. We prepare Persian immigration translations to this standard daily; the broader process is laid out on our IRCC translation requirements page.

Certified versus notarized: which do you need?

Persian-speaking clients frequently ask whether their translation must be notarized. For IRCC, the answer is usually no: a translation stamped by a certified translator does not need a separate notarization. Notarization, in the form of a sworn affidavit, becomes relevant only on the affidavit route, used when no certified translator is available for the language, which is not the situation for Farsi in Canada. Other receiving bodies, such as some foreign authorities or certain courts, may set their own notarization requirements, so the right answer depends on where the translation is going. We explain the distinction in full on our certified versus notarized translation page so you do not pay for a step you do not need.

When Your Persian Document Also Needs an Apostille or Authentication

Sometimes a certified translation is only part of the journey. When a public document has to be recognized by authorities in another country, it often needs an additional layer of verification on top of the translation. There are two systems for this, and which one applies depends on whether both countries belong to the Hague Apostille Convention. The Convention, administered by the Hague Conference on Private International Law, replaces the older multi-step legalization process with a single certificate called an apostille for documents moving between member countries. You can read about the framework on the HCCH Apostille Section. Canada acceded to the Convention, and it entered into force for Canada on January 11, 2024.

For Persian documents, the key fact is that Iran is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention. That means an apostille is not available for documents moving between Iran and Canada; instead, the older authentication and consular legalization chain applies. In practical terms, a document is first authenticated by the appropriate authority and then legalized by the consulate or embassy of the destination country, a longer process than a single apostille. Within Canada, authentication of documents is handled by Global Affairs Canada and, in some provinces, by provincial competent authorities. The official federal explanation of the process is on the Global Affairs Canada authentication and apostille service page.

An important clarification: a translation company does not issue apostilles or perform authentication. Those are issued by designated competent authorities, not by translators. What we do is provide the certified translation that often must accompany the document through the process, and help you understand the sequence so the steps happen in the right order. Whether your destination country is a Convention member or not determines your path, and getting that wrong wastes weeks. Our apostille in Canada guide and our explainer on what document attestation is walk through both routes in detail, so you can see exactly where the certified translation fits.

How Our Farsi Translation Process Works

We have kept the process deliberately simple, because most people contacting us are managing a deadline and do not want a complicated intake. There are three steps: upload, quote, deliver.

1. Upload your document. Send a clear scan or photograph of every page of your Persian document through our quote request page. A legible image of the whole page, including edges, stamps, and any handwritten notes, lets us translate accurately the first time. Tell us the target language (English or French) and where the translation is going, so we apply the right standard.
2. Receive a precise quote. We review the document, identify the Persian variety and document type, and send you a no-obligation quote with a confirmed turnaround. Because cost depends on the document length, complexity, and language pair, we quote per file rather than publishing a flat rate. Most standard certificates are quoted for delivery in 24 to 48 hours.
3. Approve and receive your certified translation. Once you approve, our certified translator completes the translation, converts all Solar Hijri dates, renders stamps and seals, keeps names consistent with your passport, and applies the certification stamp with the membership number. We deliver a translation formatted and ready to submit to IRCC, a school, a court, or whichever body requested it.

Tell us if you have related documents, since translating a family’s records together keeps names, places, and dates consistent across the whole set, which officers appreciate and which prevents the small discrepancies that cause questions. To begin, request your free quote or call (647) 558-5843.

Why Choose a Certified Persian Translator for These Documents

Persian documents reward specialist knowledge in a way that few language pairs do. A translator who works regularly with Iranian and Afghan records knows the structure of a shenasnameh and which entries to translate, converts Solar Hijri dates without thinking twice, recognizes the difference between an Iranian marriage document and an Afghan one, follows passport spelling for names, and renders the official stamps that fill these documents. A generalist, or worse a machine translation, can miss any of these and produce a translation that reads plausibly but fails an officer’s check. Because the stakes attached to these documents are high, an immigration outcome, a school admission, a legal status, accuracy is not a nicety; it is the whole point.

We treat every Persian document as an official record, not just a text to be converted. That means a certified translator does the work, the certification carries a membership number an institution can verify, the formatting mirrors the original so the two can be laid side by side, and the dates and names reconcile with the rest of your file. As an ATIO-certified company serving Persian-speaking communities in North York, Thornhill, Richmond Hill, North and West Vancouver, and across the country, we prepare these translations to the standard Canadian institutions expect. The importance of using a credentialed professional, rather than an informal translator, is something we cover on our page about why a licensed translator matters for your documents.

What Certified Farsi Translation Costs

Pricing for certified Persian translation in Canada depends on the document. A short single-page certificate, such as a shenasnameh birth page or a marriage certificate, sits at the lower end. A long multi-page academic transcript, a court judgment, or a document with extensive handwritten entries and many stamps takes more time and is quoted accordingly. The direction of translation, Farsi to English or English to Farsi, and the turnaround you need also affect the figure. We do not publish a fixed price here because an accurate number depends on seeing your specific document, and quoting a flat rate would either overcharge simple files or underquote complex ones. Upload your document through our quote page and you will receive a precise, no-obligation price along with a confirmed delivery time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Farsi the same as Persian?

Yes. Farsi is the Persian language as spoken in Iran, and the two names refer to the same language. Persian also includes Dari, the variety spoken in Afghanistan, and Tajik, spoken in Tajikistan. Farsi and Dari are written in the Perso-Arabic script, while Tajik is normally written in Cyrillic. For a certified translation, we identify which variety your document is in and translate it with a translator familiar with that country’s records.

Will my certified Farsi translation be accepted by IRCC?

Yes, when it is prepared correctly. IRCC requires a translation stamped by a certified translator whose seal shows a membership number, or an affidavit where no certified translator is available, plus a copy of the original document. Our certified Farsi translations meet this standard, include the translation of stamps and seals, and come with the certification IRCC expects. Because Farsi has certified translators available in Canada, the certified-translator route applies and a separate affidavit is generally not needed.

How are dates on Iranian documents handled?

Iranian official documents use the Solar Hijri (Jalali) calendar, whose years and months differ from the Gregorian calendar. Our translator converts every date, birth, marriage, issue, and expiry, to the corresponding Gregorian date and checks it against your other identity documents for consistency. Accurate date conversion is essential, because a mismatched date of birth or marriage date can trigger questions or a rejection on an official file.

Do I need an apostille for a document going to or from Iran?

No. Iran is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so an apostille is not available for documents moving between Iran and Canada. Instead, the older authentication and consular legalization chain applies: the document is authenticated by the appropriate authority and then legalized by the relevant consulate. Authentication in Canada is handled by Global Affairs Canada and, in some provinces, by provincial authorities, not by a translation company. We provide the certified translation that often accompanies the document and help you understand the sequence.

What is a shenasnameh, and do you translate the whole booklet?

The shenasnameh is the Iranian birth certificate and identity booklet, which records birth details and is updated through life with marriage, divorce, and children’s entries. We translate the relevant pages, including the entries, stamps, and marginal notes that apply to your purpose, because a partial translation that omits an entry or a seal can be treated as incomplete. Tell us what the translation is for and we will make sure the necessary pages are covered.

Can you translate Afghan (Dari) documents as well as Iranian ones?

Yes. We translate Dari documents from Afghanistan, including the tazkira national identity document, birth and marriage records, and academic and military documents, as well as Iranian Farsi documents. Although Farsi and Dari are varieties of the same Persian language, their official documents use somewhat different terminology, so we handle each with a translator familiar with that country’s records and identify the variety correctly on the certification.

Do you translate from English into Farsi as well?

Yes. We provide certified translation in both directions: Farsi to English for documents submitted to Canadian authorities, and English to Farsi for Canadian documents that need to be presented to Persian-speaking institutions or authorities abroad. Tell us the direction and destination when you request a quote, and we apply the correct certification for that use.

How fast can you deliver a certified Farsi translation?

Most standard Persian certificates, such as a shenasnameh, a marriage certificate, or a national ID card, are delivered in 24 to 48 hours once the document is approved. Longer or more complex documents, like full academic transcripts or court judgments, may take a little longer, and rush options are available. Upload your document for a free quote and we will confirm the exact turnaround for your file.

Get Your Certified Farsi Translation Started

Whether you are submitting a shenasnameh to IRCC, a transcript for credential assessment, a marriage certificate for sponsorship, or any other Persian document to a Canadian institution, an accurate certified translation is what gets it accepted the first time. We are an ATIO-certified translation company serving Persian-speaking communities across Canada, and we prepare Farsi and Dari translations with correct date conversion, consistent names, fully rendered stamps, and a verifiable certification stamp. Upload your document for a free, no-obligation quote, and we will return a precise price and a confirmed turnaround, with most standard certificates delivered in 24 to 48 hours. Request your quote below or call (647) 558-5843.