Greek Translation Services

Prism Language Solutions translates Greek documents into English and English documents into Greek for immigration filings, US courts, universities, probate matters and companies trading with Greece. Every certified file carries a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy prepared to meet USCIS requirements, and a single registry certificate usually turns round in a day.

Last reviewed September 11, 2026 by Sarah J, Prism Language Solutions

Greek paperwork is tidy, and that is what fools people. The certificates are short, the script is unfamiliar but regular, and the job looks like a twenty-minute exercise. Then the names stop matching, and the office that issued the certificate turns out not to be the office the receiving agency asked for.

• Certified translations prepared to meet USCIS requirements
• Human linguists only, matched to the subject
• Fixed written quote within 60 minutes in business hours
• One office in New York, linguists in every state

Certified Greek Translation of Lixiarcheio Registry Certificates

Most certified Greek work is a handful of one-page certificates. The registry act carries the entry number, the volume and year, the registrar’s signature and, on anything issued in the last few decades, a printed marginal history showing later changes: a marriage noted against a birth act, a correction, a change of surname. Those margins are the part most often left out of a translation, and they are usually the part the reviewer wanted.

Events that happened abroad to Greek citizens are registered centrally at the Special Registry Office rather than in a local municipality, so a US-born applicant registered in Greece may hold a certificate naming Athens, not the family village. That is normal. We translate the issuing office exactly as printed and do not tidy it into something that looks more expected. The signed certificate itself is described under certified translation.

• Birth, marriage and death registry acts
• Family status certificates from the municipal register
• Divorce judgments and the registry annotation that follows one
• Criminal record and military service certificates
• Wills, acceptance of inheritance deeds and powers of attorney for Greek property

Greek Name Transliteration in Certified Translation

Greek is written in its own alphabet, so every name has to be turned into Latin letters, and there is more than one defensible way to do it. The official standard is ELOT 743, aligned with ISO 843, and it is what the Greek passport service applies. It is not what anyone’s grandfather used at Ellis Island, and it is not always what a US clerk typed in 1962. The same surname can therefore appear as Papadopoulos on a passport, Papadopulos on an old naturalization record and Papadhopoulos in a transliteration a well-meaning translator produced from scratch.

Our rule is simple and worth saying out loud: the translation follows the Latin spelling on the passport or the US identity document you are filing with, and the ELOT 743 form goes in a translator’s note where the two differ. A translator who quietly transliterates to the standard has just introduced a name that appears on no document in the file.

Greek Apostille and Certified Document Translation

Greece has been an Apostille Convention party since 1985 and issues apostilles free of charge, but there is no single office. Documents from registry offices, local authorities and public bodies are apostilled by the Decentralized Administration for the area. Documents from the Regional Self Government go to the Region. Judicial documents, and notarial acts with them, go to the First Instance Court where the issuing authority sits. Electronic documents issued through gov.gr are apostilled by the Ministry of Digital Governance.

So the question is never just where do I get an apostille, it is which of four authorities covers this piece of paper. Get it attached before the document comes for translation, so the apostille is translated with everything else. See apostille translation.

Translation into Greek for Greek Citizenship by Descent

Claiming Greek citizenship through a parent or grandparent means putting American documents into a Greek municipal file, and the translation requirement runs the other way. Greek consulates and municipalities generally accept a translation into Greek made by the Greek consular authority itself, by a Greek attorney entitled to certify translations, or by a translator sworn before the Greek authorities. A US translation agency, however good the Greek, is not on that list.

Greek Diploma, Transcript and Business Document Translation

Academic files move in both directions. Coming out of Greece, the apolytirio from a lyceum is marked on a twenty-point scale while university degrees run on a ten-point scale, and an evaluator reading either as a percentage will get the candidate badly wrong, so we print the scale against the mark. Going into Greece, degree recognition is handled by DOATAP, which converts foreign grades onto the Greek ten-point scale and wants the transcript translated rather than interpreted. See diploma translation and academic transcript translation.

Commercial Greek work is narrower than the population would suggest and concentrated in shipping, food and beverage export, and property. Charter documents, company registry extracts, sale agreements for a house in the islands and the inheritance paperwork that follows a death abroad all cross this desk. More on legal translation and business translation.

Greek Translation Cost and Turnaround

As a US market guide a certified page starts around $24.95, with running text from roughly $0.12 per source word. One registry certificate is normally delivered the next working day. The slow jobs are older handwritten registry books, which need transcription first, and notarial property deeds, which are long and repetitive by design. Ranges are set out under pricing, and the quote you accept is the price.

Questions we get asked