Fees & Turnaround

Government legalization fees are THB 200 per stamp for the standard service (documents returned in two to three working days) and THB 400 per stamp for the same-day express service on straightforward files. Stamps are counted per page requiring certification, not per set. Translation and agency handling fees are separate from the government fee.

Standard civil records translate in one working day; corporate documents and court judgments take two to three. Adding consular certification, plan for three to five working days end to end. Express handling can compress the whole chain to one or two working days when the source documents are already clean.

Fixed-format civil records are priced per document. Variable-length material — contracts, judgments, financial statements — is priced per standard page or per word. Rare language pairs carry a premium because the pool of translators whose work the consular office accepts is small.

The consular stamp itself does not expire, but receiving authorities impose their own windows: typically three months for district offices and the Land Office, three to six months for embassies and the DBD. Past that you must re-issue the source document and re-certify the translation, so fix your filing date before starting.

You receive a return slip stating the reason. Minor wording corrections are amended and refiled in the next round, with fees payable again per stamp. If the defect lies in the source document — a registrar signature that does not match the specimen file, for example — the document must be re-issued at source, which is why we pre-audit every original.

Consular fees are charged per stamp: THB 200 per document for the standard service and THB 400 for the express service. In practice one translation set carries one stamp, but a file split into separate documents — three transcript sheets, for instance — counts as three items. Budget by the number of documents you actually need, and order a spare set for authorities that retain the original.

The main counter is at Chaeng Watthana, and some regional passport and legalization offices accept document certification, though turnaround is longer because files are forwarded to head office. Applicants outside Bangkok usually appoint a representative to file at Chaeng Watthana and have the set returned by EMS. Verify current service points at consular.mfa.go.th before travelling.

The stamp itself does not expire, but receiving authorities impose windows: about three months for district offices and the Land Office, three to six months for embassies and the DBD. Beyond that, the source document must be re-issued and the translation re-certified, so set your filing date first and work backwards.

Government fees are charged again per stamp on the new submission. On our side, if the defect came from our translation we correct and refile without a further translation charge. If the defect sits in the source document — a registrar signature that does not match the specimen held by the consular office — the document has to be re-issued at source.

Pricing reflects how rare the language pair is and how dense the text is. English is the lowest baseline because supply is deep. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, French and Russian sit in the middle. Rare pairs such as Persian, Hebrew, Hungarian or the Baltic languages cost more and take longer because qualified translators are few and their queues are limited. You receive a written quote before any work begins.

Every piece of text on the page must be rendered: stamps, signatures, marginal notes and anything printed on the reverse. Illegible text is marked as [illegible] rather than left blank. Omitting even a single stamp is a valid reason for the consular officer to return the file, and the stamp fee is payable again on resubmission.

Fixed-format civil registry documents such as birth certificates, house registrations and name-change records are usually quoted per page, while contracts, pleadings and financial statements are quoted per word or per working hour because length varies. Price drivers are the language pair, urgency, the number of certification stamps required and layout work to mirror the original. Watch for quotes that omit government legalization fees and courier costs. We quote the file as a package with the stamp count shown, so the full route cost is visible before work starts.

Translation and quality review can genuinely be compressed to hours when scans are legible and no fresh extract is needed. What cannot be compressed is government throughput: the MFA express cycle and each embassy's daily file cap. A rush fee is therefore normally a percentage on the translation plus the authority's express fee. Plan against the destination's real intake schedule rather than an advertised turnaround.

Keep the account structure and every figure identical to the original, including the notes and the auditor's report. Never reformat numbers or convert currency; label amounts clearly as THB and keep account names consistent with the reporting framework used. Work from the stamped copy filed with DBD or the Revenue Department, translate the full set rather than the summary pages, then certify the translation. Foreign banks and registrars often reconcile against the corporate tax return, so translate that in the same batch.