What 'sworn' actually means, why the language pair on the register matters, and how a certified Chinese–English translation is produced and verified in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan law channels official translation through sworn translators: individuals who pass the Ministry of Justice examination, take an oath before a District Court, and receive a registration number on the national register. Their certified translations — stamp, signature, registration number, confirmation of accuracy — are the standard form accepted by courts, government departments, banks and missions, and the form the Ministry of Foreign Affairs works with for attestation.
Registration is per language pair. The overwhelming majority of Sri Lanka's sworn translators are registered for Sinhala–English or Tamil–English; Chinese–English is one of the rarest pairs on the register. A translation of a Chinese document certified by a translator not sworn for Chinese is defective certification, however fluent the translation — and rejections happen at the worst possible moment, at the counter.
My registration — 2020/CE/CL/042, Chinese ⇄ English — is printed on every certification and is verifiable on the Ministry's public register. Here is exactly how to check it.
Each certified translation mirrors the original's layout so the two documents can be compared line by line, carries the bilingual confirmation 「翻译确认无误」, official stamp, signature and registration number, and is issued with a copy of the source document attached. This is the format receiving officers in both countries process without friction.
In Sri Lanka, yes in practice: sworn translation is the official form of certified translation, produced by a Ministry of Justice registered translator under oath. It is the certification standard receiving authorities here recognise and can verify against the government register.
Generally no. Once certified by a sworn translator, the translation is already legally valid; additional lawyer or notary certification is usually unnecessary, despite a common misconception promoted by some agents. Where a foreign authority's checklist says 'notarized translation', a sworn translation typically satisfies exactly that requirement — confirm the destination with me and I'll advise.
A translator is only authorised to certify the language pair(s) they are sworn in for. Most sworn translators in Sri Lanka hold Sinhala–English or Tamil–English. Chinese–English is rare on the register — a Sinhala–English sworn translator cannot lawfully certify your Chinese document, no matter how good their Chinese is.
WhatsApp or email a clear photo or scan. You will receive a fixed price and delivery date — usually within a few hours. Certified hard copies are couriered island-wide; PDF copies can be sent worldwide, including to China.