Translation of Philippine Civil Registry Records and Annotations (Rehistro ng Sibil)
Your PSA certificate is in English and can be filed as it stands. What holds applications up are the handwritten Filipino marginal annotations and the older municipal records it was drawn from. Asiatis translates those, with the affidavit IRCC provides for Tagalog.
Pricing depends on the number of pages in your document. Get your quote online in a few minutes.
Get my quote onlineAlso known as
Rehistro ng Sibil — local civil registry records · local civil registrar · LCRO · rehistro ng sibil · annotated birth certificate · marginal annotation PSA · legitimation RA 9255 · registre etat civil philippin · annotation acte de naissance Philippines
What is the local civil registry records?
Every Philippine record is first registered with the Local Civil Registrar of the municipality, before being transmitted to the Philippine Statistics Authority, which issues the national copies. The two are not identical: the PSA copy is a form printed in English, whereas the municipal register may be a handwritten volume, partly in Filipino, especially for earlier periods. Then there are the marginal annotations: legitimation of a child by the subsequent marriage of the parents, acknowledgement of paternity, adoption, correction of a given name or a date by administrative or court decision. These entries are added afterwards, often by hand, and that is almost always where a Canadian application snags.
Variants of the document
| Name | Type | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Annotated Birth Certificateannotated PSA copy | Annotated certificate | A PSA copy carrying a marginal entry: legitimation, acknowledgement, adoption, correction. The certificate is in English, the annotation often handwritten and in Filipino. |
| LCRO Certified True Copykopya mula sa LCRO | Municipal register copy | Drawn from the register held by the municipality. This is the version consulted where the national copy is incomplete or disputed, and it is far more likely to be in Filipino. |
| Negative Certificationsertipikasyon ng kawalan ng talaan | Certificate of no record | Issued where the PSA finds no registration. It then goes with a late registration of birth, generally written in Filipino. |
How to obtain the document in the Philippines
- 1
Start with the PSA copy
It is in English, it is on PSA security paper, and it is enough in most cases. Look at the margin: if there is no annotation, you probably have nothing to have translated.
- 2
Request the municipal copy where the margin is annotated
An annotation points to an underlying document — a judgment, the parents’ marriage certificate, an administrative decision. The Local Civil Registrar of the municipality of registration issues a certified true copy.
- 3
If the PSA finds nothing
You will receive a certificate of no record, and a late registration will have to be made with the municipal register. The documents produced in support are almost always in Filipino.
- 4
Send us the pages, flat and in full light
Handwritten annotations are the hard part: a photo taken at an angle or in shadow makes some words unreadable. Scan rather than photograph where you can.
What an acceptable translation requires
IRCC requires any document that is not in English or French to be accompanied by a translation into one of those two languages, and expressly provides for the affidavit route where no certified translator exists for the language in question. That is the case for Tagalog: no Canadian professional order issues certification in this language, and we do not claim to hold one. Your translation is therefore accompanied by an affidavit from the translator, sworn before a commissioner for oaths or a notary, attesting to the accuracy of the work and to their command of both languages. The translation must cover everything that is not already in English — marginal annotation, handwritten entry, stamp — and may not be produced by the applicant, by a family member, or by a representative on the application.
The pitfalls specific to this document
It is the annotation that matters, not the certificate
The certificate itself is in English and poses no problem. What an officer reads closely is the marginal entry added afterwards — the one saying a child was legitimated, acknowledged or adopted, or that a given name was corrected. It is handwritten, in Filipino, and it is what needs translating.
An annotation implies an underlying document
A legitimation entry points to the parents’ marriage, a correction to an administrative or court decision. Providing the annotation without the document it refers to leaves half the explanation outside the application.
Nobody certifies Tagalog in Canada
No Canadian professional order issues certification in Tagalog. An agency selling you a translation "certified by an accredited Tagalog translator" is selling you an accreditation that does not exist. The route IRCC provides is the affidavit.
An older municipal register is not a form
For earlier periods, the registration sits in a handwritten volume, with local abbreviations and unstandardized spelling. Reading it takes something other than translating a form, and the quality of your scan changes everything.
What you receive
- Translation of everything not already in English, handwritten annotations included
- Translator's affidavit sworn before a commissioner for oaths
- A copy of the original the translation was made from, as IRCC requires
- Marginal entries rendered with their date and document reference
- PDF delivery — the digital format is enough for IRCC; paper copy on request
Pricing depends on the number of pages in your document. Get your quote online in a few minutes.
Get my quote onlineFrequently asked questions
My PSA certificate carries an annotation in Filipino. What do I do?
That is the commonest case, and it is the annotation alone that needs translating: the certificate itself is in English. Send us the complete page — the annotation is read against the rest of the certificate, not in isolation.
How much does it cost to translate an annotation?
The price is worked out per page, and an annotation sits on a certificate page we have to be able to read in full. Upload the page to our online quote form: you get the price in a few minutes, with no commitment.
Get my quote onlineDo I also have to provide the document the annotation refers to?
Most often, yes. A legitimation entry points to the parents’ marriage, a correction to an administrative or court decision. Without that document, the explanation stays half inside the application.
The PSA cannot find my birth certificate. What happens?
It issues a certificate of no record, and a late registration has to be made with the municipal register. The documents produced in support — affidavits, barangay certificates — are almost always in Filipino and will need translating.
Are your Tagalog translators certified?
No Canadian professional order issues certification in Tagalog, and we do not claim to hold one. That is why IRCC provides the affidavit route: your translation is accompanied by the translator's affidavit, sworn before a commissioner for oaths.