[Kiana]

My husband and I have many Chinese friends (ones who have immigrated to Canada from China in the last few years) and I'm wondering if the fact that we can have some of these write referral letters for us (in Chinese already, of course) might save us considerable money in translation costs? Also, can you have just anyone translate the documents or does it have to be a certified translator?

[Shelley]

That's a good question for your agency, but I know with our agency there's a $565. translation fee, no way around it. I believe your agency has someone that does their translating. ASk them. Shelley

[bthomas9500]

I know with our agency there was a flat fee for translation as well. Also, your agency may want to have the documents translated into English so they know exactly what they're sending to the CCAA.

Agree with Shelley, you should ask your agency!

Brandy

[terryb]

I don't know if this differs from Agency to Agency but our referral letters went to our SW who reviewed them before writing our homestudy. I don't believe that these letters went into our dossier at all.

We had one flat fee for translation as some others have mentioned.

However, I think it would be great to have some of your Chinese friends write referral letters as they could comment on how they would help to connect your child and your family to his/her culture!

[Tsmom]

If you are talking about having one of your friends translate your dossier, I doubt your agency would allow it. I asked if I could pay someone to translate my dossier before it went over, thinking it would save me some wait time, and they said, NO, China expects all of their dossiers to come untranslated. I am guessing that's someone job over there and they don't want them loosing work.