Filipino and Tagalog Interpreter and Translation

Most official Philippine documents are on PSA security paper and filled in in English, though some entries are in Tagalog. The most common are birth and marriage certificates, CENOMAR and NBI Clearance. The structure of Filipino names - the middle name and suffix - needs special attention, as it has no direct counterpart in Georgian documents.

A Filipino and Tagalog interpreter is needed not only when a text is written directly in Tagalog. Philippine documents may mix Filipino, English, words from regional languages, names of Spanish origin and agency abbreviations. Many civil register, education, immigration and business documents are issued mainly in English; clients often call them "Filipino documents", but the real direction is English into Georgian. In other cases the text is entirely Filipino/Tagalog or bilingual. The difference affects price, deadline and the choice of specialist, so the first step is always to establish the file's language and purpose.

Filipino and Tagalog translation services

We translate from Filipino/Tagalog into Georgian and from Georgian into Filipino/Tagalog. The work can cover the whole document, stamps, handwritten entries, side notes, data under the QR code and annexes, and where needed the text is prepared for notarization.

Before ordering we establish what the receiving authority wants: a free informational translation, an official format, notarization of the translator's signature, translation of an apostilled original or only an electronic version. That way you avoid preparing the wrong language or an insufficient form.

Filipino and Tagalog - what is the difference?

Tagalog is a specific language historically tied to central Luzon and the Manila region. Filipino is the name of the Philippines' national standard language, whose main grammatical and lexical base is Tagalog; modern Filipino also takes elements from other Philippine languages and international vocabulary. In everyday speech the two names are often used interchangeably, but in a professional order the distinction is worth noting, since a legal text, public information material and a dialect entry may not be handled alike. The ISO codes differ too: fil for Filipino and tl for Tagalog.

A Philippine passport, a PSA birth certificate, a marriage certificate, CENOMAR, a school Transcript of Records and a company certificate are often in English; then "Filipino" describes the document's origin, not its language. We check the heading, fields and main text when assessing the translation. See English translation.

Taglish is the alternating use of Filipino/Tagalog and English, sometimes within one sentence. It cannot be split into two independent columns: an English legal or medical term is often embedded in a Tagalog grammatical construction, and its function is set by the whole sentence. In informal correspondence the natural tone is part of the meaning; in an official statement the author's own words must be kept apart from quoted agency wording.

Besides Tagalog, the Philippines uses Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Waray and other languages. Calling all of them "Filipino" is understandable but not enough for a professional order: if a text is really in Cebuano, handling it with Tagalog vocabulary will create errors. So we identify the language from a short sample and only then confirm the specialist and direction. A handwritten answer on a scanned form may even be in a different language from the printed questions, so heading, template, handwriting, stamp and annex are checked separately - you pay for the real language work and no section in another language goes unnoticed.

PSA civil registry documents

The Philippine Statistics Authority keeps and issues birth, marriage and death certificates and certificates of no marriage record. The translation must reflect exactly the document type, registry number, municipality or city, the civil registrar's entry and side annotations. Old NSO copies, certificates on PSA security paper and the electronic PSA eCertificate look different; a clear scan is enough for assessment, but for official submission the recipient may want a new PSA copy, an apostille or an electronic document verifiable by QR code.

The official name of the Philippine birth certificate is the Certificate of Live Birth. It may show the child's name, sex, time and place of birth, parents' full names, citizenship, religion, occupation, marriage details, the informant and the local civil registrar. We pay special attention to late registration, a missing middle name, court or administrative name corrections and legitimation or adoption annotations - a side note is sometimes legally more important than the original field, so it can never be left out. See birth certificate translation.

A Marriage Certificate confirms a registered marriage. CENOMAR - Certificate of No Marriage Record - states that no marriage record for the person was found within the PSA search; some procedures use an Advisory on Marriages, which lists marriages already recorded. In a CENOMAR translation "single", "unmarried" and "no record of marriage" are not automatic synonyms - the text follows the certificate issued, and must not turn into a broader family status certificate unless the original says so. The search uses the full name, father's full name, mother's full maiden name, date and place of birth, so dropping part of a name or mishandling the middle name can create a mismatch. For marriage, visa or citizenship cases, check how recent a document the recipient accepts. See marriage certificate translation.

Under the PSA public advisory of 16 March 2026, the PSA E-Certificate Service covers birth, marriage and death certificates, CENOMAR or Advisory on Marriages, and CENODEATH or Advisory on Death. The file is delivered by email through a secure access link as an exact PDF scan of the security-paper document, and PSA states that it has the same legal force as the physical document. Authenticity is checked by the QR code on its cover page or on the official PSA verification portal. For translation, a screenshot of the inner text page is not enough - send the cover, the QR area, every page and any annotation. We show the visible verification marks, but the translation does not establish the QR code's technical authenticity.

Filipino names, PhilSys and identity documents

Name structure in Philippine documents often includes a given name, middle name and surname. The middle name is usually linked to the mother's maiden surname and is not simply a "second name". Suffixes such as Jr., Sr., II, III and IV are part of the person's identity. The name order in the Georgian translation follows the passport or other main identity document, and variants such as María/Maria, Niño/Nino or De la Cruz/Dela Cruz are never merged at will. A PSA advisory of March 2026 also notes that some special characters and diacritics are not reflected in the Civil Registry System index, so a QR result may show a form different from the original - without invalidating the certificate. We do not "correct" one source by another: the paper or PDF original, the passport spelling and the verification result are checked separately and any real difference is shown.

The Philippine Identification System includes the plastic National ID, the Digital National ID and a paper format. The PhilSys Number (PSN) is a permanent, randomly generated 12-digit number that must be handled with high confidentiality, while everyday verification uses the tokenised PhilSys Card Number (PCN) and QR code. The translation keeps the identity number, card number, QR code and demographic fields apart and reproduces each exactly as shown. For a screenshot, every edge, the name, dates and QR area must be clearly visible.

On the Philippine ePassport data page we carry over surname, given names, middle name, nationality, date and place of birth, sex, issue and expiry dates, issuing authority and passport number. Other common IDs - driver's license, UMID, Postal ID and professional licences - serve different purposes; for a marriage, bank, court or migration case, check whether both sides of the card or only the data page are needed. See passport translation.

NBI Clearance is widely used for employment, submission abroad and other administrative purposes; personal data, purpose, issue date, result wording, photo and verification marks all matter. Applicants abroad have a separate mailed clearance procedure. A translation cannot replace renewal: if the recipient wants a certificate with a recent date, an exact translation of an old one will not do. See criminal record certificate translation.

Education, immigration, employment and company papers

The Commission on Higher Education's eCAV system is used for electronic certification, authentication and verification of academic records. The Bureau of Immigration handles visas, alien registration and residence; tourist, student, work and marriage-based statuses are not interchangeable. OFW means Overseas Filipino Worker, and related files may combine forms from several agencies - free "embellishment" of titles is especially risky in labour disputes and visa cases. See diploma translation.

The Securities and Exchange Commission registers corporations and partnerships; eSPARC and OneSEC serve electronic registration and digital Certificates of Incorporation. Corporation, partnership, one person corporation, branch and representative office must be kept distinct, and the company name is normally not translated. Terms such as affidavit, acknowledgment, jurat and deed do not always match one Georgian legal concept, so their function is kept rather than a word swapped. In medical papers written in Taglish, the patient's symptom, the doctor's diagnosis and the treatment instruction are separated correctly, with dose, frequency and dates double-checked. In financial documents the amount format, decimal separator, period and debit/credit logic stay unchanged, and an arithmetic or name error in the source is flagged, never silently corrected. See legal translation.

Apostille, eApostille and the route to Georgia

The Philippines has been party to the Apostille Convention since 14 May 2019. A Philippine public document for use in a member state usually gets a DFA Apostille instead of the old "red ribbon" authentication; a non-member country may still need another legalisation chain. In 2026 the DFA introduced a fully digital eApostille for PSA eCertificates and CHED electronic CAV documents used in Convention countries; other categories or non-member countries may still require a physical Certificate of Authentication and further legalisation. An eApostille is therefore not automatically accepted by every country or private recipient. See apostille and legalization.

For use in Georgia the route starts with obtaining the right PSA, NBI, CHED, SEC or other agency document. Then we check whether it needs a DFA Apostille and whether the Georgian institution accepts an electronic one. Finally the Georgian translation is prepared and, if required, notarized. With a differently spelled name, a missing page or an incompletely captured apostille, it is better to pause before translating - otherwise you may get a formally correct translation that is useless in the case. See notarization.

For a Georgian birth or marriage certificate, criminal record certificate, diploma or power of attorney used in the Philippines, first establish the recipient's language. An English translation with a Georgian apostille is often enough, and a Filipino/Tagalog version is prepared only on a specific institution's request. A private contract may need notarization, an apostille on the signature or extra consular formalities, so "Georgian into Tagalog" is not automatically the legally required final form.

How a Filipino or Tagalog translation order runs

Price, deadline and quality control

The cost depends not only on page count but on the real language of the text, density, handwritten entries, number of stamps, tables and certification form - a one-page PSA certificate and a multi-page court decision cannot be priced alike. The price is by agreement. Urgent work depends on translator workload and the notary's hours; for the fastest estimate send the full file, purpose and deadline in one message. See translation prices.

Before delivery we check page count, headings, names, dates, registry numbers, seals, signatures and annotations. In Filipino/Tagalog material we separately control the context of ng, mga and sa forms, English insertions and local administrative terms such as barangay, municipality, city and province. One Georgian form of each name is used across a case; if the passport and PSA certificate spell a name differently, both sources are kept and the client is warned in advance. Our office is at 118 Davit Aghmashenebeli Ave, Tbilisi.

Frequently asked questions about Filipino and Tagalog translation

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