Sinhala Asylum Document Translation to English

Certified Sinhala to English translation for asylum

When the Home Office, a tribunal or a solicitor asks for a "certified translation", they mean an English translation that the translator signs and vouches for. The GOV.UK guidance asks the translator to confirm it is a "true and accurate translation of the original document", and to give the date, their full name and contact details (GOV.UK: Certifying a document (opens in a new tab)).

Each Sinhala to English certified translation UK clients order from us comes with:

1. A complete English translation. Nothing is summarised or left out.
2. A signed certificate of accuracy, dated, with the translator's name, contact details and credentials. We are members of the ITI, CIOL and ATC.
3. Clear notes such as "[stamp: Grama Niladhari, Division ...]" or "[signature]" in the right place.
4. A PDF by email, and a signed paper copy if you ask.

Sample

Certified translation

Certified extract of a birth certificate, Sri Lanka

Sinhala → English

Full name

redacted

Date of birth

redacted

Place of birth

redacted, redacted district

Sex

[As written on the original]

Father's name

redacted

Mother's name

redacted

Registration number

redacted

• [Stamp: Registrar, Division [REDACTED]]
• [Signature of the Registrar]
• [Handwritten: entry details, translated as written]

Translator's statement

I confirm that this is a true and accurate translation of the original document.

Date

DD/MM/YYYY

Translator

Full name

Signature

No translator is "approved" by the Home Office. We follow its published requirements, and the decision-maker decides what weight to give your evidence.

Sinhala documents we translate

We regularly translate:

• Identity documents: National Identity Card (NIC) and old or damaged ID; see id card translation for asylum
• Civil status records: birth, marriage and death certificates and their certified extracts
• Police records: complaint entries, statements and letters from a police station. Read more on police report translation for asylum
• Court papers: summons, bail and case records, and orders; our court document translation for asylum page covers these in depth
• Medical records: hospital and clinic notes, some partly in English
• Local letters: Grama Niladhari certificates, letters from religious leaders, employers and political groups

These papers often form the core of your asylum claim evidence translation.

Sinhala script and dialects

Sinhala has its own rounded script, written left to right. Each consonant carries a vowel sound, changed by small marks around the letter. On faint copies these marks are easy to miss, and one missing mark can change a name.

Written Sinhala is quite different from the spoken language. Official letters and court papers use a formal, literary style. Personal letters and text messages use everyday spoken Sinhala. Our translators read both and render each in natural English, keeping formal documents formal.

Sinhala names on documents

Many Sinhala names include an ancestral or family name, often ending in "-ge", before the personal names. The same person may appear with a long name on a birth certificate and a shorter one on an NIC. We translate each name exactly as it appears. If you tell us the spelling used in your UK papers, we use it consistently across every document.

Documents from Sri Lanka in Sinhala

Sinhala and Tamil are both official languages in Sri Lanka, and English is used widely in government. In Sinhala-speaking areas, the handwritten parts of official forms are usually in Sinhala.

Dates on these documents use the Gregorian calendar, so no conversion is needed. We write each date in full in the English translation. If some documents are in Tamil, our Tamil asylum document translation team can translate them in the same order.

English to Sinhala: Home Office letters in your language

We also provide an English to Sinhala Home Office letter translation for refusal letters, interview records and appeal decisions.

With our home office refusal letter translation service, you get every paragraph in clear Sinhala. We do not advise on your case. A solicitor or an adviser regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA) can tell you your options. If you want to appeal from inside the UK, the time limit is 14 days from receiving the decision.

Our Sinhala translators

Our Sinhala translator UK asylum team are UK-based native speakers who translate professionally into English. We work to ISO-certified quality processes and never use machine translation for certified work.

• They know Sri Lankan official terms, local government titles and court language
• They work from both formal written Sinhala and spoken, colloquial Sinhala
• A second linguist checks names, numbers and dates
• Files are uploaded securely, handled under UK GDPR and deleted after delivery

Sinhala translation price and delivery time

Your price depends on the number of pages and how dense the text is. See our general translation prices page, or ask for an exact figure.

Prices shown are starting prices and include VAT. We confirm your exact price in a written quote before any work starts. The Home Office accepts certified translations and does not usually ask for notarisation. Send your documents for a fixed Sinhala translation quote before you commit.