Translation for the administrations of Walloon Brabant
from Wavre to Nivelles and Jodoigne
For municipalities, welfare centres, intermunicipal bodies and regional services serving a public of all origins. Sixteen municipalities, welfare centres, the province and regional services: public tenders, letters to residents, front-desk work.
16
Municipalities served
1 h
Reply to a request
24 h
Interpreter available
70+
Working languages
Documents in the public administration field
Wavre is the capital of Walloon Brabant, and the sixteen municipalities we serve are home to residents from everywhere: international executives, researchers, families who moved here for Brussels. A population office therefore deals every week with records written in a language no one at the counter can read.
Foreign civil status records
Births, marriages, divorces and deaths presented at the counter for transcription or entry in the register.
Public procurement
Technical and administrative clauses of a contract, publication of a notice, tenders received in a foreign language and the reasoning behind an award.
Communication to residents
Official letters, municipal regulations, forms and information pages aimed at residents who do not speak French.
Residence files
Family reunification papers, residence applications, arrival declarations and naturalisation files.
Cooperation and twinning
Agreements, meeting minutes and correspondence with public partners from another country.
Decisions and certificates
Orders, residence certificates, attestations and extracts a resident must produce before a foreign authority.
The public administration field in Walloon Brabant
As the capital of Walloon Brabant, Wavre hosts the provincial services, and the sixteen municipalities in the area see people at their counters every week who do not master French. The interpreter's position there is a narrow one: convey without steering or advising, in interviews where their neutrality determines whether what is recorded stands up.
Two families of text sit side by side and do not call for the same skills. Tender specifications follow formal requirements and a publication calendar that tolerate no approximation. A letter addressed to a resident, by contrast, has to be understood on first reading. We never entrust those two exercises to the same linguist.
The language border runs just north of the province: a file heading to Flemish Brabant, to a federal administration or to a Brussels partner is prepared in Dutch, and English becomes unavoidable as soon as a European programme is involved. We also know the points a population department checks on a sworn translation, which avoids documents coming back over a misplaced stamp.
- Tender specifications and contract documents
- Decisions of the executive and council deliberations
- Letters and forms sent out to residents
- Extracts and certificates from the population register
When a written translation stops being enough
At the counter, at social services or in session, a file sometimes stays stuck as long as the two people involved cannot understand each other.
Population counter
Declaration of arrival, assembly of a marriage file or examination of foreign documents at the population office.
Social services
Appointments at the public centre for social welfare, assessment of an entitlement to assistance and follow-up with the social worker.
Sessions and committees
Advisory committees, public sessions and meetings where a resident must be able to speak in their own language.
Departmental meetings
A meeting with a foreign public partner, a visiting delegation or a review of a co-funded project.
A foreign civil status record submitted without a sworn translation is refused at the counter, and the person leaves with a new appointment. The department saves time by stating the requirement up front: a translation by a translator on the national register, plus legalisation where the country of origin asks for it.
What happens between your upload and the handover
Your public administration file stays with one and the same project manager, from the first document received to the final handover.
- 01
Send the document over
Any readable phone snap will do, however badly framed. Booking an interpreter instead? Send the date, the address and the pair of languages involved.
- 02
After 1 h you know price and deadline
You learn the figure, the delivery date and which route applies: sworn where an authority insists, standard everywhere else. Nothing to pay, nothing to sign.
- 03
The file goes to a specialist
Your text is handed to a linguist who uses public administration terminology daily, then passes under a second pair of eyes.
- 04
Handover or on-site assignment
The digital version reaches you by email. If a counter wants the stamped original, it travels by registered post. For a spoken assignment, the interpreter is there at the agreed hour.
A set of specifications, a counter at a standstill?
We work against purchase orders with the municipalities of Walloon Brabant, with a priced reply within the hour.
What really counts on a public administration file
Geared to public accounting
Purchase order, compliant invoice, contract reference and budget commitment: we follow the administrative circuit without your department having to explain it to us.
The same interpreter from one appointment to the next
On a file that runs over time we send back the same person wherever possible. The resident then does not have to tell the whole story again.
A linguist from your own trade
We do not send a specialised text to a generalist. Urgency changes nothing about that rule, it only makes it harder to honour.
Confidentiality put in writing
Nobody touches your file without a signed confidentiality undertaking. Storage sits on servers inside the European Union, and one written request from you is enough to erase everything.
The quoted amount is the invoiced amount
No surcharge surfaces along the way. Translation, revision and handover all sit inside the figure you approved at the start.
Travel included within our area
Our interpreters drive to Wavre, Nivelles, Waterloo, Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Braine-l'Alleud, Rixensart or Jodoigne with no mileage charge.
Frequently asked questions
Can a municipality order without launching a tender?
For everyday amounts, yes: a simple order is enough and we invoice against a purchase order. Above the thresholds we take part in the procedure you open and supply the certificates requested in the application file.
Is a record translated abroad admissible at the counter?
Not always. Many Belgian authorities require a translation by a translator on the Belgian national register, even where the foreign translation is certified. If in doubt, pass us the document: we will tell you whether it has to be redone before the resident comes back.
How many languages do you cover at the counter?
More than 70 languages in written translation. For on-site interpreting, the combinations most often asked for in the province are English, Dutch, Arabic, Romanian, Turkish and Portuguese, and a sworn interpreter can be mobilised within 24 h.
Does the interpreter travel outside Wavre?
Yes, across the sixteen municipalities we serve, from Nivelles to Jodoigne and from Waterloo to Beauvechain, with no mileage charge. All we ask for is the exact address and the name of the officer the interpreter should report to.
Get your free quote within the hour
Send us your document or your date: firm price, precise deadline, no obligation. You then decide, with everything in front of you.