NWOHR passport application: foreign documents need to be translated, or not?

Legal Dual Nationality
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I’m trying to move forward with my NWOHR passport application and have a couple of questions.

I’ll start with this one: for the initial NWOHR passport application, do English-language foreign documents like my birth certificate and my parents’ marriage certificate need to be translated as well as authenticated, or is authentication alone (of the original English-language documents) enough for the NWOHR passport application?

Then, if translation to Chinese is needed, is it possible to get the documents authenticated and translated in 2 separate steps? I am thinking I would authenticate the original documents first (by mailing them overseas to the appropriate TECO/TECRO office handling the area that issued the documents), then receive the documents back by mail in the authenticated state. Then if translation is needed, I could do that myself (with some computer help) then take the already-authenticated documents and the translation to my local TECO/TECRO in person to get the translation also authenticated.

The main reason I want do to this in 2 steps is that the first step (document authentication) is time-consuming and definitely needs to be done via postal mail because the documents were issued from the US but I don’t live in the US, requiring sending the documents via mail and waiting for them to come back. I want to minimize the number of things that can go wrong in the overseas processing, and one way of doing that is to request only the authentication of the original documents from the US TECO, then to handle translation and authentication of the translation later (if needed) at my local TECO.

(What I want to avoid is trying to do both the authentication of the originals AND the authentication of the translation via postal mail to the US. From what I’ve read so far, authentication of a translation may require that the translation be notarized in the US, which is difficult because I don’t live in the US now.)

Does anyone have experience trying something similar?

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If you’re in Taiwan / visiting soon, you can also go to a notary in Taiwan to get the translation notarized instead of authenticating it at a TECO.

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I just got back, and am not traveling again soon. :worried:

But last time, I did manage to get a copy of my deceased father’s HHR transcript from the HHR office, which I now learned is (1) required as part of the NWOHR application and (2) is only valid for 3 months. So now I’m trying to gather a best-possible set of application documents for the NWOHR passport, before the HHR transcript expires.

you can also go to a notary in Taiwan to get the translation notarized instead of authenticating it at a TECO.

Thanks – this seems to confirm what I suspected, that the translation and authentication of the translated document (if it is needed at all for the NWOHR passport application) need not be done at the TECO office responsible for authentication of the original document.

As I mentioned, it seems to me that the lowest risk path forward is to get the US documents themselves authenticated (but not their translations) at the US TECO, which itself will take several weeks. Then having completed that hurdle, I at least have something in hand, which I can then take to my local (non-US) TECO where I live and ask if translation is needed, and if so, if they can authenticate it.

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You get a separate document authentication paper one for the document and the other for the translation (all stapled together) so the authentication of both the document and translation can be both done together or separately.

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Thanks, that again leads me to hope that I can do the authentication of the translation separately – if it is needed at all.

The difficulty of getting the authentication of the original and the authentication of the translation done at the same time at the same TECO USA office by postal mail is that the TECO USA office says “Should a Chinese translation is needed; please have it done by oneself or a competent translator, and notarized by a Northern California, Nevada, Utah Notary Public.” Since I can’t travel to the USA now, the requirement to first notarize the documents by a USA-located notary public is difficult or impossible to satisfy.

Here’s my current lowest-possible-risk plan with steps that I think are likely to succeed. Any comments about similar experiences or risky-looking steps would be welcome!

  1. Prepare self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) for USA TECO to send documents back to me internationally:
    1. Order US stamps online.
    2. Have USPS deliver them to a USA-based mail forwarding service (because USPS does not deliver internationally).
    3. Have forwarding service mail the stamps to me internationally.
    4. Prepare self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) with enough US stamps (this TECO office doesn’t accept FedEx).
  2. For postal-mail based US identity verification:
    1. Get a certified true copy of my US passport at US embassy abroad.
    2. Do not have TECO authenticate the US-embassy-authenticated true copy of US passport (I guess TECO authentication should not be needed).
  3. USA-based document authentication. Mail to TECO in USA:
    1. Certified true copy of my US passport
      1. I assume authentication by a US embassy abroad is enough for TECO USA to accept that the US passport copy is a true copy and sufficient for ID purposes.
      2. I assume TECO USA does not need authentication by my local TECO branch that the US-embassy-authenticated passport copy is a true copy.
    2. SASE for returning the documents to me.
    3. Cash for the processing fee (they only accept cash or money orders, and international money orders seem no longer to exist).
    4. Application forms, and original documents (birth, marriage, death certificates) to be authenticated.
  4. After getting back the documents from USA TECO, take all of the following to my local TECO for my NWOHR passport application:
    1. Application forms.
    2. USA-TECO-authenticated original birth, marriage, death certificates.
    3. Self-translated (but unauthenticated) birth, marriage, death certificates.
      1. If my local TECO requires authentication of the translation, I will ask the local TECO to do the authentication.
    4. Original of father’s HHR transcript (less than 3 months old).
    5. Original of ROC passport from my father and mother.
      1. I will ask if I can submit ROC passport copies instead of the originals, to prevent risk of loss.
      2. If my local TECO requires authentication of the ROC passport copies, I will ask the local TECO to do the authentication.
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You probably don’t need a notary physically located in the US - just a notary that is recognized in the US.

What the TECO will do, is basically just checking whether the signature / seal of the notary is genuine, i.e. that it belongs to a “real” notary. Of course, any TECO in the US can only do this for notaries recognized in the US.

I don’t know if another TECO would also authenticate a translation for a document authenticated by a TECO in another country. It doesn’t hurt to ask, though.

Then, you could notarize the translation at a local notary (in the country where you’re at currently) - and ask your local TECO to authenticate the notarization.