Q1225. What standards govern Urdu and Bengali document translations for Pakistan and Bangladesh?

Answered by the NYC Visa & Translation certified translation team

Urdu (Pakistan) and Bengali (Bangladesh) document translations follow similar chains with country-specific practicalities. The document reality: Pakistani official documents are often issued in English or bilingually (NADRA's computerised certificates are bilingual English-Urdu) — check before commissioning; Bangladeshi documents are more often in Bengali only, particularly the older and local-authority ones. The scripts: Urdu uses the Nastaliq style of the Perso-Arabic script (right-to-left, with the handwriting's legibility a frequent issue); Bengali uses the Bengali script. Name romanisation is the critical element for both — the translation must match the passport exactly, and both languages' names romanise variably. The legalisation chains: for Pakistani documents, the chain is the issuing authority, the relevant provincial or federal attestation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, then the Thai embassy in Islamabad; for Bangladeshi documents, the issuing authority, the relevant ministry attestation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh, then the Thai embassy in Dhaka; then in both cases the Thai translation certified by the Thai MFA (200/quoted on request per stamp). Points that matter: both chains have multiple domestic steps before the foreign ministry — allow 4–10 weeks; the educational documents typically need the education board's or the university's verification (the HEC in Pakistan, the education board in Bangladesh); and the documents' dates may use the Islamic or Bengali calendar alongside the Gregorian. Practice points: confirm the current chain with the Thai embassy in the country before starting; use translators with the specific country's document experience; and verify the passport spelling before the translation is finalised.