Document handover for translation: in-person appointments

For personal documents such as birth certificates, diplomas, marriage certificates or driving licences, offer short in-person appointments to receive them and, later, to hand back the translations. At drop-off, check the originals with the client, confirm how names and places must be spelled, note the purpose and the deadline, and give a ready date. Clients book both appointments online, arrive with the right papers, and don't have to wait at your door or post originals they'd rather keep in hand.

Plenty of document translations can be handled by email. But personal documents raise questions that a scan doesn't answer: a stamp that's unreadable, a handwritten note in the margin, a name transliterated three different ways across a family's papers. And depending on where you work and what the translation is for, the receiving authority may have requirements about originals, copies or certification that are easier to check together.

A short appointment settles all of this at once, and the client leaves knowing exactly what they'll receive and when.

Scan or photograph what you need, keep a short record of what was handed over, and return originals at the end of the appointment whenever you can. Clients are understandably nervous about leaving a birth certificate with someone they've just met.

A family moving abroad may bring a dozen documents for four people at once: birth certificates, a marriage certificate, school reports, diplomas. Offer a longer drop-off service for these, so the check isn't rushed, and go through the documents person by person. Agree one spelling per name for the whole set and write it down with the client before they leave; a surname spelled two ways across a family's translations can cause problems with the receiving authority. Give one ready date for the whole set, or deliver the urgent documents first if the deadlines differ.

On Book, each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on your public page. You open slots for each service at the length it takes; clients pick a service, then a free slot. One place per slot, since each client needs your full attention with their papers.

Durations and prices are examples: set your own. In the drop-off description, list what to bring: the originals, an ID document showing the spelling of names, and the requirements of the authority if the client has them in writing.

The public booking form asks for first name, last name, email and phone, plus an optional note you read in your new-booking email. Ask for the documents, the language pair, the purpose and the deadline in a sentence: "birth certificate and diploma, Spanish to French, university application, needed by the 15th". The note can't be edited once the booking exists, so put the question in the service description.

When the translation is ready, tell the client and send your booking page link for a collection slot. If they can't come at any of the times shown, create a slot and book them in yourself from your calendar: first and last name are required, email and phone optional. For urgent requests, keep a few short slots each week that you open only when you have capacity, and delete them when you don't.

Clients can't move bookings online: they contact you, you reschedule or cancel from your bookings list and let them know, since Book doesn't email clients about changes. Book doesn't take payments or store documents; it handles appointments. It costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.