The clock starts when two things are true: your payment is confirmed and every document is legible. Not at upload, not at checkout — at both.
When the clock starts
Payment confirmed and a readable document. If a file arrives unreadable — a photograph too dark to make out, a page cut off at the margin, a scan missing its second side — we tell you immediately and the clock waits for the replacement. It does not run against you while we are unable to begin.
This is the commonest reason a delivery expectation goes wrong elsewhere, and it is why we say it first rather than in a footnote.
What each tier means
Counted from the moment the clock starts, as above.
- Standard — 5 business days. Weekends and public holidays excluded. An order confirmed on Thursday is due the following Thursday.
- Fast — 4 business days. Weekends and holidays excluded, on the same reckoning.
- Express — 3 days. Calendar days, weekends included. Confirmed Friday, due Monday.
- Rush — 2 days. Calendar days, weekends included.
- 24 hours. One full day from confirmation, whatever day of the week it falls on.
- Same day. Orders confirmed before 12:30 in your own time zone are delivered by 16:00 the same day, up to three pages. Slots are limited and shown as unavailable once taken.
What usually happens
These are the deadlines you buy — the outer edge of what we commit to. In practice most single-document orders are delivered within a few hours, and Latin diplomas almost always are. We do not advertise the faster figure as a promise, because a promise is a thing you should be able to hold us to, and the honest commitment is the one on the tier you selected.
If we miss a deadline
You hear from us immediately — not after the deadline has quietly passed, and not because you asked.
The message tells you what actually caused the delay. Not "unforeseen circumstances": the cause, named. A translator without power for eleven hours, a document that turned out to need a specialist we had to reach, a file that failed on transfer.
Then the choice is yours, and only yours: let us finish, with a new time we can actually meet — or take a full refund immediately, no argument and no partial deduction for work already done. We do not ask you to justify the choice.
We would rather refund an order than hold one hostage to a deadline we have already broken.
What can make a document take longer
- Handwritten, abbreviated, or damaged material — parish registers, manuscripts, older notarial hands. These are quoted individually after review rather than sold on a tier, because time follows the hand and the condition rather than the page count.
- A document that turns out to be something other than it appeared: a transcript listed as a diploma, an agreement with forty pages of schedules attached. We tell you before starting, and the order is adjusted or refunded — never silently re-scoped.
- Where a destination requires a sworn translator registered in a particular jurisdiction, arranging that takes its own time. We say so before you order, not after.
And if we cannot meet the deadline you selected — because of capacity, or because your document needs more than the tier allows — you are told before any payment is taken. An order we cannot deliver on time is one we do not accept.
How delivery happens
Your translation appears in your order portal, reachable by the signed link in your confirmation email. You are notified the moment it is ready. You can read it there, download it, request changes, or approve it — and the receiving institution can verify it independently by its order code, without contacting us and without your involvement.