Wondering who's legally authorized to certify a translation?

A Certified Translation Agent (외국어번역행정사, foreign-language translation administrative agent) is a nationally licensed qualification, not just a job title — its authority comes directly from Korea's 행정사법 (Administrative Agent Act), and it's the reason a certified translation from this office carries legal weight with Korean courts and government offices.

The statutory basis (행정사법 제2조)

Korea's Administrative Agent Act authorizes registered 행정사 (administrative agents) to perform, on a client's behalf:

1. Drafting documents submitted to administrative agencies
2. Drafting documents relating to rights, duties, or facts requiring certification
3. Translating documents related to administrative agency business
4. Filing the documents prepared under items 1–3 on the client's behalf
5. Representing applications, petitions, and filings for permits, licenses, and authorizations
6. Consultation on administrative law and procedure

What sets a Certified Translation Agent apart from a general translator

• Translation verification certificate authority (번역확인증명서, 제20조②) — a Certified Translation Agent can issue a formal translation verification certificate attached to the translation itself, the format Korean courts and government offices require.
• Statutory confidentiality duty (제23조) — anything learned in the course of the engagement is protected by law, not just office policy, and the duty survives after the engagement ends.
• Licensing enforcement (제3조, 제36조) — practicing as a 행정사 without the license, or using the title without qualifying, is a criminal offense under the Act (up to 3 years imprisonment or a 30 million KRW fine) — which is also why "translation agency" and "행정사" aren't interchangeable.

Why this matters for your document

Courts, embassies, and government offices in Korea generally require translations to come with a certification they can trust. A Certified Translation Agent's certification carries statutory backing — not a private company's internal quality claim — which is why it's accepted where a plain translation, even an accurate one, is not.

Certified Translation Agent (외국어번역행정사) vs. a general translator

Before this qualification existed, a translation only gained legal effect once a separate notary public notarized the translator's work — an extra step, and an extra cost, since a notary isn't necessarily fluent in the source language either. A Certified Translation Agent's translation verification certificate replaces that notarization step for documents headed to Korean administrative agencies and courts, while still carrying government-backed accountability for accuracy.

"Authentication" isn't one thing: Administrative Agent (행정사) vs. Notary Public (공증인)

Foreign submissions frequently ask for a document's "Authentication" — but even in English-speaking (especially common-law) legal systems, "Authentication of Facts" and "Authentication of Execution" are legally distinct concepts. The names, the authorized parties, and the legal effect differ by country — but the underlying distinction holds everywhere, including Korea:

In short: a 행정사 certifies the authenticity of content — that a translation is accurate, that a stated fact is true. A 공증인 certifies the authenticity of form — that a signature is genuine and a document was properly executed. Both serve the shared goal of "authenticity," but rest on different legal bases, serve different purposes, and produce different legal effects — neither is inherently superior to the other. The two systems are complementary, not competing, and which one a specific document needs depends entirely on the document's purpose — the right question is "which fits this situation," not "which is better."

2026 Court Interpreter/Translator selection

LnA's KIM JINAH has been selected as a 2026 Court Interpreter/Translator (법원 통·번역인) by the Seoul Central District Court — added to the court's candidate roster after a document-based screening process, available for appointment when the court needs interpretation or translation support during a trial or case proceeding.

A real signal of growing institutional trust: JLPT certificates now accepted with 번역확인증명서 alone

This office regularly receives inquiries for translating language-proficiency test certificates — JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) results and transcripts, in a recent case — for submission to public institutions or companies as proof of foreign-language ability. In the past, many institutions insisted on notarized translation ("번역공증") no matter what. Increasingly now, public institutions and major companies are willing to accept a Certificate of Translation (번역확인증명서) alone for this kind of submission — and this particular client's institution specifically requested that exact document. This is itself a concrete signal that the institutional trust placed in a 번역확인증명서 — issued under 행정사법 by a nationally licensed 외국어번역행정사 — has grown, cutting out an unnecessary notarization step and its added cost while still allowing prompt, credible acceptance.

How this office handles the process end-to-end, remotely

1. Receive a photo or scan of the original document.
2. Translate the Japanese/English bilingual source into precisely matched, Korean-standard-format Korean.
3. Attach the 원본대조필 fact-verification statement under 행정사법 제20조, with binding stamps (간인/압인) completed.
4. After the client's final confirmation, send the scanned copy first, then the physical original by registered mail (or make it available for pickup).

A translation-judgment nuance: JLPT documents are bilingual, and the two versions aren't identical

The JLPT documents in this case carried both Japanese and English text. That raises a real judgment call: should the translation be based on the Japanese original, or the bundled English rendering? Subtle differences in phrasing exist between the Japanese source and its English counterpart on the same document — deciding which to anchor the Korean translation to, and organizing it naturally around the submission's actual purpose, is a substantive part of the work, not a mechanical copy-paste.