Translations - What and How?

Dear members of this forum,

I am in the process of gathering the necessary documents for my wife’s Family Visit Visa application. I am English and Diana my wife is Colombian (Latin America). We got married in June 2005 in Colombia, but we now live together here in Chile (Latin America). She has never met my Father and general family in England, so we wanted to go for a visit over Christmas.

So, she will be applying here in Santiago and the application will be processed in New York.

My question is regarding translations. Her birth certificate, our marriage certificate, and an affidavit that I will be signing to prove my employment here, are in Spanish. I am going to legalize the marriage and birth certificate using an apostille, and the affidavit will also be legalized via the Ministry of Foreign Relations and British Embassy in Santiago. I wanted to know the following:

After having the apostille legalisation, do the birth certificate and marriage certificates need to be translated?

Considering that the application is done here in Santiago, but processed in New York, would a translation of the certificates/affidavit done by a qualified translator here in Chile suffice?

I have tried to contact the consulate in New York to ask them directly but there is just no way of getting through.

Thanks very much to all.

do the birth certificate and marriage certificates need to be translated?

You should make enquiries at the British Embassy there in Chile. The requirement varies. Some British Missions are staffed by ECOs with a good working knowledge of the language of the countries ... in other places they are not.