Certified Translations in Brno: A Guide for Expats, Students and Businesses

Brno runs on two engines: its universities and its tech sector. Whether you’re an international student getting a diploma recognised at MUNI, an IT contractor registering a živnost, or an engineering firm exporting across the EU, at some point a document needs translating — and the rules are genuinely different depending on which of those you are. This guide is the starting point: what needs certifying, what doesn’t, and where to go next.

• Documents for Czech authorities, universities and notaries need a sworn translation with a court-appointed translator’s stamp.
• Technical documentation and manuals usually need professional translation only — no stamp required.
• A translation certified in your home country is not accepted by Czech institutions.
• If your diploma is already in English, MUNI and VUT don’t require a translation at all.

The short version: whenever a Czech institution has to act on a foreign-language document.

That means residence permit applications, university admissions and nostrification, notarial deeds, court filings, and documents you give a Czech employer. A sworn (certified) translation carries the round stamp of a translator appointed by a Czech court — a legal guarantee that the translation matches the original. Importantly, a translation certified by a translator in your own country is not accepted here; it has to be done by a translator registered in the Czech Republic. Our full guide covers what that means in practice.

Rather than cover everything here, use this table to go straight to the guide that matches what you’re doing.

A note on the company setup guide: the procedure is identical nationwide, so although that article is written around Prague, everything in it — including the court interpreter requirement at the notary — applies exactly the same way in Brno.

Most Czech rules are national, but Brno’s mix of clients does shape what actually comes up here.

Brno is the country’s second university city, home to Masaryk University, VUT and Mendel University, including MUNI’s English-taught General Medicine programme and CEITEC’s international research community. That means diploma recognition is a far more common request here than in most of the country — and it comes with a quirk worth knowing: for English-taught programmes, the faculty often verifies your prior education itself after admission, so you may not need full nostrification at all.

The second engine is the tech and engineering sector — IT contractors registering a živnost, founders setting up an s.r.o., and manufacturing firms exporting under CE marking. For these clients, the question usually isn’t how to certify a document, but whether it needs certifying at all.

Our office is at Příkop 262/15 in Brno-střed, in the city centre near the courts, government offices and Hlavní nádraží — but nothing here requires an office visit if it’s easier to send a scan.

These three get mixed up constantly, and in Brno the confusion cuts both ways — students over-certify, and firms sometimes under-translate.

A sworn (certified) translation is done by a court-appointed translator and carries their stamp. It’s what Czech authorities, universities and notaries require. A professional translation has no stamp — it’s what technical documentation, manuals and internal materials need, where terminological accuracy matters but no authority is going to ask for a seal. An apostille is something else entirely: it authenticates the foreign document itself, and it’s issued by the country where the document was created — always before the translation, since the translation covers the apostille stamp too.

Getting a certified translation in Brno is usually a matter of days, sometimes hours.

Send a scan or photo of your document and we’ll confirm the price and deadline — standard documents can often be done within 24 hours in express mode. You can collect in person at Příkop, or have it delivered by post or electronically. If your situation involves a notary — company formation, powers of attorney — mention it upfront so we can arrange a court interpreter for the appointment itself, which Czech law requires if you don’t speak Czech.

Send us your document and we’ll point you to the right process — or just get started right away.