| Name romanisation: ISO 9 vs passport | The registry office requires the ISO 9 form (Щербаков → Ŝerbakov), the passport carries the ICAO form (Shcherbakov), relatives write "Schtscherbakow". If the versions diverge, the authority doubts the identity. | We apply the required ISO 9 form and note the passport spelling, so both forms are matched to the same person. |
| Scheme mixed up (х, ц, ч) | In ISO 9, х→h, ц→c, ч→č; passport systems write kh, ts, ch. Mix the norms and a name can no longer be found in registers. | One standard is held throughout — ISO 9 for the registry office, letter-faithful and checked character by character against the original. |
| Patronymic misread as a middle name | The patronymic (отчество, e.g. Иванович "son of Ivan") is set out separately in the passport and is part of the name. Turned into a middle name or dropped, the name no longer matches the papers. | The patronymic is rendered correctly as a father's name and placed with the other name parts. |
| The dots on ё | Фёдоров (Fyodorov) and Федоров (Fedorov) are two different names. Because ё is often printed without dots as е, a typographic detail becomes a different identity. | We check every ё/е position against passport and certificate, rather than adopting the printed form blindly. |
| Verbal aspect (perfective/imperfective) | Russian marks grammatically whether an action is completed. In contracts and rulings that decides "will be delivered" versus "has been delivered" — a literal rendering often misses the aspect. | Specialists carry the aspect across in meaning and make the legal consequence unambiguous in German or English. |
| No articles, free word order | Russian has no definite or indefinite article; "the" or "a" contract follows from context. Rendered literally, a legal text leaves open whether a specific or an arbitrary thing is meant. | Definiteness and reference are inferred from context and spelled out unambiguously in the target language. |
| False friends | Магазин is a shop, not a magazine; термин is a technical term, not an appointment; ангина is tonsillitis, not angina pectoris. One word and the statement flips. | Native speakers with a field translate the meaning, not the resemblance; critical terms are held in vetted terminology. |
| Soviet vs present-day certificate formats | Certificates from the USSR (to 1991) carry different emblems, authority names (ЗАГС) and sometimes bilingual forms than reissues of the Russian Federation. Not knowing the forms, stamps and notes get translated wrongly. | Our translators know Soviet and present-day templates and render authority names, stamps and marginal notes correctly. |
FÜD