What the accreditation labels mean

Abroadocs keeps four situations strictly apart:

• On an official register or list — Abroadocs found the credential on an official register page that also names this provider, or — for sworn translators in France — found the translator's exact name on a court of appeal's published list, or — for an apostille from India — found the agency's name on the Ministry of External Affairs' list of outsourced agencies, which covers the submission step only. This is the strongest evidence, and the card always says which register or list. A name found on a list is shown as exactly that, "Name found on an official list", never as a confirmed accreditation.
• The provider's own claim — the provider says it on its own website. Abroadocs shows the claim, quoted. Where Abroadocs holds an official list for that service and country, the card says the name was not found on it and when the list was read; where Abroadocs holds none, it says plainly that the claim was not checked. If a provider says it is on a list Abroadocs holds in full — today the Indian ministry's list of outsourced apostille agencies — and its name is not there, Abroadocs shows the claim beside that and does not count it as a reason for picking the provider. Names are matched exactly, so a trading name can be missed: check with the provider before you rely on it.
• Not found — nothing either way. For most services this doesn't stop a provider being listed, because the business you hire is often arranging the work rather than holding the office itself: a notarisation agency, for example, isn't the notary.
• Withdrawn, suspended or expired — if a register shows this, the provider is not shown at all.

Sworn translation is the exception. For that service the appointment is what you are hiring, so a translator who says nothing about it is not shown. Most official registers are search forms that can't be read automatically, so a translator is shown when they say on their own website that they are sworn — labelled as their own claim — and the card names that country's official register and links to its search, so you can check the name yourself in a minute. Where a country has no sworn translators, the card says so.

France is checked for you. French courts of appeal publish their lists of sworn translators as documents. Vlad keeps a copy of twenty of them, refreshed about weekly, and when a translator who says they are sworn has exactly the same name as someone on one of those lists, the card says "Name found on an official list" and names the court. A name that is only similar is never counted — the card then keeps the "own claim" label.

Membership of a professional association is useful evidence of standing, but Abroadocs doesn't treat it as an official credential.