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Certified Somali Property Deed Translation
Certified translation of the documents that record the ownership of land and buildings in Somalia, including the registry annotations and endorsements that carry the legal effect and that a reader unfamiliar with the system will otherwise skip.
$24.95/page
Flat rate per page, up to 250 words. No hidden fees.
100% USCIS acceptance
Every certified translation is guaranteed to be accepted by USCIS.
24-hour delivery
Most 1-3 page documents are delivered within 24 hours. Same-day available.
Four systems on the same ground
Somali land is governed by customary (xeer) tenure, Islamic law, the remnants of the pre-1991 state registration system, and the practice of current regional administrations — frequently all four at once for the same parcel.
A document may be a municipal allocation, a clan elders' attestation, a sale agreement before witnesses, or an old state deed. We name what the document is and who issued it, and never dress one up as another.
What the 1975 nationalisation did
The 1975 Land Law nationalised all land and replaced ownership with state leaseholds, and the records from that era were largely destroyed after 1991.
So a pre-1991 state document, where one survives, sits on a legal basis that no longer functions, and post-1991 documents issued by municipalities rest on a different footing. We translate each with its date and issuing body.
Somaliland and Puntland
Documents may come from the Somaliland or Puntland authorities, which run their own land administration with their own seals and registries.
Whether a receiving body treats them as valid is that body's question. We translate the seal text and name the authority as printed rather than normalising it.
Displacement, and names
Decades of displacement produced widespread occupation of land by people other than the recorded holder, and a file may hold competing documents for one plot. That is the situation, not a defect in the translation.
Somali names are a chain of given names with no family name. See our Somali page.
Ordering, and what the certification covers
Upload the document, choose certified translation at $24.95 per page of up to 250 words, and it comes back typically within 24 hours as a PDF formatted to mirror the original, with a signed certificate of translation accuracy on letterhead. Marginal annotations are translated in place, in the margin, and every seal, stamp and registry endorsement is translated with the text. See how we translate and certified versus standard.
Frequently asked questions
Which system governs my land?
Frequently several at once: customary tenure, Islamic law, remnants of state registration and current administrative practice.
What did the 1975 law do?
Nationalised all land and replaced ownership with state leaseholds. Its records were largely destroyed after 1991.
My document is from Somaliland.
We translate the seal and name the authority. Whether it is accepted is the receiving body's question.
There are competing documents for one plot.
Common after decades of displacement. We translate each with its date and issuing body.
Ready to get started?
Upload the document and receive the certified translation, typically within 24 hours.