Terms of Service

Last updated: June 1, 2024

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) constitute a binding legal agreement between you and LingvaShop Translaitons (“LingvaShop,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), and govern your access to and use of our website (the “Website”), our content, and the certified and standard translation, apostille assistance, notarization, and related professional services we make available (collectively, the “Services”).

By accessing the Website, placing an order, or otherwise using the Services, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by these Terms, our Refund Policy, and our Privacy Policy, each of which is incorporated by reference. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not access and/or use the Website and/or the Services.

1. Eligibility and Account Use

You represent and warrant that you are at least eighteen (18) years of age, that you have full legal capacity to enter into a binding contract, and that all information you provide to us is true, accurate, current, and complete. If you use the Services on behalf of a company, government agency, or other entity, you further represent and warrant that you have the authority to bind that entity to these Terms, in which case “you” and “your” refer to that entity.

If you create an account, you are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. You agree to notify us immediately at info@LingvaShop.com of any unauthorized use of your account or any other suspected breach of security. We are not liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to safeguard your credentials.

2. Description of Services

LingvaShop provides translation, certified translation, notarization, apostille assistance, document handling, and related professional services. Certified translations are issued with a certificate of translation accuracy. Notarization, where offered, attests to the identity of the signatory of the certificate, not to the accuracy of the translation. Apostille assistance consists of submitting documents to the appropriate competent authority and is contingent on the document, the issuing jurisdiction, and the policies of that authority.

We may modify, suspend, expand, or discontinue any Service, in whole or in part, at any time and without notice, including but not limited to changing the languages we support, the document types we accept, the pricing of any Service, and the methods of delivery.

3. Orders, Quotes, and Pricing

All prices are stated in United States dollars. The quoted price is calculated based on the source material you submit and the options you select, including but not limited to language pair, document type, certification type, formatting requirements, requested turnaround, and delivery method. We reserve the right to revise a quote if, after submission, we determine that the source material differs from what was represented, including in length, legibility, complexity, source language, or scope.

An order is accepted by us, and is committed to our work queue, when we issue an order confirmation by email or through the website, provided that, where payment is required in advance, we have received payment in full. Upon issuance of the order confirmation, the order is final, non-cancellable by you, and non-refundable, except as expressly provided in our Refund Policy or as required by applicable law that cannot be waived by contract. We may decline or cancel any order at our sole discretion at any time and for any reason, including but not limited to orders that we believe involve fraudulent payment, suspected money laundering, sanctioned or restricted parties, unlawful or infringing content, content we are not equipped to translate, source material that has been materially misrepresented, or any other matter that, in our judgment, presents an unreasonable legal, regulatory, security, or commercial risk. Where we cancel an order for cause attributable to you, no refund is owed. No further liability shall attach to us in connection with any cancellation under this Section. All cancellations are subject to our Refund Policy.

4. Source Materials and Customer Responsibilities

You are solely responsible for the accuracy, legibility, completeness, and legality of the source material you submit, for the correct spelling of all proper names, addresses, dates, and identifiers, and for ensuring that you have the legal right to submit the material to us for translation or processing. You agree not to submit any material that infringes the intellectual property or privacy rights of any third party, that is obscene, defamatory, threatening, unlawful, or otherwise objectionable, or that requires a license, permit, or clearance you do not possess.

You are solely responsible for confirming the requirements of any recipient of the deliverable before placing your order, including without limitation the recipient’s requirements as to language pair, certification format, signatures, seals, notarization, apostille, hard-copy delivery, and any deadlines. We do not provide legal, immigration, or other professional advice as to the requirements of any recipient, and any informational content on our website is provided for general information only and is not a substitute for verification by you with the recipient.

By submitting source material, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use, store, copy, process, transmit, and translate that material for the limited purposes of providing the Services, performing quality control, complying with law, and retaining records as described in our Privacy Policy.

5. Turnaround Times

All turnaround times quoted on the website, in checkout, or in any communication are estimates only, are calculated from the next business day following the date when payment is received and any required clarifications are resolved, and are not binding deadlines. Estimates exclude weekends, U.S. federal holidays, time needed to assign an order to a translator, time required for customer responses, time required for review of difficult or illegible source material, and any period during which an order is paused for any reason.

We do not guarantee any delivery time for any order unless we have provided a written guarantee that specifically references the order in question. A delay in delivery is not, on its own, grounds for a refund and is not a breach of these Terms.

6. Quality, Revisions, and Acceptance

We deliver work performed by translators and reviewed under our internal quality-control process. Translation is, by its nature, partly subjective; differences in word choice, register, tone, style, formatting, or layout between two competent translators do not, on their own, constitute defects. Only objective, demonstrable errors made by us in the rendering of the source material qualify for revision, and only the following categories qualify: typographical errors, plain mistranslations of words clearly present in the source, omitted or added content not present in the source, and incorrect dates or numbers where the correct values are unambiguous from the source.

Customer Information Required Before Work Begins. You are responsible for providing, at the time you place your order, all information necessary for us to render the deliverable correctly, including without limitation the confirmed spelling and transliteration of every proper name, the preferred rendering of place names and institution names, the desired format and layout, any specific terminology or stylistic requirements and glossary. If you do not provide such information before work begins, our rendering of any item that depends on that information shall not be treated as an error, and any later change to that rendering shall be treated as a new customer request and is subject to additional charges.

Free Revision. Subject to the conditions in this Section, we offer one (1) free revision per completed translation, limited to correction of typographical errors and plain translator mistakes within the categories described in the first paragraph of this Section. To qualify for the free revision, please submit a single written request by email to info@LingvaShop.com within five (5) business days after delivery of the completed translation, listing in that single email in detail every item you wish to have corrected, with sufficient specificity for us to locate each item in the source and the deliverable. For purposes of these Terms and the Refund Policy, “business days” means Monday through Friday, excluding U.S. federal holidays.

Additional Revisions and Out-of-Scope Changes. Any revision request for our certificates, including, but not limited to, certificate of translation, certificate of accuracy, and/or translation that is submitted after the free revision has been delivered, and/or that is submitted in a second or subsequent email rather than as part of the single qualifying email, and/or that is submitted after the five-business-day window, that requests changes to spelling, transliteration, layout, formatting, design, wording and/or stylistic preferences not specified by you before work began, or that otherwise falls outside the categories of objective error described above, is treated as an additional out-of-scope request. We may, at our sole discretion, perform such additional work for an additional charge. Nothing in this Section obligates us to perform any additional work, and the existence of this discretionary process creates no entitlement on your part.

The remedy for a qualifying revision request is correction of the affected portion of the deliverable, in the form, scope, and method we determine in our sole discretion. A revision request is not, on its own, grounds for a refund.

We do not guarantee that any translation, certification, notarization, apostille, or other deliverable will be accepted by any recipient, including but not limited to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the U.S. Department of State, any court, embassy, consulate, university, professional licensing board, employer, bank, insurer, or any other public or private authority or institution. We do not maintain, publish, or recognize any “guaranteed acceptance list,” “money-back guarantee,” or similar commitment, and the absence of any such list or guarantee creates no liability on our part. Non-acceptance by a recipient is not, on its own, grounds for a refund. Refunds are governed exclusively by our Refund Policy.

Use of “Accepted,” “Acceptance,” and Similar Language. Any use on our website, in advertisements, in landing pages, on order pages, on service pages, in headers, in graphics, in badges, in trust marks, in customer-quote forms, in FAQs, in emails, in invoices, in quotes, in social-media posts, or in any other communication, of any of the following or similar words or phrases is descriptive only and refers to the general intended use, common use, format, or purpose of the Service or deliverable: “accepted,” “acceptance,” “accepted by,” “accepted at,” “accepted for,” “USCIS accepted,” “USCIS-accepted,” “USCIS Accepted,” “accepted for USCIS,” “USCIS-ready,” “ready for USCIS,” “immigration accepted,” “government accepted,” “court accepted,” “accepted by courts,” “embassy accepted,” “consulate accepted,” “school accepted,” “college accepted,” “university accepted,” “medical office accepted,” “bank accepted,” “attorney accepted,” “agency accepted,” “agency-ready,” “commonly accepted,” “typically accepted,” “widely accepted,” “prepared for,” “used for,” “compliant with,” “meets the requirements of,” or any other word, phrase, image, badge, icon, seal, or visual indicator suggesting acceptance, approval, recognition, endorsement, or readiness for use by any specific recipient or any category of recipient (collectively, “Acceptance Language”).

Acceptance Language does not constitute, and shall not be construed as, a representation, warranty, guarantee, whether express or implied, promise, condition, assurance, or commitment that any specific recipient, any category of recipient, any agency, any authority, any institution, any court, any consulate, any embassy, any university, any school, any college, any medical office, any employer, any bank, any insurer, any attorney, any law firm, or any other public or private entity will accept, approve, recognize, endorse, rely on, act upon, or refrain from rejecting any deliverable, in any specific case or in general. The fact that we describe certain Services as customarily used for, prepared for, intended for, or accepted by any recipient or category of recipient does not create any right, expectation, or guarantee, whether express or implied, in any individual case.

You acknowledge and agree that acceptance is determined on a case-by-case basis by the recipient, that acceptance requirements vary between recipients, between offices of the same recipient, between officers of the same office, and between submissions, that those requirements change without notice, and that the final decision to accept, reject, request modifications to, or request additional documentation in connection with any deliverable rests solely with the recipient. You are solely responsible for confirming, before placing an order, the current requirements of every recipient to which you intend to submit the deliverable. No Acceptance Language, no badge, no logo, no trust mark, no listing of recipient categories on our website or in our communications, and no third-party certification, accreditation, membership, or rating displayed on our website, modifies these Terms, creates any refund right, creates any money-back guarantee, creates any acceptance guarantee, or limits the disclaimers, limitations of liability, exclusive-remedy provisions, indemnification, or Refund Policy incorporated into these Terms.

Your sole and exclusive remedy for any objectively demonstrable defect in a deliverable is correction of the affected portion of the deliverable in accordance with these Terms and the Refund Policy. No defect, alleged defect, recipient rejection, delay, or dissatisfaction entitles you to any refund, credit, damages, chargeback, or other remedy except as expressly stated in the Refund Policy.

7. Payment

Payment in full is generally required to place an order. We accept the payment methods displayed at checkout and/or emails with manual quotes. You represent and warrant that any payment instrument you use is valid, lawfully obtained, and authorized for your use, and that the funds are sufficient. You authorize us, and our payment processors, to charge the payment instrument for the full amount of the order and for any additional charges authorized under these Terms, including without limitation charges for additional work outside the scope of the original order, additional shipping, or expedited service.

All taxes, duties, levies, and similar charges imposed by any taxing authority on the Services or on the delivery of the Services are your responsibility unless we expressly agree in writing to the contrary. You agree not to initiate a chargeback or payment-card dispute for any order without first contacting us in writing at info@LingvaShop.com and giving us a reasonable opportunity to resolve the matter, as further described in our Refund Policy.

8. Delivery and Shipping

Digital deliverables are delivered by email or via secure download at the email address associated with your order. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have a working email address, that our messages are not blocked by your spam filter, and that the email address you provided is correct. We are not responsible for delays or non-receipt caused by your email configuration, your service provider, or the recipient mail system.

Hard-copy delivery, where ordered, is dispatched via a U.S.-based commercial carrier, including but not limited to FedEx, UPS, DHL Express, and the United States Postal Service (USPS). Once a package is tendered to a carrier, the carrier alone is responsible for transit, handling, and delivery. We do not assume liability for any loss, damage, delay, misdelivery, or failure of delivery caused by a carrier, by customs authorities, or by any other event outside our reasonable control. Shipping fees are non-refundable once a package has been tendered to a carrier.

9. Intellectual Property

All content on the website, including without limitation text, graphics, logos, icons, images, audio, video, software, and the selection, arrangement, and look-and-feel thereof, is the property of LingvaShop or its licensors and is protected by United States and international copyright, trademark, and other intellectual-property laws. Except as expressly permitted, you may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, license, reverse engineer, scrape, or create derivative works of any portion of the website or its content.

Subject to payment in full and to these Terms, upon delivery of a completed translation we assign to you the copyright in the translated text we produce for you, solely for use of that translation by you for the purpose for which it was ordered. We retain the right to retain copies of the source material and the deliverable as required for quality control, dispute resolution, and legal compliance, and as further described in our Privacy Policy. Our certification, signatures, seals, templates, formats, and trademarks remain our exclusive property and may not be reproduced, altered, or reused without our prior written consent.

10. Acceptable Use

You agree not to use the Services for any unlawful purpose and not to: (a) submit source material that you do not have the legal right to submit; (b) submit material that infringes any intellectual-property right or privacy right of any third party; (c) submit material that is fraudulent, forged, altered, counterfeit, or that you intend to use for any fraudulent or unlawful purpose; (d) interfere with, disrupt, probe, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Services, our systems, or any other user’s account; (e) use automated means, including scrapers, bots, or scripts, to access the website except as expressly permitted; (f) impersonate any person or entity or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity; or (g) use the Services in violation of any applicable law, including but not limited to export-control, sanctions, and anti-money-laundering laws.

You represent and warrant that you are not located in, organized under the laws of, or ordinarily resident in any country or region subject to comprehensive United States sanctions, that you are not identified on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, the Foreign Sanctions Evaders List, the Sectoral Sanctions Identifications List, the Entity List, the Denied Persons List, or any other restricted-party list maintained by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Department of State, or any other U.S. governmental authority, that you are not owned or controlled by any such person, and that you will not use the Services or any deliverable on behalf of, or for the benefit of, any such person or for any purpose prohibited by U.S. export-control, sanctions, or anti-money-laundering laws. You agree to comply with all applicable U.S. and foreign export-control and sanctions laws in connection with your access to the Services and your use of any deliverable.

11. Disclaimer of Warranties

We do not guarantee, represent or warrant that the results that may be obtained from the use of the Services will be accurate or reliable. You agree that from time to time we may remove any Services for indefinite periods of time or cancel any Services at any time, without notice to you. You expressly agree that your use of, or inability to use, the Services is at your sole risk. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the Services and all deliverables are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis, with all faults and without any representation, warranties or conditions of any kind, either express or implied, including all implied warranties or conditions of merchantability, merchantable quality, fitness for a particular purpose, durability, title, and non-infringement. We expressly disclaim all warranties of every kind, whether express or implied, statutory, or otherwise, including but not limited to all implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement, and any warranties arising out of course of dealing, course of performance, or usage of trade. Without limitation, we do not warrant that the Services or any deliverable will meet your requirements, will be uninterrupted, secure, accurate, complete, reliable, current, or error-free, or that any deliverable will be accepted by any recipient.

No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from us or through the Services, creates any warranty not expressly stated in these Terms.

12. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall LingvaShop, its parent, subsidiaries, affiliates, directors, officers, shareholders, employees, contractors, translators, agents, service providers, or suppliers (collectively, the “Released Parties”) be liable to you or to any third party for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, punitive, exemplary, reliance, or enhanced damages, including but not limited to lost profits, lost revenue, lost business opportunities, lost goodwill, loss of data, business interruption, denial of an application, refusal of a visa, refusal of admission, refusal of licensure, loss of an employment opportunity, or loss of any other benefit, however caused and on any theory of liability, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), strict liability, or otherwise, and whether or not we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the aggregate liability of the Released Parties to you arising out of or relating to the Services or these Terms, regardless of the form of action and the theory of liability, shall not exceed the amount you paid to us for the specific Service giving rise to the claim. Multiple claims do not enlarge this cap. You agree that this allocation of risk is reflected in the price of the Services and is an essential basis of the bargain between you and us.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages. In those jurisdictions, the foregoing exclusions and limitations apply to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.

13. Indemnification

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the Released Parties from and against any and all claims, demands, actions, suits, proceedings, investigations, losses, liabilities, damages, judgments, settlements, costs, and expenses, including but not limited to reasonable attorneys’ fees and court costs, arising out of or relating to: (a) your access to or use of the Services; (b) any content, document, or material you submit to us; (c) your breach or alleged breach of these Terms or any representation or warranty made by you; (d) your violation of any law, rule, or regulation; (e) your violation of any right of any third party, including without limitation intellectual-property and privacy rights; and (f) your use of any deliverable for any purpose. We reserve the right, at our own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification by you, in which case you agree to cooperate fully with our defense.

14. Termination and Suspension

We may suspend, restrict, or terminate your access to the Services, in whole or in part, at any time, with or without notice and at our sole discretion, including but not limited to where we believe you have violated these Terms, where we suspect fraudulent or unlawful activity, or where required by law. Upon termination, your right to use the Services ceases immediately, but any provision of these Terms that by its nature should survive termination, including without limitation provisions on intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, governing law, venue, and dispute resolution, shall survive. Termination does not relieve you of any obligation to pay amounts owed.

15. Force Majeure

We shall not be liable for, and shall not be deemed to be in breach of these Terms by reason of, any delay or failure in performance caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including but not limited to acts of God, fire, flood, earthquake, severe weather, epidemic, pandemic, public-health emergency, war, terrorism, civil unrest, governmental or regulatory action, embargo, sanctions, labor disturbance, failure of utilities, failure of telecommunications or internet service, failure of any subcontractor, supplier, or carrier, or cyberattack. Our performance shall be excused for so long as the force-majeure event continues.

16. Governing Law and Venue

These Terms, and any non-contractual obligations arising out of or relating to these Terms, are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply to these Terms or to the Services.

Any action, suit, or proceeding arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services shall be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Los Angeles County, California. You irrevocably consent and submit to the exclusive personal jurisdiction and venue of those courts and waive any objection based on inconvenient forum or lack of personal jurisdiction. You agree that service of process in any such action may be made by any means permitted by applicable law, including by email to the address you provided to us, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.

17. Time Limit on Claims

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, any claim or cause of action you may have arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services must be commenced within one (1) year after the cause of action accrues, or it shall be permanently barred.

18. Modifications to These Terms

We may modify these Terms at any time at our sole discretion by posting the revised Terms on the website and updating the “Last updated” date above. Modifications are effective immediately upon posting unless a later effective date is stated. Your continued access to or use of the Services after the effective date constitutes your acceptance of the modified Terms. If you do not agree to the modified Terms, you must stop using the Services. We have no obligation to notify you individually of any modification.

19. Assignment

You may not assign, transfer, or delegate these Terms or any of your rights or obligations under these Terms, by operation of law or otherwise, without our prior written consent, and any attempted assignment in violation of this Section is null and void. We may assign, transfer, or delegate these Terms and any of our rights or obligations under these Terms, in whole or in part, at any time and without notice, including in connection with any merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, sale of assets, or change of control.

20. Notices and Electronic Communications

You consent to receive communications from us electronically, including by email, by message through the website, and by posting on the website. You agree that all agreements, notices, disclosures, and other communications we provide to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that those communications be in writing. Notices to us shall be sent by email to info@LingvaShop.com and, where a written notice is required by law, by U.S. mail to the mailing address listed in Section 24 below.

You further agree that clicking buttons, checking boxes, submitting forms, placing orders, uploading documents, making payments, and otherwise interacting with the website and the Services electronically constitute your electronic signature and create binding legal obligations to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, including the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-SIGN Act) and the California Uniform Electronic Transactions Act. You consent to receive and retain electronic records relating to the Services, including these Terms, the Refund Policy, the Privacy Policy, order confirmations, invoices, receipts, notices, disclosures, and policy updates. You are responsible for maintaining the hardware, software, internet access, and email account necessary to receive and retain such records, and you may withdraw this consent only by ceasing to use the Services.

21. Severability and Waiver

If any provision of these Terms is held invalid, illegal, or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, that provision shall be enforced to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, and the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect. Where a provision can be modified to make it enforceable while preserving the parties’ intent, it shall be deemed so modified. No failure or delay by us to enforce any provision of these Terms shall constitute a waiver of that provision or of any other provision, and no single or partial exercise of any right or remedy shall preclude any further exercise.

22. Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with the Refund Policy and the Privacy Policy and any order confirmation issued by us, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Services and supersede all prior or contemporaneous agreements, representations, warranties, and understandings, whether written or oral, regarding the subject matter. The parties acknowledge that each has had the opportunity to review and negotiate these Terms with counsel of its choosing, and the rule of construction that ambiguities are construed against the drafter shall not apply.

23. Third-Party Beneficiaries

The Released Parties identified in Section 12 are intended third-party beneficiaries of Sections 9 (Intellectual Property), 11 (Disclaimer of Warranties), 12 (Limitation of Liability), 13 (Indemnification), 14 (Termination and Suspension), 15 (Force Majeure), 16 (Governing Law and Venue), and 17 (Time Limit on Claims) of these Terms, and each Released Party may enforce those provisions directly against you to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. Except as expressly stated in this Section, these Terms do not create, and shall not be construed to create, any third-party beneficiary rights in any person.

24. Contact

Questions about these Terms may be directed to info@LingvaShop.com