Quick summary: NAATI released digital translator stamps in March 2023. A digital stamp is a PNG image downloaded from the translator's myNAATI account under multi-factor authentication, carrying a QR code unique to the day it was generated. It shows no credential expiry date, because it can only be downloaded by a practitioner whose credentials are current. Scanning the QR code verifies the credential and states whether the stamp itself is valid. The one thing a digital stamp cannot do is force a receiving organisation to accept it.
If a translator returns your document with a QR code where you expected an inked stamp, nothing has gone wrong. Digital stamps are NAATI's own product and have been in use since March 2023.
They are, on balance, more secure than the thing they replaced. But they introduced one new question worth understanding before you order: whoever you are lodging with has to be willing to take one.
Why NAATI built them
The reasoning is published, and it explains the design.
The print-and-scan burden. Translators working electronically had to print their work, stamp, sign and date every page, then scan the whole lot back in before sending it to the client.
Expiry-date confusion. The credential expiry printed on a physical stamp caused, in NAATI's words, a lot of confusion among clients who could mistake it for the validity of the translation.
Photoshopped stamps. NAATI was aware of security issues where images of stamps taken from legitimate translations were pasted onto fraudulent translations the practitioner had never done.
Each feature of the digital stamp answers one of those.
What a digital stamp is
Downloaded under multi-factor authentication
A practitioner downloads the stamp as a PNG from their myNAATI account, signing in with a password and a multi-factor authentication code.
Because of that two-step process, the signature panel found on a physical stamp is replaced by the words "Digitally Authenticated by NAATI", and the stamp can be accepted without a physical signature.
No expiry date on the stamp
A digital stamp does not display the credential expiry date at all.
That is deliberate rather than an omission. A stamp can only be downloaded by a practitioner whose credentials were active on that date — so the absence of an expiry date is itself the assurance.
A QR code unique to the day
Every downloaded stamp carries a unique QR code. The codes are specific to the day they were generated, which is why translators are expected to download a fresh stamp on the day they complete a translation.
On a digital stamp, the line reading "Stamp generated on" takes the place of the translation date found on a physical one.
What scanning the QR code proves
Scanning returns the details of current or expired credentials held by that person, and states clearly whether the digital stamp is valid.
Three outcomes are worth being able to interpret:
Valid stamp, current credentials. The straightforward case.
Valid stamp, expired credentials. Where a practitioner's credentials have since expired but the stamp was generated while they were active, the result still states the digital stamp is valid, while showing the current credentials as expired. That is a correct outcome — the work was certified at the time it was done.
"Digital Stamp: Invalid." Returned where a QR code has been disabled for fraud or misuse, or where it has been forged. NAATI can disable an individual stamp without affecting any of the translator's other work, so this is a statement about that one stamp rather than about the translator.
NAATI suggests one further check: confirm that the credentials, name and photo returned are consistent with the practitioner and the work you received.
If the QR code will not scan
There is a documented fallback. Below the QR code is a unique 32-character identifier. Append it to this address in a browser and you get the same verification result:
`https://my.naati.com.au/VerifyPractitioner?QrCode=`
The size trap
This one catches people who reformat or compress a translated PDF.
For the QR code to work it needs to be 2cm × 2cm if resized, and NAATI recommends the stamp be at least 7cm wide for general readability.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade adds a related requirement for documents submitted for legalisation: the web address below the QR code must be clearly legible, which DFAT notes can be a problem if the digital stamp has been resized too small.
The practical lesson is not to shrink, re-compress or re-export a translated document you have been sent. Lodge the file as supplied.
Acceptance is a separate question
Here is the honest part, and NAATI says it plainly itself.
During development NAATI consulted widely with agencies and businesses that accept translations. Even so, it acknowledges that some are unwilling to accept the digital stamp on translations, and says it continues to work with those organisations to gain broader acceptance.
NAATI has named a specific example — as at its March 2025 update it was aware of ASIC not accepting the digital stamp, and was working with them directly. That position may have changed since, which is itself the point: acceptance is organisation by organisation, and it moves.
If an organisation refuses a translation because of the digital stamp, NAATI's suggested course is to give them its practitioner identification brochure in the first instance, and then to report the refusal — preferably with the organisation's contact details — to [email protected], so NAATI can approach them directly.
Where digital stamps are expressly fine
Two significant reference points.
DFAT accepts them for legalisation, provided the stamp clearly shows the practitioner ID, the language and type of certification, the translator's name, the date the stamp was generated, "Digitally Authenticated by NAATI", and a legible web address below the QR code — with all of that on every translated page, accompanied by a copy of the original document signed or stamped by the translator.
NAATI treats them as equivalent to physical stamps for certifying a translation.
For most Australian purposes — a certified translation for a citizenship application, or a birth certificate translation for a visa — a digital stamp from a certified translator is the normal, current form.
Before you order
Ask the receiving authority if you are lodging somewhere unusual, or with a body that handles few translations. One email now is cheaper than a rejected document later.
Do not resize or re-compress the file you are sent.
Check the QR code scans before you lodge. It takes ten seconds and it is the single best assurance you have.
The full detail on both stamp types is on NAATI's practitioner identification page, and its digital stamp and ID announcement explains the reasoning and the acceptance position. Both are updated over time, so check them if something you are looking at does not match this description.