For most people heading to the United States on an immigrant visa, a fiancé(e) visa or a student visa, the trip itself is the easy part. Flights get booked, bags get packed, and a new address is waiting. What causes the most avoidable delays is something far less exciting: the folder of birth certificates, marriage certificates and diplomas that were issued in another language.
US immigration authorities work in English. Every foreign-language document that goes into a file, whether it is uploaded to the National Visa Center, handed over at a consular interview or submitted to US Citizenship and Immigration Services after arrival, has to come with a full English translation. Getting this right before travel saves weeks, and sometimes months, later on.
What the rules actually say
The requirement for applications filed inside the United States is set out in federal regulations (8 CFR 103.2(b)(3)). Any document containing foreign language must be accompanied by a full English translation, together with a statement from the translator certifying that the translation is complete and accurate and that they are competent to translate from that language into English.
The US Department of State applies a similar standard for visas processed abroad. Civil documents that are not in English, or in the official language of the country where the interview takes place, must be submitted with a certified English translation.
Two details often surprise applicants. First, the translation must be complete, so a summary or an extract of the “important parts” is not accepted. Stamps, seals, handwritten notes and anything printed on the back of the page all need to appear in the English version. Second, notarisation is not required. USCIS asks for the translator’s signed certification, not a notary’s stamp.
Which documents usually need translating
The exact list depends on the visa category, but most family and employment cases include some combination of these:
- birth certificates for the applicant and any children travelling with them
- marriage certificates, and divorce decrees or death certificates from previous marriages
- police certificates from countries of residence
- diplomas and academic transcripts for student visas and many work visas
- adoption and name-change records
Short-term visitors on a tourist visa or the Visa Waiver Program rarely need translated documents. The requirement mainly affects people who are moving, studying or applying for a green card.
The mistakes that slow cases down
The most common problem is a name that does not match the passport. Names written in Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese, Greek or other scripts can be transliterated into English in several ways, and a translation should follow the spelling in the applicant’s passport. A one-letter difference between a birth certificate translation and a visa application can be enough to prompt a Request for Evidence.
Dates are the second trap. A date written 04/06/2019 means 4 June in most of the world and April 6 in the United States, so a careful translation writes dates out in full.
The third is translating documents one at a time, through different people, as each step of the process comes up. Using one translator for the whole set keeps names, places and dates consistent across every document in the file.
A simple way to stay ahead
The practical advice from immigration lawyers is to gather every civil document as soon as a case is opened, check which ones are not in English, and have them translated together. Many applicants now use a professional certified translation for USCIS service, which delivers signed PDFs that can be uploaded straight to the online portal and reused later for a green card or naturalisation application.
It is a small task compared with planning a move across the world, but it is the one most likely to hold up the date you actually get to travel.
