Certified Translation Services in San Francisco, CA
San Francisco is a consolidated city and county, which simplifies one thing: the San Francisco County Clerk and the Superior Court cover the same territory, so there is no question about which county office holds your record.
What is not simple is the document mix. San Francisco has one of the oldest and largest Chinese-American populations in the country, and Chinese civil documentation works differently enough from the Western model that translating it well requires knowing the system rather than the vocabulary.
Filing details for San Francisco
- County
- City and County of San Francisco
- State court system
- Superior Court of California
- Apostille authority
- California Secretary of State
We serve San Francisco remotely from our office in Edgewater, New Jersey. We have no office here.
Hukou, notarial certificates and what USCIS expects
China does not issue birth certificates in the Western sense for older cohorts. What people hold is a hukou household register, which records residence and family relationships, or a notarial certificate (gongzheng shu) issued by a notary public office attesting to a fact such as birth, marriage or kinship.
These are different instruments and must be translated as what they are. A hukou translated as a "birth certificate" misrepresents it; a notarial certificate is a sworn attestation, not a registry extract. USCIS is familiar with both and evaluates them on their own terms — an accurate translation helps, an inflated one does not.
The San Francisco USCIS field office and immigration court serve the metro, and USF, SF State and Berkeley across the bay generate the academic credential work.
Courts and clerks in this area
- San Francisco Superior Court
- San Francisco County Clerk
Institutions that commonly request certified translations
- University of San Francisco
- San Francisco State University
- University of California, Berkeley (across the bay)
Traditional and simplified characters
Documents from mainland China are in simplified characters; documents from Taiwan, Hong Kong and older mainland records use traditional characters. Both are translated, and the distinction occasionally matters for identifying which jurisdiction issued a document.
Name romanisation varies too — pinyin, Wade-Giles, Cantonese romanisations and passport spellings can all differ for the same person. Send the passport spelling and we will keep the translation consistent with it.
Bearbeitungszeit
24 hours standard, 1-3 hours available
Price
$49 first page, then $0.12/word. Details
Sprachen
100+ languages. See all
Häufig gestellte Fragen
Is a hukou the same as a birth certificate?
No. It is a household register recording residence and family relationships. Translating it as a birth certificate would misrepresent the document, and USCIS knows the difference.
What is a notarial certificate?
A document issued by a Chinese notary public office attesting to a fact such as birth or kinship, often based on the hukou. It is translated as a notarial certificate.
Which romanisation of my name will you use?
The one on your passport, so the translation matches your other filings.
Do you have a San Francisco office?
No. Our only office is in Edgewater, New Jersey. Work is delivered electronically.
Document translation for San Francisco
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