Plain answers about certified translations, USCIS requirements, notarization and apostilles.
A Request for Evidence can add weeks or months to a case. Translation problems are among the easiest causes to prevent. Seven to check before you file.
Stamps, seals and handwritten notes are part of the document, and a full translation has to account for every one. Here is how translators render them, and what the brackets in your translation mean.
World Education Services does not translate documents and does not accept translations made by applicants. Here is what its rules require, and how to prepare diplomas and transcripts.
The same name can be written in English several ways. When your birth certificate, marriage certificate and passport disagree, officials notice. How to keep spellings consistent.
Legal translation quotes vary widely because they are priced on different units and include different extras. How to read a quote, and worked examples at our published rates.
Most translation problems are decided before the translator starts: the wrong type of translation, a poor scan, or a name spelled differently from the passport. Six steps that avoid them.
An apostille is one certificate that all Hague Convention countries accept. Countries outside the Convention need a longer chain: authentication, then legalization by their embassy.
Whether you apostille before or after translating depends on the direction of travel: a US document going abroad, or a foreign document coming to the US. Here is the order for each.
Machine translation is excellent for reading a letter from abroad. It is the wrong tool for a document you have to submit, and the reason is the certificate, not only the quality.
The regulation does not name who may translate, only what the translator must certify. That leaves room for self-translation on paper, and a real risk in practice. Here is how to weigh it.
Certification is about the translation. Notarization is about the signature on the certificate. Knowing the difference saves you from paying for a stamp nobody asked for, or missing one that was required.
The certificate is the part of a certified translation that agencies actually check. Here is what it has to contain, a sample you can compare against, and the omissions that get it rejected.