Translator needed for Police Clearance

[acucag 0]

hello everyone.

my friend is asking if anybody knows any translator for her husband's police clearance. her husband needs it to apply Green Card and yet when he got his police clearance, it is not translated to english. Anybody can help? thanks a lot.

[brnidokiegurl 0]

take it to a school in their area, college etc and seek out the help of a student for a small fee

[acucag 0]

I appreciate your reply but I read that there USCIS Document Translation Policy saying

"Per the USCIS, documents not in English must be translated. The policy states as follows:

"All documents that are in a language other than English must be submitted with a translation. The person translating the document must certify that the translation is complete and accurate and that he/she is competent to translate from the foreign language into English."

Please help. Thanks!

[Otto 83]

hello everyone.

my friend is asking if anybody knows any translator for her husband's police clearance. her husband needs it to apply Green Card and yet when he got his police clearance, it is not translated to english. Anybody can help? thanks a lot.

Just for clarification - what purpose does the police certificate serve for AOS? (Usually that's done at the visa stage.)

[acucag 0]

hello everyone.

my friend is asking if anybody knows any translator for her husband's police clearance. her husband needs it to apply Green Card and yet when he got his police clearance, it is not translated to english. Anybody can help? thanks a lot.

Just for clarification - what purpose does the police certificate serve for AOS? (Usually that's done at the visa stage.)

ooopppss, i might not be in the right sub-forum but my friend is applying for Green Card. He met his wife here in US and they got married here. I can't remember the exact VISA he is holding now but it will expire next year ( he has that VISA for almost 10yrs now).

[NickD 203]

hello everyone.

my friend is asking if anybody knows any translator for her husband's police clearance. her husband needs it to apply Green Card and yet when he got his police clearance, it is not translated to english. Anybody can help? thanks a lot.

Most court houses have a translator that is certified for legal documents, you can try calling your local clerk of court, or try to find one on the internet. My wife is certified for medical, a different certification for legal, so we had to hire a legal certified translator. Charged us 50-75 bucks per page and stamped each page with his certification.

Seemed kind of crazy to me as if you call the USCIS, they do have Spanish speaking people to help you, but you have to give them what they want.

[brnidokiegurl 0]

i believe any one with knowledge of both languages can do the translation if they attach a statement show who they are and give all necessary information, stateing they are fluent in both languages, if not a upper student then maybe a teacher....

[NickD 203]

i believe any one with knowledge of both languages can do the translation if they attach a statement show who they are and give all necessary information, stateing they are fluent in both languages, if not a upper student then maybe a teacher....

Was just relating our experience with this, for us this was almost five years ago, but much depends on your office and what kind of mood he or she is in.

[lucyrich 20]

It doesn't depend on the whim of the person you get at the office.

If the document is submitted to a USCIS office, anybody who has the required language ability can translate.

Per the USCIS:

"All documents that are in a language other than English must be submitted with a translation. The person translating the document must certify that the translation is complete and accurate and that he/she is competent to translate from the foreign language into English."

Or, from the USCIS General Tips page

Please submit certified translations for all foreign language documents. The translator must certify that s/he is competent to translate and that the translation is accurate.

The certification format should include the certifier's name, signature, address, and date of certification. A suggested format is:

Certification by Translator

I [typed name], certify that I am fluent (conversant) in the English and ________ languages, and that the above/attached document is an accurate translation of the document attached entitled ______________________________.

Signature_________________________________

Date Typed Name

Address

If he lived in a Spanish speaking country, and between the two of you, neither of you is bilingual and neither of you knows anybody who has the ability to translate between Spanish and English, then it sounds like there may be another problem somewhere in the relationship.

For our case, I personally did our translations. I signed the statement as given above, and there was no problem with it.

Some people get caught up with the USCIS language, thinking that a certified translation means the translator needs to have some special qualification. That's not true. The USCIS doesn't recognize any sort of credentials of translators. The translator doesn't need to be certified, only the translation does.

[NickD 203]

The translator doesn't need to be certified, only the translation does.

This is water under the bridge for us, but how does one get the translations certified? The bulk of our translations dealt with showing the USCIS my wife could bring her daughter here that was quite a stack of paper. She had to be released by her biological father to complicate issues even more was living in a different county. That costs us a couple of bucks.

Her police report was very simple, the name of the organization and address normally do not get translated, a simple piece of paper stating they had no records, so only that phrase had to be translated. Than can't be too difficult, use google.

[sparkofcreation 0]

Most court houses have a translator that is certified for legal documents, you can try calling your local clerk of court, or try to find one on the internet. My wife is certified for medical, a different certification for legal, so we had to hire a legal certified translator. Charged us 50-75 bucks per page and stamped each page with his certification.

There is no such thing as certification by specialization or legal translation certification in the US. There is *interpreter* certification by specialty, and translator certification by *language*, but the American Translators Assn. does not certify by specialty. (There is a very limited credential that no one recognizes by the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators [NAJIT], but as I said, no one recognizes it and no one holds it.)

Courthouses in most states (like 40 of the 50) are likely to have certified court *interpreters* but that's no guarantee of the quality of their written *translation* work; interpreting exams are oral. Very few certified interpreters also hold translation credentials (and even fewer certified translators hold interpreting credentials, but that's beside the point).

While it pisses me off, USCIS does not require documents to be translated by a professional, just someone who certifies they are competent in both languages.

NickD, $50-75 per page seems high to me unless it was only one page, and I say this as someone who holds both the highest translation and highest legal interpreting credentials in the US (and therefore can charge the highest prices) and specializes in personal document translation. Also, if the translation was done here in the US, that translator bought his stamp for $7.99 at the rubber stamp store and anyone can get one. They're not distributed by the ATA or NAJIT.

ETA: And so that no one thinks I'm advertising, I'm not.

Edited August 18, 2008 by sparkofcreation

[sparkofcreation 0]

The translator doesn't need to be certified, only the translation does.

This is water under the bridge for us, but how does one get the translations certified? The bulk of our translations dealt with showing the USCIS my wife could bring her daughter here that was quite a stack of paper. She had to be released by her biological father to complicate issues even more was living in a different county. That costs us a couple of bucks.

A translation is certified when the translator writes "I certify that this is a complete and accurate translation" (some additional verbiage, but that's the gist of it) and signs and dates it.

[Johnnie J 0]

I have a good one here in NJ. I used if for my birth certificate, you can scan it and they'll send it back to you by mail. Price? 2 certified copies (60USD) both sides (if the text is both sides)

[MIDUVIL 34]

Hello,

i don't know how to do with translators.

But concerning me, i didn't have a translation for my police certificate (yes for my birth certificate) because, there is nothing written on it, except my name.....

Only a line from the top left corner to the bottom right corner. For me the meaning was simple, no problem with laws.

Good luck

Edited August 18, 2008 by MIDUVIL

[NickD 203]

Most court houses have a translator that is certified for legal documents, you can try calling your local clerk of court, or try to find one on the internet. My wife is certified for medical, a different certification for legal, so we had to hire a legal certified translator. Charged us 50-75 bucks per page and stamped each page with his certification.

There is no such thing as certification by specialization or legal translation certification in the US. There is *interpreter* certification by specialty, and translator certification by *language*, but the American Translators Assn. does not certify by specialty. (There is a very limited credential that no one recognizes by the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators [NAJIT], but as I said, no one recognizes it and no one holds it.)

Courthouses in most states (like 40 of the 50) are likely to have certified court *interpreters* but that's no guarantee of the quality of their written *translation* work; interpreting exams are oral. Very few certified interpreters also hold translation credentials (and even fewer certified translators hold interpreting credentials, but that's beside the point).

While it pisses me off, USCIS does not require documents to be translated by a professional, just someone who certifies they are competent in both languages.

NickD, $50-75 per page seems high to me unless it was only one page, and I say this as someone who holds both the highest translation and highest legal interpreting credentials in the US (and therefore can charge the highest prices) and specializes in personal document translation. Also, if the translation was done here in the US, that translator bought his stamp for $7.99 at the rubber stamp store and anyone can get one. They're not distributed by the ATA or NAJIT.

ETA: And so that no one thinks I'm advertising, I'm not.

All I can say, sparkofcreation, is that when first dealing with the USCIS, it was an overwhelming experience with many things that had to be done at the same time. Maybe I got nailed with the translations, well so be it. Not only the problem with translations, but also a problem in locating the original documents from two different countries, then their were errors on these documents that required corrections to deal with.

Another issue was with the I-693, finding a USCIS doctor that would follow I-693 regulations, making an appointment in a reasonable length of time, and not one that wanted to add a whole bunch of other expensive tests that weren't even required.