My In-Laws are Coming!! Help!!

[Shad and Dani 3]

Howdy Everyone!

My future in-laws are coming to the wedding next month. But they don't speak English! How are they going to pass through customs if they only speak Bulgarian?? My brother-in-law speaks very minimal English. Any experiences or suggestions will be greatly appreciated! :)

[Otto 83]

No real suggestions - according to CBP there are officers in most airports that speak several languages (their web site claims 23 but I'll be that's a stretch). You could write a very simple not for them to give the CBP officer.

I remember a VJ member who did this - a very simple/short note in English and underneath the same in their native language (so they'd know what they were telling the officer). Worked just fine.

Which POE will they go through?

[Nik+Heather 121]

Have them bring one of your wedding invites too!

[toma1 10]

Howdy Everyone!

My future in-laws are coming to the wedding next month. But they don't speak English! How are they going to pass through customs if they only speak Bulgarian?? My brother-in-law speaks very minimal English. Any experiences or suggestions will be greatly appreciated! :)

I've thought about this a million times. If my wife's parents come to visit, what do we do? They speak very close to ZERO English.

Luckily the brother in law speaks something. If he wasn't with them I would suggest a pre-translated list of important phrases.

The wedding invitation idea is fantastic!

[JeremyR 8]

I'd phone the CBP field office that serves that area where the PoE is located for advice if it were me... They may be able to give specific guidance about where to go, etc.

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/toolbox/contacts/cmcs/

That said, don't worry. CBP will be used to dealing with people who don't speak a word of English every single day... It's kinda the nature of the place

[mari joe 1]

Dont worry my freind, everything will be fine. your family now. smile and relax, it's all good. praise God.

[payxibka 10,045]

This is not a K-1 visa issue...

moving thread

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Howdy Everyone!

My future in-laws are coming to the wedding next month. But they don't speak English! How are they going to pass through customs if they only speak Bulgarian?? My brother-in-law speaks very minimal English. Any experiences or suggestions will be greatly appreciated! :)

Sorry. I am imagining you thought they are the only people that come to the USA that do not speak English. You didn't imagine that, did you?

Every moment hundreds, if not thousands of non-Engl9ish speaking people enter the United States. None of them die from the experience. At a big POE there will be someone there that can speak Bulgarian, or the eastern Europe default language, Russian. My guess is they also speak Russian if they are old enough to have a child of marrying age.

Don't worry, they will be fine.

[Dave and Helena 0]

When you stand in line to go through immigrations you can hear them call for interpreters if needed.

I didn't read the whole thing but I found this document on an immigration law firm website. http://www.durrani.com/docs/interpreters.pdf

It basically says that it is the IOs responsibility to read and explain to the alien, in the aliens native language or in a language the alien understands, any determination regarding the aliens admissibility and/or removal from the U.S. It also states that if the alien cannot speak English well enough to understand the questions and answer them the alien must be provided with an interpreter. The document also says that if they cannot find an interpreter at the POE they use an interpreter service. Each field office have arrangements with a commercial interpreter for phone interpretation 24/7. Unfortunately I have not been able to find this info at any government website.

That said, I am a little worried about my mom coming. Her English is very limited and I am worried about her filling out the customs and the VWP form which will probably have her occupied with a dictionary for hours during the flight. I am trying to put her on a plane straight from Sweden to Atlanta hoping they will have Swedish speaking flight staff there to help her.

[Shad and Dani 3]

No real suggestions - according to CBP there are officers in most airports that speak several languages (their web site claims 23 but I'll be that's a stretch). You could write a very simple not for them to give the CBP officer.

I remember a VJ member who did this - a very simple/short note in English and underneath the same in their native language (so they'd know what they were telling the officer). Worked just fine.

Which POE will they go through?

Thanks for the tip! Charlotte, NC

Howdy Everyone!

My future in-laws are coming to the wedding next month. But they don't speak English! How are they going to pass through customs if they only speak Bulgarian?? My brother-in-law speaks very minimal English. Any experiences or suggestions will be greatly appreciated! :)

Sorry. I am imagining you thought they are the only people that come to the USA that do not speak English. You didn't imagine that, did you?

Every moment hundreds, if not thousands of non-Engl9ish speaking people enter the United States. None of them die from the experience. At a big POE there will be someone there that can speak Bulgarian, or the eastern Europe default language, Russian. My guess is they also speak Russian if they are old enough to have a child of marrying age.

Don't worry, they will be fine.

Not at all! It's just Bulgarian isn't that common, and my In-Laws don't speak Russian that well.

[Shad and Dani 3]

Howdy Everyone!

My future in-laws are coming to the wedding next month. But they don't speak English! How are they going to pass through customs if they only speak Bulgarian?? My brother-in-law speaks very minimal English. Any experiences or suggestions will be greatly appreciated! :)

I've thought about this a million times. If my wife's parents come to visit, what do we do? They speak very close to ZERO English.

Luckily the brother in law speaks something. If he wasn't with them I would suggest a pre-translated list of important phrases.

The wedding invitation idea is fantastic!

I agree!

[Shad and Dani 3]

When you stand in line to go through immigrations you can hear them call for interpreters if needed.

I didn't read the whole thing but I found this document on an immigration law firm website. http://www.durrani.com/docs/interpreters.pdf

It basically says that it is the IOs responsibility to read and explain to the alien, in the aliens native language or in a language the alien understands, any determination regarding the aliens admissibility and/or removal from the U.S. It also states that if the alien cannot speak English well enough to understand the questions and answer them the alien must be provided with an interpreter. The document also says that if they cannot find an interpreter at the POE they use an interpreter service. Each field office have arrangements with a commercial interpreter for phone interpretation 24/7. Unfortunately I have not been able to find this info at any government website.

That said, I am a little worried about my mom coming. Her English is very limited and I am worried about her filling out the customs and the VWP form which will probably have her occupied with a dictionary for hours during the flight. I am trying to put her on a plane straight from Sweden to Atlanta hoping they will have Swedish speaking flight staff there to help her.

WOW!! Great information! Thanks a ton!

[Shad and Dani 3]

Dont worry my freind, everything will be fine. your family now. smile and relax, it's all good. praise God.

Thank you soo much for your kind words!

[Nik+Heather 121]

That said, I am a little worried about my mom coming. Her English is very limited and I am worried about her filling out the customs and the VWP form which will probably have her occupied with a dictionary for hours during the flight. I am trying to put her on a plane straight from Sweden to Atlanta hoping they will have Swedish speaking flight staff there to help her.

Just taking this a step further - you can down load those I94s, so why not provide the translation for those things for her, so that she already knows what to put in the blanks when she gets on the plane? She should of course check that they haven't rearranged the form (unlikely) but then she wouldn't have to fret about it.

[Shad and Dani 3]

That said, I am a little worried about my mom coming. Her English is very limited and I am worried about her filling out the customs and the VWP form which will probably have her occupied with a dictionary for hours during the flight. I am trying to put her on a plane straight from Sweden to Atlanta hoping they will have Swedish speaking flight staff there to help her.

Just taking this a step further - you can down load those I94s, so why not provide the translation for those things for her, so that she already knows what to put in the blanks when she gets on the plane? She should of course check that they haven't rearranged the form (unlikely) but then she wouldn't have to fret about it.

Good point! We sent them a scan of the completed I94.