Questions about self-translation of documents for I-130 packet

[elvenshadow 19]

Hello. I have a question about self-translation of documents for the I-130. My wife and I are currently in the process of translating our marriage certificate and joint apartment lease from Japanese to English. I read here on this site…

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/fiance-marriage-visa-book/chapter4-14.html

…that it is necessary to include government stamps on the translation. Is this true? If so, how would someone even go about doing so? Would we have to go to the office that released the original document? This seems strange to me because if we were to go through a professional translation company, I don’t see how they would get the official stamps.

I also have a question about fonts. Should the text that is part of the original form have a different font than the parts that were filled in by the applicant? Also, for parts that had a legal hand-written signature, does that need to be signed again by hand on the translation version? Also, one part of the marriage certificate has part of an address crossed out and corrected under the crossed out part in the same field. Obviously this was fine in the original but do I need to actually translate it so that the crossed out part is shown in the translation or should I just put in the corrected address in full?

I am a little nervous about sending our own translation. I am perfectly competent to do the translation as far as being fluent enough in both languages to where I won’t make any mistakes about the meaning, but I am worried that I may screw something up as far as the format goes. I have read so many posts on here about how people did the translations themselves and had no issues, and I also talked to someone I know personally who also got a spouse visa from Japan a few years ago and did it himself and he had no problems. The professional service REV.com wanted over $500 to translate our documents and I would really rather avoid spending that much if possible…

Edited April 14, 2014 by elvenshadow

[JRF 117]

I did not include any stamps on the translations (and there were a lot of stamps on the originals).

You simply have to include a statement to the effect you are competent in both English and, in this case, Japanese. You can find plenty of such sample statements via search in VJ.

Simply translate the corrected address. I don't fully understand the font question, but it seems you are (justifiably) nervous and over-analyzing the task. I was similarly worried when submitting all of the translations and I never had any issues.

If your Japanese is good I personally don't see the need to hire a translator. I used a co-worker for most of my translation (free) and was able to do some of it myself. No issues.

Best of luck!

[Al422 221]

Whose name went on it as the translator? I ask because my last K-1 was to a professional Russian/English interpreter who did many of these both for friends and as a profesional for a fee. But we decided that using her name as the translator looked a bit self serviing, so she gave it to a colleague, just to have a different name on it.

If you are qualified to do this, can you do it yourself?

[elvenshadow 19]

OK, so stamps are not necessary? Do I still have to translate what the stamps say?

What I meant about fonts was using 2 different fonts to distinguish the parts of the document that are the fields from the information that was written IN those fields.

Also, how about signatures? Do they have to be hand written again or is it OK to just translate what the signatures say?

[JRF 117]

I did not translate what was in the stamps. I also did not replicate signatures. You can translate the name.

[elvenshadow 19]

When attaching the Certification of Translator sheet to the translated document, is it better to put it in the front or behind the document?

Also, in the case of a document that is multiple pages and is stapled together in the original form, should I also staple the translation version together in the same way, or is it better to just paper-clip it? I know people have said using staples is a hassle for USCIS but I also want to make it as close to the original as possible and would be afraid if they mixed up the order.

Edited April 17, 2014 by elvenshadow