Looking for a Japanese interpreter for a courthouse wedding ceremony in the Los Angeles area

[bkm2018 0]

Hi all,

 

This is my first post here, so hopefully someone out there can help. I need to find a Japanese translator in the LA area that can translate at my courthouse wedding with my Japanese fiance ASAP. It was already arduous enough to go thru the K-1 visa process and now I'm told today at the courthouse that we will need one for the wedding. My Japanese is decent, but I was told that we NEED to have a translator present at the wedding, and I can't translate for her. My fiance's English is remedial at best. The courthouse in Norwalk doesn't have any on staff at the present moment and all of the services I've come across in the LA area are for documents. We wanted to schedule for the 19th of this month, but we will probably have to move it back If anyone has any info on where I can find such as person, please let me know. Thanks again for your help. 

[mc962 55]

Is it so they are sure she understands what she's signing or something like that?

Try reaching out to the Japanese Consulate in the area. While they probably can't actually provide someone, they likely are connected enough with the Japanese community that they could connect you with groups/individuals that could do it for you (or maybe someone there would be nice enough to do it as a private individual).

You could also try advertising on Meetup.com groups relating to Japanese language, there are a few it seems.
Also you could contact universities with Japanese departments, some of the teachers might be nice enough to offer, or even a skilled student.

Finally, there might be some community centers that can connect you with people, such as: http://www.jaccc.org/

I assume you can't video chat your translator into the courthouse?

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

  Could you move the wedding to a judge that can do it in Japanese ?   Otherwise this may be a start https://www.alsglobal.net/city/los-angeles/legal-translators/

 

[bkm2018 0]

Thanks for the info mc962. It is for making sure she understands and agrees to what she is asked. The whole situation today has been pretty frustrating. It seems the courthouse out here has translators for every other language but Japanese, and the onus of finding a translator falls on me. I'll try contacting some of these groups tomorrow. Thanks again for your help. I really appreciate it

[bkm2018 0]

Thank you Nigeria.

I don't think that is an option at the courthouse. It's either English or Spanish out here. 

I'll check out that link. Thanks for your help. 

[Ryan H 3,812]

Moved from K1 Process & Procedures to Asia: East and Pacific regional forum.