AOS Interview - Interpreter / Translator?

[Andrs01-2020 24]

Good day friends,

 

so I have the interview schedule in 2 weeks from k1 to GC - all looks good and it moved super fast, 

now im reading on the stories and nothing much on the language or the officer asking only in english?

wife understands written english but talking is a whole different level - she speaks spanish - our office is in Miami

can I translate to her what he/she may ask or do I need to hire an interpreter?

 

thanks and good luck

 

[Chancy 6,241]

6 minutes ago, Andrs01-2020 said:

can I translate to her what he/she may ask or do I need to hire an interpreter?

 

You are a related party to the AOS interview, so you cannot be the interpreter.  You will need to hire a phone interpreter.

 

[Crazy Cat 41,845]

15 minutes ago, Andrs01-2020 said:

Good day friends,

 

so I have the interview schedule in 2 weeks from k1 to GC - all looks good and it moved super fast, 

now im reading on the stories and nothing much on the language or the officer asking only in english?

wife understands written english but talking is a whole different level - she speaks spanish - our office is in Miami

can I translate to her what he/she may ask or do I need to hire an interpreter?

 

thanks and good luck

 

Who would actually be answering the questions they ask her?   That is why you cannot interpret for her. 

[rndz 12]

20 hours ago, Andrs01-2020 said:

Good day friends,

 

so I have the interview schedule in 2 weeks from k1 to GC - all looks good and it moved super fast, 

now im reading on the stories and nothing much on the language or the officer asking only in english?

wife understands written english but talking is a whole different level - she speaks spanish - our office is in Miami

can I translate to her what he/she may ask or do I need to hire an interpreter?

 

thanks and good luck

 

As others have said, you cannot be the interpreter.  My additional comments after a recent bad experience with this:

• Get as much information as possible (but don't sign!) for the G-1256 form prior to the interview.  Most of this relates to the identification of the interpreter.
• Declare as soon as you meet the interviewer that you will be using a phone interpreter.  Every interviewer and office is probably different, but ours seemed to have an attitude about this and acted as if he had the power to not allow this.
• The USCIS does provide some level of interpretation services, and I imagine they might offer this for a common language like Spanish. Personally, I wouldn't depend on this - our interviewer went through the motions of calling to arrange this on the phone and we were subjected to the same wait music we've heard many times before when trying to contact the USCIS externally. 

[Andrs01-2020 24]

On 6/9/2022 at 1:46 PM, rndz said:

As others have said, you cannot be the interpreter.  My additional comments after a recent bad experience with this:

• Get as much information as possible (but don't sign!) for the G-1256 form prior to the interview.  Most of this relates to the identification of the interpreter.
• Declare as soon as you meet the interviewer that you will be using a phone interpreter.  Every interviewer and office is probably different, but ours seemed to have an attitude about this and acted as if he had the power to not allow this.
• The USCIS does provide some level of interpretation services, and I imagine they might offer this for a common language like Spanish. Personally, I wouldn't depend on this - our interviewer went through the motions of calling to arrange this on the phone and we were subjected to the same wait music we've heard many times before when trying to contact the USCIS externally. 

 

Thanks, excellent info

 

but by "Phone interpreter" is someone that we should hire? or one USCIS will provide?

I have several paralegal friens that can be interpreter as per they translate documents, but want to make sure we are in the same page

 

thanks again!

 

 

[rndz 12]

17 hours ago, Andrs01-2020 said:

 

but by "Phone interpreter" is someone that we should hire? or one USCIS will provide?

I have several paralegal friens that can be interpreter as per they translate documents, but want to make sure we are in the same page

 

 

 

Although the USCIS does claim to provide phone interpretation services, I would recommend hiring one.  I'd also think carefully about using a friend.  Here's a little more about our experience.

 

We are in a situation similar to yours - my wife reads and understands English well enough when spoken slowly but we didn't want to risk any confusion during a possibly stressful situation.  We contacted a business that provides both in-person and phone interpretation services and arranged for a phone interpreter about two weeks ahead of the interview.  One week prior to the interview we had an initial conversation with the interpreter to verify her skills in both languages and confirm that she had done this sort of thing before.

 

The arrangement with this particular company is that you don't have the direct contact information for the interpreter (worrisome, but I can think of a few good reasons for this) and that the interpreter calls you at the scheduled time.  We were still in the waiting area at the USCIS office at the scheduled time and there was no call from the interpreter.  I contacted the company and they were also unable to reach her.   We ended up having about 20 minutes between the scheduled time and when the interviewer was actually ready for us and used this time to contact one of my wife's friends to act as a substitute interpreter.

 

From the start, the interviewer seemed annoyed that my wife's friend (whose English is very good) was not a professional interpreter.  We had to fill out the G-1256 form on the fly in the office (name, address, driver's license info) and this put the interview behind schedule.  After the interview started, there were some problems with the flow of the interpretation - not interpreting quickly enough or starting too soon and talking over the interviewer.  I'm not faulting my wife's friend for this - I was in the room and it wasn't obvious to me either when the interviewer was expecting the interpreter to start speaking.

 

After a couple of these glitches the interviewer declared he was terminating the interview and we would have to reschedule.  I asked about the USCIS service, and he said that it could not be pre-arranged and there was no guarantee for our language that an interpreter would be available.  I think he was being a bit of a jerk at this point and said that he would try it now - he called a number from his desk and we waited for about 5 minutes on hold listening to music before bailing out.

Edited June 11, 2022 by rndz