u.s. citizen spouse translating documents?

[rcc04 1]

hi,

i am about to receive my husbands police record and birth certificate and have to send them to nvc with the ds230 packet. i am fluent in spanish and english, can i just translate these myself?

thanks,

rachel

[Nutty 2]

hi,

i am about to receive my husbands police record and birth certificate and have to send them to nvc with the ds230 packet. i am fluent in spanish and english, can i just translate these myself?

thanks,

rachel

NO.

These are documents that need to be verified (stamped as accurate translation) by a legal or government office in your husbands native country.

Edited October 8, 2007 by Nutty

[lerry&luisa 0]

hi,

i am about to receive my husbands police record and birth certificate and have to send them to nvc with the ds230 packet. i am fluent in spanish and english, can i just translate these myself?

thanks,

rachel

NO.

These are documents that need to be verified (stamped as accurate translation) by a legal or government office in your husbands native country.

Maybe I am wrong, but I understood that you, the USC, can translate but you have to certify it. I wrote, I, Luisa XXXX hereby certify that the translation to the mentioned (birth certificate, marriage licence, police records etc) document is a true translation and then had my bank notarize it. I preloaded my petition with everything translated per me, plus original, and never received and RFE.

That's not to say that I may not get one from the NVC. I hope not.

[Elvis 0]

Can she translate his documents here if a certified translator is available here in USA

that's what I want to do , since it is more simple to do it here than abroad?

[pushbrk 13,109]

hi,

i am about to receive my husbands police record and birth certificate and have to send them to nvc with the ds230 packet. i am fluent in spanish and english, can i just translate these myself?

thanks,

rachel

NO.

These are documents that need to be verified (stamped as accurate translation) by a legal or government office in your husbands native country.

Maybe I am wrong, but I understood that you, the USC, can translate but you have to certify it. I wrote, I, Luisa XXXX hereby certify that the translation to the mentioned (birth certificate, marriage licence, police records etc) document is a true translation and then had my bank notarize it. I preloaded my petition with everything translated per me, plus original, and never received and RFE.

That's not to say that I may not get one from the NVC. I hope not.

NVC is not USCIS. It is part of DOS. They have different requirements.

[Chica Yeyé 41]

As far as I know, you need to have them translated by a certified translator. I translate in my free time (ENG-SPAN) and was not allowed by Montreal to translate due to conflict of interest. I would think the same applies to you.

Good luck, L.

[Mononoke28 135]

I would call the NVC to find out. The DOS website says that the documents need to be originals or certified copies ALONG with translations, period. It doesn't say that the translations need to be certified or done by a certified translator, it just says the documents need to be accompanied with a translation. Call the NVC if a simple translation done by you, the petitioner is acceptable.

Diana

[lucyrich 20]

Monokoke's right.

The USCIS rules are on their website. They clearly allow anyone to do translations, including the USC spouse. All that's required is that the person doing the translations have the required language ability, and be able to sign a statement certifying the translation. The USCIS doesn't recognize any certification of translators.

But the NVC is not the USCIS. The NVC and the consulates are part of the Department of State, not the Department of Homeland Security. Each consulate sets its own translation rules, and they vary widely all over the place. Usually, but not always, the consulates will accept untranslated documents in the local language. When translation is required, they sometimes have very specific rules about who can do the translations and how they must be done.

Nevertheless, I searched the web, and found This Department of State page which seems to indicate translation rules that are similar to the USCIS rules.

Translations

Applicants must obtain English language translations of any documents that are written in another language.

The translation must include a statement signed by the translator that states that the:

* Translation is accurate, and

* Translator is competent to translate.

But I'm not completely sure if that web page which I found applies to your situation.

The best rule is to contact the agency to whom you'll be submitting the translation and ask them exactly what rules apply for your case.

In any case, the translations will most likely be reviewed at the consulate, where someone will likely be familiar with both languages, so don't even think about trying to mistranslate to skew things in your favor.

[tamztamztamztamz 0]

hi,

i am about to receive my husbands police record and birth certificate and have to send them to nvc with the ds230 packet. i am fluent in spanish and english, can i just translate these myself?

thanks,

rachel

no ur wife should translate them and then verify them from the authority.these papers should be notarized also from the court in ur husband's country(just my own opinion and experience)

[lerry&luisa 0]

hi,

i am about to receive my husbands police record and birth certificate and have to send them to nvc with the ds230 packet. i am fluent in spanish and english, can i just translate these myself?

thanks,

rachel

no ur wife should translate them and then verify them from the authority.these papers should be notarized also from the court in ur husband's country(just my own opinion and experience)

I am glad to see others perhaps agree on the same thought about translation. I have dual citizen in Venezuela and originally I was applying at the Caracas Embassy, with the help of a very nice vice consul, the day I showed up the law changed that the consulate could no longer accept the petitions there, however, prior to being let down I submitted my application and certificates in Spanish and they said they didn't need the translation. When I came to the states to refile, USCIS said as long as I am capable to translate and I can certify at the beginning of the translation, then close it with my banks notary. Given that, when I go on the NVC website and you go to the link that tells you what the NVC requires from you it sends you to your embassy wich you have to select, it does say translations as long as they are certified. Period. I am sure every consulate may be different, it doesn't hurt to ask the NVC or email the embassy. Whenever I email the Caracas embassy with ANY question, they respond before the end of the day. Good luck.

[rika60607 215]

You were lucky!

Paris consulate simply ignored my question about translation/certification/notarization...

Whenever I email the Caracas embassy with ANY question, they respond before the end of the day. Good luck.

[desert_fox 32]

I am glad to see others perhaps agree on the same thought about translation. I have dual citizen in Venezuela and originally I was applying at the Caracas Embassy, with the help of a very nice vice consul, the day I showed up the law changed that the consulate could no longer accept the petitions there, however, prior to being let down I submitted my application and certificates in Spanish and they said they didn't need the translation. When I came to the states to refile, USCIS said as long as I am capable to translate and I can certify at the beginning of the translation, then close it with my banks notary. Given that, when I go on the NVC website and you go to the link that tells you what the NVC requires from you it sends you to your embassy wich you have to select, it does say translations as long as they are certified. Period. I am sure every consulate may be different, it doesn't hurt to ask the NVC or email the embassy. Whenever I email the Caracas embassy with ANY question, they respond before the end of the day. Good luck.

The Consulate in any country will accept documents written in English or the language of the host country, so you were never required to have them translated.

The question posed by the OP is what is required at the NVC, so your experience of what happened in Caracas or with the USCIS is not even relevent to this discussion.

Since no one can provide the exact answer, then the obvious solution is the call the NVC and ask them. They are just a bunch of gringos in New Hampshire that so not speak spanish or no foreign language..

[dermeco 1]

Hi Rachel!

I did translate marriage certificate, police records, and wife’s birth certificate. She just sent me all the originals authenticated by The Supreme Electoral Council in Managua, and one of my friends signed all the documents. As long as he, she writes the following:

I John Nero, certify that I am fluent (conversant) in the English and Spanish languages, and the above/ attached document is an accurate translation of the document attached entitled (name of document) for example, Birth certificate

[JohnWendy 0]

If the OP has Spanish documents and they are going to Nicaragua,.... they do not need to be translated

http://travel.state.gov/pdf/APP_instructions.pdf

Document requirements

The applicant and each family member who will accompany the applicant to the United States will need to obtain the following original documents or certified copies of the documents listed in this section from an appropriate authority (the issuing entity).

• Birth certificate

• Court and prison records

• Deportation documentation

• Marriage certificate

• Marriage termination documentation

• Military records

• Passport

• Police certificate(s)

All documents that pertain to the applicant’s petition are required, even if they were previously submitted to the CIS with the applicant’s petition.

Translations

All documents not in English, or in the official language of the country in which application for a visa is being made, must be accompanied by certified translations.

The translation must include a statement signed by the translator that states that the:

• Translation is accurate, and

• Translator is competent to translate.

Edited October 16, 2007 by JohnWendy

[Johnnie Oz 0]

An Appeal:

There are a lot of categorical statements all over VJ, often not backed up by any real proof. Instead people try to sound authorative and link to irrelevant sites, misinterpreting texts.

Not sure why someone feels the need to state that ALL consulates and embassies accept documents in English and the local language.

On the checklist we just received from the Embassy in Stockholm, it says verbatim:

"Translations: All documents not in English must be accompanied by a certified English translation."

That's it.

Conversely, folks in Denmark tell us and the US Embassy in Copenhagen website confirms that there BOTH English and Danish are accepted.

Sure, we can argue whether this is good or bad or odd (Danish and Swedish is similar, handles the same rough nr of cases etc) but let's try to stay accurate so as not to mislead anyone.

USCIS (DHS) has one policy, NVC (DOS) another (especially since they now process more documents and schedule interviews for appointment posts) and each consulate/embassy (DOS) countless others.

So, while the norm for embassies/consulates seems to be English AND the local language, this is not universal. Any basic trawl on a few US Embassy websites will tell you this. Furthermore, the US Embassy in Stockholm website does not even address this issue for K1s like us. For DCF it says that "authorized translations" are necessary, as opposed to "certified" in our K1 case.

To conclude, the devil lurks in the details. Let's help people find it.

thanks!