Who translates the evidence for an asylum case?

Which evidence we translate

The I-⁠589 instructions (opens in a new tab) (Section VII, Additional Evidence, p. 8) list what supporting evidence may include: newspaper articles and books, affidavits of witnesses and experts, personal statements, medical and psychological records, and official documents. In Russian- and Ukrainian-⁠language cases this usually means:

• police documents: summonses, reports, records of detention or questioning, decisions to open or close a case;
• court documents: rulings, sentences, records of administrative offenses, fines;
• medical records: discharge summaries, injury reports, prescriptions, certificates from doctors;
• statements and letters: from relatives, neighbors, colleagues, organizations, often handwritten;
• articles and posts: news about events in the case, posts and comments on social media; see articles;
• messages: Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber chats with threats or warnings; see chats.

What to file in your case is for you or your attorney to decide.

What USCIS and the court ask of a translation

The I-⁠589 instructions (p. 8) ask for a full English translation of every document in a foreign language, with the translator’s certification that it is complete and accurate and that the translator is competent to translate. If the case is before an immigration court, the court rule applies (8 CFR 1003.33 (opens in a new tab)): a foreign-⁠language document is filed with an English translation and the translator’s certification of competence and accuracy. See What the court accepts.

Our certification has the translator’s name, signature, address, phone and the date. It is included in the price.

A package of many pages

Evidence comes in dozens of pages from different years and offices. We translate it as one order:

• the original, the translation and the certification together, as in the samples below;
• numbered translation pages, so a page can be found during a hearing;
• seals and stamps described where they are; unreadable ones marked [illegible];
• dates and numbers checked against the original character by character.

The same names throughout

In a package, one person, police department or court appears in many documents. We spell names the way you give them from international passports and translate the name of each office the same way in every document. If a document itself spells a name differently, the translation follows the document.

Price

$25 for the first page of up to 250 words and $20 for each additional page, in the same document or another one. From page 51 of the package a page is $17, from page 151 $15, even if you send the package in parts. Handwriting, stamps and seals don’t cost extra. Send photos or scans of the whole package, and we’ll give you the exact price and the date.