Certified Document Translation

If you need a document translated for USCIS, a court, a school, or another official purpose, Taika Translations provides certified translation with a signed accuracy statement accepted by the requesting institution — the exact certification format U.S. agencies expect, attached to a complete, literal translation of your original document.

Most customers order directly from the online store: pick the document type, add notarization if your receiving institution requires it, pay, and upload your document through the secure uploader. The two most common are a birth certificate and a marriage certificate. If your document type isn’t listed — a court judgment, an adoption dossier, a business record — request a quote and describe it; Taika translates far more document types than any product page can show, and quotes come back the same business day.

Every certified translation is produced by our TEP process — professional translation, independent editing, and proofreading by a second qualified linguist — because a certification statement is only as good as the translation behind it. That process, refined across 102,000+ projects since 2009, is why we can put an acceptance guarantee and a full-year accuracy warranty on every document we certify.

What USCIS actually requires: 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3)

The whole rule is one sentence. 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3) says: “Any document containing foreign language submitted to USCIS shall be accompanied by a full English language translation which the translator has certified as complete and accurate, and by the translator’s certification that he or she is competent to translate from the foreign language into English.”

That sentence sets three requirements:

1. A full English translation. Not a summary and not an extract. The whole document is translated.
2. A certification that the translation is complete and accurate, made by the translator.
3. A certification that the translator is competent to translate from that language into English.

It is just as useful to know what the rule does not require. It does not require notarization. It does not require any particular credential (ATA certification, a state license, or a court appointment). It does not require letterhead, a seal, or a set format, and it does not say who the translator must be. People often get rejected because they think one of these is mandatory, or because they assume that having one of them makes up for a missing certification.

What the certification statement should contain

A certification that USCIS can rely on has two required parts and a few practical ones:

• Required by the regulation: a statement that the translator is competent to translate from the source language into English, and a statement that the translation is complete and accurate.
• Standard practice, so the reviewing officer can identify who signed: the translator’s full name and signature, the date, and contact details (an address, email or phone number). It should also identify the document it covers, such as its title and page count, so the statement cannot be separated from the translation.

A typical statement reads:

I, [full name], certify that I am competent to translate from [language] into English, and that the attached English translation of [document title, number of pages] is complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge and ability. [Signature] · [Date] · [Name, address, email or phone]

The regulation lists only the two certifications. The identifying details are what reviewers expect in practice. USCIS does not publish them as a separate checklist.

”Complete” means everything on the page

A full translation covers more than the main text. It includes:

• Stamps, seals and embossing, translated where they contain text and noted where they don’t, for example [round seal: Civil Registry Office].
• Handwritten entries, marginal notes and annotations, including notes added later by a registrar.
• Headers, footers, reference numbers and the reverse side if anything is printed or written there.
• Signatures, marked as [signature] rather than left out.
• Illegible text, marked as [illegible]. The translator never guesses.

This is why a partly translated document is not a certified translation. Suppose a bank statement comes back with only the account holder’s name and the closing balance in English. It does not meet 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3), no matter who signed it. The rule does not let the filer or the translator decide which parts of a document matter.

Include the foreign-language document too. Submit a copy of the original-language document along with the translation. Under 8 CFR 103.2(b)(4), supporting documents, original or photocopied, are submitted as the form instructions direct. Under 103.2(b)(5), USCIS can ask to see the original at any time.

USCIS and the State Department are not quite the same

Immigrant visa applicants deal with the Department of State (the National Visa Center and the consulate) as well as USCIS. State’s civil-documents guidance requires certified translations of documents not written in English or in the official language of the country you are applying from. The translation must include a statement signed by the translator that the translation is accurate and that the translator is competent to translate.

The practical differences:

• A document already in the official language of the country where you interview may not need an English translation at all for the consular stage. USCIS has no such exception.
• Individual embassies and consulates publish their own post-specific instructions. Check them for the post handling your case.

Who can translate, and who shouldn’t

The regulation does not bar anyone. What matters is that the translator certifies competence and accuracy, and a reviewing officer can question either. In practice:

• An independent translator is the safer choice. A translation by the applicant, the petitioner, or a family member with a stake in the case invites doubt about whether it is impartial, even when it is accurate.
• Other reviewers are stricter. World Education Services (WES), for example, states that it cannot accept translations completed by applicants.
• The certification is only as good as the translation. An accurate statement attached to an incomplete or wrong translation is still a defective filing.

Certified, notarized, and “sworn”

• Certified: the translator’s signed statement of competence and accuracy. This is what USCIS asks for.
• Notarized: a notary public confirms the identity of the person who signed the certification. A notary does not check the translation. Some schools, courts and foreign authorities want it. USCIS does not.
• Sworn: a concept from civil-law countries, where courts appoint official translators. The United States has no federal sworn-translator register. If a foreign authority asks for a sworn translation, ask that authority what it will accept from the U.S. This often involves notarization and an apostille.

What this page is not

This page explains the translation requirement. It is not legal advice about your case. Whether a filing is accepted is decided by the officer or institution reviewing it, not by any translation company. Taika is responsible for the translation: complete, certified in the form the regulation describes, and checked by a second linguist.