Translation of civil documents - yes/no?

[amzż 3]

Hi everyone,

I e-mailed a couple of people from this forum about my question, and thought of posting it to a broader audience.

My question is:

when sending civil documents - do we need to translate them to English?

This is what travel.gov says: "All documents not written in English or in the official language of the country in which the interview takes place MUST be accompanied by a translation in English" (http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_3741.html)

American embassy's website in Poland says the same thing in Polish.

You may think - so if it says that, why am I asking this question?

Why? Because I am obsessed already, going crazy, and I'm reading everything that looks connected to our case . I want to make this process easier, less painful; however, waiting is the worst .....

Anyway -

Even thought the statement is simple: no, you don't need the translation if .... , I would like to know if there have been any case when they asked for RFE cause by lack of translation.

I appreciate any response.

[draygri 3]

For anything they will have in their hands, I'd have a translation into English accompanying it.

Play it safe: Provide translations for them.

[Cathi 5,832]

yes they need translations

[Ryan H 3,857]

American embassy's website in Poland says the same thing in Polish.

You may think - so if it says that, why am I asking this question?

Why? Because I am obsessed already, going crazy, and I'm reading everything that looks connected to our case . I want to make this process easier, less painful; however, waiting is the worst .....

If you wish, you can try and contact the Embassy and obtain confirmation to the posting on their website with regards to translations of civil documents.

yes they need translations

Not so fast, the OP mentioned the Embassy website said translations are not required and I suggested the OP contact the Embassy to obtain confirmation.

Edited July 10, 2012 by Ryan H

[amzż 3]

For anything they will have in their hands, I'd have a translation into English accompanying it.

Play it safe: Provide translations for them.

Thank you for your reply.

I noticed there is a 3day difference in filing I-130 by you and I. I sent mine on the 28th June but still nothing in mail.

If you wish, you can try and contact the Embassy and obtain confirmation to the posting on their website with regards to translations of civil documents.

Not so fast, the OP mentioned the Embassy website said translations are not required and I suggested the OP contact the Embassy to obtain confirmation.

Thanks!

I will try contactint the Embassy tomorrow morning.

[ljandjl 1]

"All documents not written in English or in the official language of the country in which the interview takes place MUST be accompanied by a translation in English"

So, as long as the interview is in Poland & they'll accept the documents in Polish. However, if you're going crazy with worry than you can just have them translted & give yourself peace of mind :)We're DCF in Germany & we can submit either German or English civil documents.

[GlobeHopperMama 95]

Yeah, always check directly with the embassy. Having filed through two different consulates so far, I've found that translation requirements do vary from place to place, but if your embassy website doesn't make any mention of needing Polish-language documents translated, you should have no problem.

[pushbrk 13,486]

"All documents not written in English or in the official language of the country in which the interview takes place MUST be accompanied by a translation in English"

So, as long as the interview is in Poland & they'll accept the documents in Polish. However, if you're going crazy with worry than you can just have them translted & give yourself peace of mind :)We're DCF in Germany & we can submit either German or English civil documents.

Perhaps we have a pronoun problem confusing the issue here. For the NVC/Consulate stage, USUALLY not translations are required. For the USCIS stage translations are ALWAYS required. The OP is asking about the NVC/Consulate stage. Contacting the Consulate directly is a a belt and suspenders approach, since their own website is quite clear.

All that said, there are exceptions to these general rules and some Consulate websites are not as clear as they could be. Poland just isn't one of those exceptions. China IS an exception for both the USCIS and NVC/Consulate stages. For China, USCIS will not accept any certification of a translation by an individual or any agency except a Notarial Office in China and neither will the Consulate.

Note that if documents are in Spanish, and you're interviewing in France, they'll have to be translated to English.

[Gosia & Tito 199]

Hi everyone,

I e-mailed a couple of people from this forum about my question, and thought of posting it to a broader audience.

My question is:

when sending civil documents - do we need to translate them to English?

This is what travel.gov says: "All documents not written in English or in the official language of the country in which the interview takes place MUST be accompanied by a translation in English" (http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_3741.html)

American embassy's website in Poland says the same thing in Polish.

You may think - so if it says that, why am I asking this question?

Why? Because I am obsessed already, going crazy, and I'm reading everything that looks connected to our case . I want to make this process easier, less painful; however, waiting is the worst .....

Anyway -

Even thought the statement is simple: no, you don't need the translation if .... , I would like to know if there have been any case when they asked for RFE cause by lack of translation.

I appreciate any response.

No translation needed. First hand experience at Warszawa. However, you might want to translate birth certificate, you might need an English version when you are here (an it is much cheaper to do it there, unless you can do it yourself). I do seem to recall that the paragraph you noted had additional wording that implied that judicial documents (such as divorce decrees) would need to be English and the lines you listed were specific to government biographic issued (birth certificate) documents.

One reason of the statement (not only one and not specific to Poland) in Warsaw is that interviews for Ukraine and a couple of other countries are in Poland.

Don't worry, the process in Poland is relatively simple and 'easy', inclusive to interview.

There used to be a number to call (at no cost, last year). Look in the we site, for the immigration visas. There was another number for non-immigrant visas that had a flat charge. That is, if you want to check yourself. The people answering that number are Polish and very helpful

[amzż 3]

I received an e-mail today which I will print out and attach to any documents not translated just in case they would change their mind at NVC

Dear Madam,

You should follow the instructions that you have received from the NVC. They are also available on the NVC webpage at http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_3195.html.

All documents not written 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 and submitted to the NVC. If original documents, photocopies, and translations (if required, as explained above) of the documents were submitted to the NVC, they do not need to be brought to the interview. If only certified copies of those documents were submitted, the applicant must bring the original documents to the interview.

We hope that this information is helpful.

Sincerely,

Correspondence Unit

Consular Section

U.S. Embassy Warsaw

They mentioned that if the original documents are submitted to the NVC, the beneficiary doesn't have to bring them to the interview. Has anyone been asked to do so during an interview??