document translation

[mikeandclara 1]

Hi,

I am new here but from reading the forums you all seem pretty knowledgable. I am trying to put together all I need to mail in my i130a application for my wife in Colombia. I have both her birth certificate and out marriage cert which are both in spanish. I know I need to have them translated but a little confused by the wording in the instructions.

Does the translator need to be certified or he/she only needs to certify that the translation is correct.

I want to make sure I do everything correctly.

Thanks

[Gracenp2 14]

Hi,

I am new here but from reading the forums you all seem pretty knowledgable. I am trying to put together all I need to mail in my i130a application for my wife in Colombia. I have both her birth certificate and out marriage cert which are both in spanish. I know I need to have them translated but a little confused by the wording in the instructions.

Does the translator need to be certified or he/she only needs to certify that the translation is correct.

I want to make sure I do everything correctly.

Thanks

Good morning below you will see a link please read. Regarding your Translations it must be done by someone that is competent regarding the knowledge of the language. I would HIGHLY recommend to get them Notarized so that you can assure yourself!! I am pretty certain that you would not have this issue being that you are located in Miami!!

http://www.visajourney.com/content/i130guide1

Good Luck on your Journey!!

Edited August 31, 2012 by gracenp2

[jflores 2]

Mikeandclara,

My wife is also from Colombia. I took the form to a certified translator, she translated the form and on the bottom of the form she typed this message, "This is to certify that I, XXX, am familiar with both Spanish and English, that I am qualified to perform this translation and that this translation is complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge." Then she signed, dated and notorized the form. She charged me $50. I was a little hesitant to pay it at first since I had 3 forms and I heard that you could do it yourself, but its better to be safe then sorry. My I-130 was approved 6 months later and currently waiting for an interview date in Bogota. Let me know if you have any other help or questions. Buena suerte a los dos!

[Julie y Pat 67]

Your wife's birth certificate won't be needed until you case gets to NVC, documents in Spanish are ok. Notarization only verifies a signature, not the contents of the document. Marriage certificate is needed for the petition (USCIS) and does need to be translated to english.

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

Julie y Pat have it right.. The only document I translated was the marriage certificate. The rest did not need to be translated. I used Fox Translate (I have no affiliation with them) - you send them the document as an email attachment and they send you a PDF of the translation within 24 hours. I was charged $50.00 (25 dollars a page). I notarized nothing for the visa process... The translation does have a small blurb from the person who did the translation saying "I know English and Spanish and translated the document consisting of 2 pages"

... Anyway congrats on the marriage! You are bound to read lots of bad stories about unhappy endings on here in the upcoming months... for counter balance let me just say I am crazy happy with my wife being here and life has been going great. I could not have written it any better that it has turned out.

Good luck with your journey.

Edited September 1, 2012 by OnMyWayID

[Mononoke28 135]

Anyone who is fluent in both languages can translate any document and write a certification at the bottom of the page. So if your neighbor or your gardener or the guy at the nearby Starbucks is fluent in both languages and is willing to translate and certify, you're good to go. You can find examples of what the certification should say online, just Google it.

Also, you don't need to notarize anything AND, only send photocopies of any document you send the USCIS.

Diana

[Mntjc 14]

Hi,

I was worried too about translating the documents, as it can get quite expensive.

I am the spouse applying for the visa and even though I am not a certified translator, I did worked as an Interpreter French -) English (with a work contract to prove it).

I also have a website offering languages courses and translation services (again, without any official certification).

Do you think that I could translate all the documents myself? I don't want them to think that I may be partial but I cannot find any request to have it done by a certified sworn translator.

Would it look more professional to have someone else do it?

Thank you

[AnhDoiEm 9]

you just bring the docs need to translate,to your or wife country, (Department of Justice) they can translate and notarize with seal. That what me and wife did on Vietnam. In our country translate cheap couple buck USD for 1 piece paper

Edited September 23, 2012 by AnhDoiEm

[Mntjc 14]

you just bring the docs need to translate,to your or wife country, (Department of Justice) they can translate and notarize with seal. That what me and wife did on Vietnam. In our country translate cheap couple buck USD for 1 piece paper

Thank you! I'm not sure that this would work in Europe though... I think they will give me a list of certified translators, but nothing cheap.

Any other experiences?

[AnhDoiEm 9]

or you translate it yourself, and bring it to your district where you live have them notarize and seal it.

Edited September 26, 2012 by AnhDoiEm

[Mntjc 14]

or you translate it yourself, and bring it to your district where you live have them notarize and seal it.

Cannot you only do that if you are a sworn translator? What they check is who you are, not your work.

I was thinking about translating all the documents myself and adding a small text certifying that I am fluent in both languages and that this is an accurate translation etc. (thanks VisaJourney for the template!)

Any examples here of couples who did the translations themselves?

[AnhDoiEm 9]

that should work, but you still need the template and all docs you translate take to your district or city hall where you live have them stamps and seal it..