Exact Translations or Notarized Statements Suffice?

[triterp80 1]

Hello! I'm not sure if this situation is unique to Chinese immigrants or is found elsewhere (would love to hear back on this) - here is the situation:

We have emailed in our supporting IV documents, but a friend who hired a lawyer to help with his documents is giving us some new information that is getting me worried. The marriage certificate was translated from Mandarin to English and shows a picture of the original and then the corresponding translation. This is possible by the translation service because all marriage certificates in China are consistent in design and form.

The issue is with birth certificates and police certifications: these are unique in design to each hospital and police department apparently. Therefore the translation company doesn't do a word for word translation - they merely make a statement that the document states the person was born on such and such a date and time and the relevant facts, but it's not word for word. Then it is notarized and stamped. We asked if a separate translation company could translate word for word, and the answer was yes but they couldn't notarized and stamp it. Not too clear why not - something to do with it's not in keeping with government regulations (??)

I'm worried that my submitted materials are come back with a request for exact translation for the birth and police certs. (Marriage cert is exact).

1) Has anyone heard of this?

2) Will a notarized statement suffice or do they really need an exact translation?

Thanks for any help!

Justin

Edited April 15, 2015 by triterp80

[CowBoE 429]

What seems to work with certainty is that you get the following documents

from local GongZhengChu.

They will provide birth, no marriage, and no criminal certificates

in both Chinese and English in a bound book...that is sometimes

referred to as "white book".

And while you are at it, request few certified copies for future use.

[triterp80 1]

DualityOneNess... thanks for responding! That's what we have already... the white books. My friend's attorney is saying the white books for the police certificate and birth certificate are not word for word translations of the original documents like the marriage certificate is. Was that the same in your case? And if so, NVC had no issues taking these? I hope this makes sense.

[Ryan H 3,812]

DualityOneNess... thanks for responding! That's what we have already... the white books. My friend's attorney is saying the white books for the police certificate and birth certificate are not word for word translations of the original documents like the marriage certificate is. Was that the same in your case? And if so, NVC had no issues taking these? I hope this makes sense.

Pay no attention to what your friend's attorney is saying, the white books you submitted is what the Consulate wants. You shouldn't have any issues having those accepted by the NVC.

[triterp80 1]

Thank you so much Ryan. Ok, I will proceed with the white books already submitted and hope for the best

[CowBoE 429]

DualityOneNess... thanks for responding! That's what we have already... the white books. My friend's attorney is saying the white books for the police certificate and birth certificate are not word for word translations of the original documents like the marriage certificate is. Was that the same in your case? And if so, NVC had no issues taking these? I hope this makes sense.

There could be more than one way to make this work,

but what I know with certainty is that they trust and accept "white book"

based on mine and countless other's experience that I've seen here on VJ.

Attorney's are business man with some legal knowledge,

and I have a hunch that they don't know about "white book" that well

or is twisting and stretching the facts to create more work so that they

can make more money.

It would be interesting to know if that attorney had any involvement

in the document translation in terms of collecting partial or full charge

for that unnecessary effort.

You'll be fine.