Certification and immigration

by Janice Porras
(Salina, Utah USA)

Janice asked: I have been translating for over 20 years for local businesses as well as for my church. I have never been certified, but one of my sons is trying to get his fiance here from Chile and asked me if I was a certified translator. I have never bothered to think I needed to be.

I also have another daughter-in-law who is from Chile (and husband from Spain). We've never come up against this question before. Do I have to be certified to help in the paperwork? I wouldn't mind being certified, but I don't want to be for business purposes, just to help out in matters such as this. I would like to just take a test and if I pass be certified, but I don't want to be obligated to some organization for the rest of my life.

I'm only asking to take a test and be certified to help out not be a business. And I have translated in a local court before and they never asked if I was certified. What is the point and is it really so very important to have a piece of paper from some organization saying I am certified?

Everyone I have ever translated for has been happy enough to come back and I've never had a complaint.

But then I don't make money doing it either. What is my best route if I just want to be certified (IF IT IS NECESSARY) in order to help people with whatever it may be that they need help with?



The Spanish Translator: Thanks for the question about immigration and certification, Janice. There is a lot of confusion about what the Immigration services requires with regards to English translation of necessary documents.

The best thing to do in this situation is to go to the proper source, and I went to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services website. According to their Guide to Naturalization:

Be sure to send an English translation with any document that is not already in English. The translation must include a statement from the translator that he or she is competent to translate and that the translation is correct.

So you don't need to be certified by anyone to translate something that will be given to Immigration services. Instead, you just need to add a statement to the end of the translation saying that you are a competent translator and that the translation you have provided is correct.

Hope that helps, and good luck.