Speaker 1: Hey so in today's video we are going to go over how to actually get something properly translated with a certified translation for when you're turning in documents to the USCIS, the Department of State, or anything that really involves

Speaker 2: immigration. If that sounds interesting, stick around. This is Bull City Lawyer TV, where we provide immigrants with reliable information to make better decisions and avoid costly mistakes. I'm Trent Williams. I'm Domindo Noble. If you like what we do, consider subscribing, leave a comment, let us know what you'd like to see on this channel. There are three pro tips

Speaker 1: that we have for you today for your immigration document translations that

Speaker 2: you're turning in to USCIS. First, could you give me an example or two of what

Speaker 1: you might need translated? Sure, so the most common documents you're always going to need translated is if you have a birth certificate, a marriage certificate, sometimes a house deed, or some other sort of deed of ownership from another country. By far, birth certificates are the most common and, you know, in Spanish you have the Acta de Nacimiento, and you need to get those translated into English. You can't just turn in a copy. So here is our first pro tip for translations. That original document that needs to be translated, you're, somewhere along the line, you're going to have to provide a copy of that document to someone to translate. Too often, clients will try to send us photos of documents that either have bad lighting or the documents themselves are kind of bent and crinkled, or they'll bring in documents, or even worse, copies of copies of documents that are hard to read. The translation that you get back, if you bring us a document like that, and we always work for the Professional Translation Company, is usually going to have missing pieces of information that can imperil an application. So tip one is, make good copies of your originals that are going to get translated. And if you're working with an attorney's office, bring in the originals themselves, then at least we can make a good copy

Speaker 2: ourselves. And we won't, we won't keep that original. We never, always give it

Speaker 1: back to you. That's right, and by the way, you should never file an original, ever, with an application. If you want to do this at home, we believe that immigrants should become really good bureaucrats, because the immigration process has so many steps and so many stages. Consider getting a scanner. We've linked to our kind of favorite affordable scanners here in the description. Okay, so they

Speaker 2: provide us with grade A documents, completely legible. Pristine. What's next?

Speaker 1: The next thing is, you need to get a professional translator. A professional translator is usually not going to be the law office that you work with. A professional translator is not going to be that cousin that speaks English and whatever your native language is pretty well. And the good news is, these days there are excellent online services for completing this need. We like to use the Spanish group. They are a Mexico-based company that do Spanish translations. We have a particular translation company that we work in California for our Mandarin Chinese translations, and we have a particular vendor that we work on our Arabic translations. Usually you can get very good rates from between $30 and $50 a page for a full-on certified job. Okay, but you mentioned if you had a good

Speaker 2: friend, you know, semi-professional translator, they might do this for you. So how would that process be different? Well, the main thing is, if you are going

Speaker 1: to use a friend and you're sure that they are fluent in both the language that you're translating from and the language you're translating to, don't just assume that they know how to do a certified translation that will be accepted by USCIS. You should do some research and we'll provide links for the sort of certified statement, the statement of certification that needs to be included with the translation. A professional organization knows how to do that well, so it's accepted at all agencies that you might apply for for your immigration benefits. The other big thing is that with documents that have very specialized formats, like birth certificates and like marriage certificates, or if you're taking documents that are submitted as images, so like handwritten letters, or even let's say ads, right, they need to be translated. Professional companies will translate them in the same format that they've been given, right, so a lot of them, for example, your birth certificate will look, have the same colors, the same images, the same government seals on the translated copies on the original. Your friend probably cannot do that. The third tip really applies to affidavits and letters of support that you might return with your application. It is very important that both the translation and the original document have attached to them an ID of the person that is actually writing the letter of support. For example, if you have, let's say you are a Chinese national and you have an aunt or a grandmother write a letter of support for your marriage, I-130 marriage application, right, I-130 for a spouse, you would have their original written in Mandarin Chinese letter of support, then translate, have that translated into English with a certified translation, and then behind that you would add some sort of identifying document. The pro tip is have that identifying document, if it's not in

Speaker 2: English, also translated. The translation has to be certified. Will that take the

Speaker 1: place of having it notarized? So for an affidavit, no. An affidavit has to be notarized. This is the way that you should translate an affidavit in the United States. First, write the affidavit in your language of choice, but do not sign it. Then send it to your certifying professional, have them do a certified translation of that affidavit text into English. You will then bring both the original and the translated version, along with the translated certification to a notary in the United States, and that notary, if they speak both languages, will probably notarize both, but in any case they will notarize the English version, and that's what you will send in to USCIS. Bonus tip, if you are working with a non-professional translator, maybe it's your friend who takes level 3 or level 4 Spanish or Chinese at school, maybe it's your cousin who's always been the most bilingual in the family while the rest of you have lost the language, they should add a statement that says something to the effect of, I, their name here, am fluent in both language A and language B, and I certify that this translation was done to the best of my ability and is accurate as far as I know. They should then sign it, date it, and then critically include their ID, if you can get them to do that. That's not completely necessary, but it helps with the credibility of the translation if it should ever come into question. And there

Speaker 2: you have it. That concludes our video for today. If you have any specific questions, leave them in the comments. We'll be sure to get back to you. And be sure to

Speaker 1: subscribe. That helps us grow this channel, it helps us know you like it, and please share us. Let other immigrants or other people interested in this topic know about us. See ya.