In the US, the authorities governing the policies and submission of supporting documents are strict. The documents need to be submitted such as a birth certificate must be in the English language. The process to enter the US as an immigrant is rigid and lengthy and one small mistake may lead to the cancellation of the application. There are a number of documents required to be submitted to the United States Citizenship & Immigration Services. The agency deals with the immigration applications and the whole process.

Which Supporting documents are required?

Supporting documents are required because these are the proof of who you are. Apart from petitioner’s documents, you need to submit your birth certificate, a copy of the passport’s biographic data page, and marriage certificate (if applicable), marriage termination document, adoption documents, police certificates, military records, prison and court records and other civil documents. The most important of all these is your birth certificate.

Document Translation Requirements

The USCIS demands that all the required documents which are, other than in English must be translated into English. Though, it is not necessary that a person who is proficient in the target language can do the translation task. The USCIS has a policy which states that:

“Any foreign language document must be accompanied by a full English translation that the translator has certified as complete and correct, and by the translator’s certification that he or she is competent to translate the foreign language to English.”

A translator means a professional person who can do certificate translation of your immigration documents. For birth certificate, you are required to submit the copy of original birth certificate along with the translation of certificate into English which must be done by a professional translator. A professional translator will give you the translated document with accuracy. The translations are also offered by translation agencies, i.e. Smartlation. The certificate must have the name and initials of the translator, his address, and date of translation.

While doing the translation, the translator must make sure that it has the following:

• Complete name which is correctly spelled out
• Complete date of birth i.e. day, month, year
• Your place of birth
• Parent’s names and correctly spelled out
• Name of the issuing authority
• An annotation by the office to ensure that the translation is extracted from the official record

The translated copy must be an exact copy of the original document. Each and everything on the original document must also be included in the target document, including seals and stamps, signatures, and even the dates. In the case of any ambiguity or non-clarity, the translated document becomes not legible.

The visual format of the birth certificate must also match with the translated one, which means that the translation of the official seal should be in the same place and position on the page where it appears on the original document.

Focus especially on the mis-translations and misspellings because these will ruin the chance of passing the hurdle in the immigration process. Additionally, as you are the beneficiary of the process, you or any person related to you who is doing the translation will not be favorable, and also will not think of as reliable as a translation by an uninterested and third party.  Contact with a professional translator who is proficient in certificates translation.