Immigration Law Editing and Proofreading Services

Four documents state one requirement, and the four wordings are not the same. A foreign language exhibit needs a translation and a statement from the translator, and what that statement says depends on where the filing goes. Under 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3), a foreign language document filed with USCIS must carry "a full English language translation which the translator has certified as complete and accurate".¹ The same paragraph asks for "the translator's certification that he or she is competent to translate from the foreign language into English."¹

The immigration courts ask for different words

Under 8 CFR 1003.33, a foreign language document offered in a proceeding is accompanied by an English translation and "a certification signed by the translator that must be printed legibly or typed."² That certification states that the translator is competent to translate the document, and "that the translation is true and accurate to the best of the translator's abilities."² USCIS asks for complete and accurate. The immigration courts ask for true and accurate to the best of the translator's abilities. The two phrases are not interchangeable.

Two practice manuals add what the regulations leave out

The EOIR Policy Manual carries the rule for both EOIR forums and extends it. Under Part II, section 2.3, a certification "must be typed, signed by the translator, and attached to the foreign-language document."³ It also requires that "The translator's address and telephone number must be included," and that where one certification covers several documents it "must specify the documents."³ Neither regulation asks for an address or a telephone number.

There is a fourth difference, and it is one word. The regulation asks for competence to translate the document. Both parts of the Policy Manual ask instead for a statement that the translator "is competent to translate the language of the document."³ On that sentence the two parts agree word for word, which is the only place among the four where any two of them do.⁴ Part III of the Policy Manual, which covers the Board of Immigration Appeals, asks for a certification "signed by the translator, printed or typed, in accordance with the regulations."⁴ The regulation it points to is 8 CFR 1003.2(g)(1), under which a motion and anything filed with it "must be in English or accompanied by a certified English translation."⁵

A second certificate that is not a translation

A second certificate is easy to confuse with the first. An affidavit or declaration in English by a person who is not fluent in English needs a certificate of interpretation.³ That certificate states that the document was read to the person in a language they understand, that they understood it before signing, and that the interpreter is competent.³ It also states that the interpretation was true and accurate to the best of the interpreter's abilities.³ Those are four statements, about a different document, in a certificate with a different name.

What the filer is certifying

The person filing is certifying the translation as well. Under 8 CFR 103.2(a)(2), signing a benefit request certifies under penalty of perjury that the request, "and all evidence submitted with it, either at the time of filing or thereafter, is true and correct."¹ Under 8 U.S.C. 1361 the burden of proof rests on the person applying.⁶ Any evidence filed with a benefit request "is incorporated into and considered part of the request."¹

Which document a filer follows

One sentence settles which text governs how a form is completed. Under 8 CFR 103.2(a)(1), every form "must be submitted to DHS and executed in accordance with the form instructions regardless of a provision of 8 CFR chapter I to the contrary."¹ A certification block drafted against the regulation alone has not been read against the instructions to the form it is going with.

USCIS has published little of its own on the subject. In the USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 1, Part E, Chapter 6, the section headed Translations is one of five in that chapter marked Reserved.⁷ What USCIS states about the certification sits in the regulation and in the instructions to the particular form.

When a certification can no longer be corrected

A request for evidence sets a deadline, and "Additional time to respond to a request for evidence or notice of intent to deny may not be granted."¹ Before an immigration judge, under 8 CFR 1003.31(h), if a document "is not filed within the time set by the immigration judge, the opportunity to file that application or document shall be deemed waived."⁸ Neither deadline distinguishes a defective certification from a missing one.

The part of a filing we read

An attorney decides which forum a filing goes to and what each exhibit is offered to prove. The attorney settles them, and we do not revisit them. We give no legal advice and we express no view on whether a filing meets a requirement. Material sent to us is never disclosed.

The wording is checkable. Each forum asks for its certification block in its own words, and a block drafted for one forum may arrive at another unchanged. A name spelled one way on a translated birth record and another way on the form is a mismatch on its face.

A translator's certificate is drafted once and reused for years, often by a firm that files in more than one forum. A block that satisfies the office it was written for is the block that later goes to an office it does not satisfy. Nothing on its face records which forum it was drafted for.