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Translating the Documents in a Haitian Asylum File

Haitian documents are in French even though daily life is lived in Haitian Creole, and they come from two different institutions depending on how old they are. This page covers the documents and their translation.

The commune, the Archives, and the CIN

A Haitian birth is recorded by the officier d'état civil of the commune, and the record is deposited with the Archives Nationales. A recent birth yields an acte de naissance from the commune; an older one usually yields an extrait des archives. Both are ordinary and we translate either — see our Haitian birth certificate page.

For the diaspora, a request is typically routed through the Haitian mission and the foreign ministry to the Archives, and an online platform now handles some requests. The identity document is the CIN from the ONI, which the ONI states is issued free of charge — anyone charging for it is charging for something that costs nothing.

French on the page, Creole in the account

Almost every Haitian civil document is in French. The applicant's own statements, letters from relatives and recordings are usually in Haitian Creole. A file therefore routinely needs both, and they are genuinely different languages rather than registers of one — see our Haitian Creole and French pages. Send what you have and we will tell you which is which.

Older acts are narrative and handwritten, reciting who appeared before the officer and what was declared, and they are translated as the narrative they are rather than reorganised into a form the original never had.

What these files contain

Alongside civil records:

• Police reports and complaints
• Court documents and summonses
• Medical and hospital records
• Employment, church and organisation documents
• Property documents, and records of displacement
• Declarations from relatives and witnesses, often in Creole

Translated as written, because credibility is the issue

An asylum file is judged largely on whether the account holds together. That makes a translation unusually consequential, and it makes the temptation to improve things actively dangerous. A vague sentence rendered precisely, a torn line reconstructed from context, a threat translated more fluently than it was written — each of those creates a discrepancy between the document and the testimony that was never in the record.

So: everything legible is translated, at the register it was written in. Anything genuinely illegible is marked illegible rather than guessed at. Nothing is softened and nothing is heightened. Where a document is damaged, partial or a photograph of a photocopy, the translation says so plainly — which is worth far more to the person reading the file than a clean-looking rendering of something nobody can actually read.

One packet, both forums

An affirmative application goes to USCIS under 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3). A defensive one is filed with the immigration court, where 8 CFR 1003.33 and the EOIR practice manual also want the translator's name, address and telephone number attached. Our certification carries both, on letterhead and page-numbered, so the same translation serves either — see what it states. Where one certification needs to cover a bundle of exhibits, it will list them.

Files here name people who may still be at risk. Everything is translated by professional human translators and handled confidentially — never pasted into a public machine-translation tool. What we do not do is advise on the claim, tell you what evidence to gather or assess whether a document helps you. That is your attorney's work, and this is the point in a case to have one.

How it works

Upload a photo or a scan of your document, pick the language pair and check out online. You never have to mail originals: a legible copy is all we need.

A professional human translator, never machine translation, translates the document word for word and mirrors the layout of the original. Every certified translation ships with a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy that meets the requirements of USCIS, courts and universities.

Your translation is delivered digitally, usually within 24 hours for documents of one to three pages, and same-day delivery is available. If anything needs adjusting, we revise it.

Certified vs. standard translation

A certified translation is a word-for-word translation accompanied by a signed statement attesting to its accuracy and completeness. It is what official bodies require: USCIS, courts, universities and government agencies. Certified translations are $24.95 per page, where a page is up to 250 words.

A standard translation is for business or personal use where certification is not needed, such as CVs, client intake forms or marketing material, and is billed at the same $24.95 per page of up to 250 words.

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