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Translating the Documents in a Burmese Asylum File

Burmese asylum files are shaped by a household registration system that decides who officially exists, and by names that carry no family name at all. This page is about documents and translation.

The household list decides who is on the record

The document that does the most work in a Myanmar file is frequently the household registration list, which records who lives together and is what establishes a family relationship. A birth certificate alone often does not, and for some communities the household list is the only civil documentation that exists.

Whose name appears on it, and whose does not, is therefore consequential — and that is a matter for an attorney, not a translator. What we can do is translate the list in full, including entries struck through or added later. See our Burmese birth certificate page.

Names without surnames, and honorifics

Burmese names have no family name. A name belongs to that person alone and is not shared with parents, spouse or siblings, so a family's documents show names with nothing in common — which a file has to explain rather than assume.

Names also carry honorifics that are not part of the name: U and Daw for older men and women, Ko and Ma for younger. Folding "U" into a given name creates a name the person does not have. We reproduce the name as written and identify the honorific as one.

What these files contain

Alongside household and civil documents:

• Identity documents, including scrutiny cards where held
• Police and court documents, summonses and detention records
• Military or administrative orders
• Employment, university and organisation records
• Medical reports, and evidence of treatment
• Camp or UNHCR registration from a country of first asylum
• Declarations from relatives and community members

What the documents in these files record

We do not assess claims and this page does not describe conditions in any country. What we can say is documentary, because it is a fact about paper: files from Myanmar commonly contain evidence recording ethnic and religious minority status, including communities excluded from citizenship categories; post-coup political activity; conscription; displacement; and the household and scrutiny records that determine who is on the register at all.

Naming that is useful for one practical reason — the vocabulary of a file decides how it should be translated. A document about a threat is translated at the register the threat was written in; a forensic report is translated without its findings being tidied; a community attestation is named as an attestation and not upgraded into a police record. What any of it means for a case is for an attorney, and asylum is not a filing to make alone.

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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