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Translating the Documents in a Nigerian Asylum File

Nigerian asylum files are unusual in one respect: almost everything in them is already in English, which changes what a translation is for. This page is about the documents, not about conditions or about whether anyone qualifies.

Registration that was never comprehensive

Nigerian births are registered with the National Population Commission, but registration has never been comprehensive, so many adults have no contemporaneous record. The recognised substitute is a sworn declaration of age, made before a commissioner for oaths or a court — a document offices treat differently from a birth certificate, and one whose weight is a question for an attorney.

Marriage works the same way: statutory, customary and Islamic marriages are all valid and only the statutory one produces a registry certificate. See our Nigerian birth certificate page.

English on the page, other languages around it

Official documents are in English, so you may need no translation at all — some offices require a certification for any foreign document regardless, and many do not. Ask before ordering; we would rather you kept the money.

What does need translating is everything around them: documents in Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo or Arabic, letters, threats, church or organisation records, and declarations from relatives who remained.

What these files contain

Alongside identity and civil records:

• Police reports and First Information style statements
• Court documents, including Shari'a court documents from the northern states
• Medical reports documenting injuries or treatment
• Church, mosque, union or organisation membership documents
• Employment records and dismissal letters
• Press coverage, photographs and messages
• Letters of support from community organisations

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 Nigeria commonly contain evidence recording religious and communal violence; armed group abduction and threats; sexual orientation and gender identity, which is criminalised; and the police, court and medical records made at the time.

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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