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Translating the Documents in a Russian Asylum File

Russian asylum files mix civil records from a registry that has changed names twice, court and police paperwork with its own formats, and documents about organisations and employment. This page is about translating them, not about assessing a claim.

ZAGS records, Soviet and modern

Civil documents come from ZAGS, the civil registry, which issues the birth certificate (свидетельство о рождении) and its marriage and divorce equivalents. Soviet-era certificates issued before 1991 remain valid and appear constantly; some name a republic that is now an independent country, which is where the registration happened rather than an irregularity.

The internal passport is the identity document most Russians carry, and it is translated in full including the registration pages. See our Russian birth certificate page.

The paperwork of an encounter with the state

What distinguishes these files is the volume of procedural documents:

• Police protocols (протокол) from detentions and administrative proceedings
• Court decisions, fines and administrative penalty rulings
• Summonses, search records and property seizure lists
• Employment records and dismissal orders, including the work book (трудовая книжка)
• Registration documents for organisations, media outlets or associations
• Military summons and service records
• Medical reports, and psychiatric records where those are at issue

Patronymics, gendered surnames, transliteration

A Russian name is given name, patronymic and surname. The patronymic is formed from the father's given name and is not a middle name; surnames are gendered, so a husband and wife carry forms that differ by a letter or two. Both patterns read as inconsistencies on a US form and are neither — the translation identifies the structure.

Latin spellings vary between a passport, an older document and a foreign record. We follow the passport and note genuine differences. See our Russian page.

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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