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Translating the Documents in a Somali Asylum File

Somali asylum files are shaped by an absence: for most of a generation there was no civil registry to issue anything. This page is about what that means for documents and translation. It is not an account of conditions, and it is not advice about a claim.

Why there is often no certificate

Somalia has had no functioning national civil registration system since 1991, and archives and public offices were destroyed in the war, leaving nothing against which a later document could be checked. A population registration department began issuing birth certificates in Mogadishu in 2014, largely for passport and visa purposes. Survey data puts the share of children under two holding a birth certificate at under one per cent.

The practical consequence is that a Somali applicant frequently has no civil documents at all, and that a document issued long after the event is the normal case rather than a suspicious one. Neither of those is something a translation can fix, and neither is something we would pretend about.

What is usually there instead

The weight in these files tends to sit on documents created rather than issued:

• The applicant's own declaration, and declarations from relatives and community members
• Letters of support from diaspora organisations, elders or clan representatives
• Documents issued by a Somali embassy or consulate abroad
• UNHCR or camp registration documents from a country of first asylum
• Medical reports, including those prepared in the United States
• Photographs, messages and recordings

Somali, and the languages around it

Documents may be in Somali, Arabic, Italian or English depending on when and where they were produced, and a single file can hold all four. See our Somali and Arabic pages.

Somali names are given name, father's name and grandfather's name rather than a family surname, so siblings share the second and third elements and a US form asking for a surname has nowhere obvious to put them. We reproduce the name as the document gives it and make the structure explicit rather than inventing a family name.

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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