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Translating the Documents in a Ukrainian Asylum File

Ukrainian files are shaped by two things a translator has to handle honestly: documents split between Ukrainian and Russian across the decades, and records that may now be unreachable. This page covers the documents and their translation.

DRATS records, and the language they are in

Civil documents come from DRATS (ДРАЦС), which issues certificates and extracts from the State Register of Civil Status Acts. Records from before 1991 come from the Soviet ZAGS and are frequently in Russian — a Russian-language certificate from a Ukrainian registry is ordinary and we translate either language.

Two quirks worth knowing before you go looking for paperwork that does not exist: where a court dissolved a marriage after 27 July 2010, the court decision in legal force is the document and no divorce certificate is issued; and after a dissolution DRATS does not reissue the marriage certificate either.

Documents that may not be obtainable

Ukrainian consulates say plainly that obtaining a document from Ukraine can now take an indefinite period, and records held in occupied or damaged territory may not be retrievable at all. That is not something a translation can solve, and it is better known before money is spent.

What we can do is translate whatever exists — including documents issued by a consulate abroad rather than in Ukraine — and say honestly what a poor scan does and does not show. See our Ukrainian police record page.

What these files contain

Alongside identity and civil records:

• Military summons, service records and medical commission documents
• Police reports and court decisions
• Employment records and enterprise documents
• Property documents, and records relating to damaged or occupied property
• Medical reports, and evidence of treatment
• Declarations from relatives and witnesses

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 Ukraine commonly contain evidence recording wartime displacement; occupied and damaged territory; military mobilisation and service; property lost or seized; and civil records that can no longer be obtained from the place they were held.

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 one sheet of your document is one page, with no word cap.

A standard translation is the same professional human translation without the certificate, for when you only need to understand the content or for internal or informal use. It is billed at the same $24.95 per page with no word cap.

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