N-400 Translation Requirements: What to Submit

You have held a green card for years, the filing fee is ready, and the N-400 itself looks manageable — until you reach the evidence list and realize that half of what you are supposed to attach is in another language. A marriage certificate from your home country. A divorce decree. A court disposition for something that happened a decade ago. The instructions say "certified translation" without explaining what that means or which of your papers actually need one.

Naturalization is different from the petitions that came before it. For a green card you were documenting a relationship or a job. For citizenship, USCIS is checking continuous residence, physical presence, marital history and good moral character — and the records that prove those things are scattered across your life, often in a language the officer does not read.

What the regulation actually says

Every translation requirement in the naturalization process traces back to one paragraph: 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3). A document in a foreign language filed with USCIS must come with a full English translation, and the translator must certify that the translation is complete and accurate and that they are competent to translate from that language into English.

That is the entire rule. Read what it does not say:

• It does not require a licensed, sworn or court-certified translator. The United States has no sworn translator system of the kind common in Europe and Latin America.
• It does not require notarization. A notary verifies who signed a document, not whether the content is right, and in most states a notary is barred from attesting to accuracy at all.
• It does not require an apostille, which authenticates a public document for use abroad and is issued by a government authority.
• It does not require you to mail originals. A legible photocopy or clear photo of the foreign document and the translation is acceptable.

The requirement is a signed statement of completeness and competence — not a credential, not a stamp, not a seal.

What the rule does demand, strictly, is full. A translation that covers the printed fields but skips a handwritten marginal note, a registrar's stamp or a line of fine print on the reverse is not complete, and that is a common reason a filing draws a Request for Evidence.

The documents an N-400 commonly requires

What you attach depends on which path you are filing under and what your history contains. The foreign-language records that most often need translating:

• Marriage certificate, if you are filing under the three-year rule as the spouse of a US citizen. A foreign-issued marriage certificate translation has to carry the registry book, folio and entry numbers, not just the names and date.
• Divorce decrees or annulment orders for every prior marriage, yours and your spouse's, under the three-year rule. A divorce decree translation needs the full judgment, including the date the decree became final.
• Death certificates, when a prior marriage ended by death rather than divorce.
• Court records and police dispositions, for any arrest, citation or charge — anywhere, at any time, dismissed or expunged.
• Name change orders, if your legal name differs from the name on your green card or birth record.
• Birth certificates for your children, where you are documenting the relationship.
• Military service records, if you served in a foreign military or are filing on the basis of service.

Your permanent resident card is already in English, as are your Social Security record and any US-issued court document. Those need nothing.

The records applicants are surprised to be asked for

Arrests that never became convictions. The form asks whether you have ever been arrested, cited, detained or charged — not whether you were convicted. A certified disposition from the foreign court resolves the question, and a dismissal reads as a dismissal only if the translation renders the disposition language precisely. The same applies to a foreign police record translation, which often uses formulas with no neat American equivalent.

Your spouse's prior divorces. Filing under the three-year rule means USCIS must see that every previous marriage on both sides ended properly. Applicants translate their own decree and forget their spouse's.

Documents already filed with the I-130 or I-485. The officer may or may not have ready access to the older A-file. Including a copy of the translation with the N-400 is safer than relying on retrieval.

Entry and exit stamps. Passports are not normally translated. But if continuous residence is in question because of long trips abroad, an officer can ask you to document specific departures and returns, and stamps in a non-Latin script have to be rendered into English to be useful.

What a compliant translation looks like

When you order a certified translation, what you receive should have these characteristics:

1. Every element rendered, including seals, stamps, signatures (described as "[signature]"), marginal annotations and anything printed on the back.
2. Layout that mirrors the original, so an officer can match field to field without reading the source language.
3. Names transliterated consistently with the spelling on your green card and passport, with a translator's note where the source spelling differs.
4. Dates in an unambiguous format. Day-month-year is standard across most of the world: a record dated 03/04/2015 abroad is March 4 in one reading and April 3 in another.
5. A signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy with the translator's name, signature and date.

Nothing should be summarized or omitted as irrelevant. The translator does not get to decide what matters to the officer.

Doing it yourself, and why the rule blocks it

If you are fluent in both languages, translating your own marriage certificate looks like the obvious way to avoid spending anything. The regulation does not say the translator may not be the applicant, so the idea is not unreasonable on its face.

The problem is not your language ability. A certification is a statement of impartiality, and USCIS treats a translation certified by the person who benefits from the filing as evidence the applicant produced about themselves. The reasoning is worked through in can you translate your own documents for USCIS. The same logic extends to your spouse and parents. A bilingual friend with no stake in the outcome can sign a valid certification; machine output cannot, because no human is in a position to certify accuracy.

Timing, cost and the last check before you file

Translation sits near the end of the chain. Obtaining a fresh long-form divorce decree or a new police certificate from abroad can take weeks; the translation is fast by comparison. Typical turnaround for a one- to three-page document is within 24 hours, with same-day available.

Price is predictable: $24.95 per page, where a page is up to 250 words including numbers. Most civil records fall within one page; a multi-page judgment with findings of fact runs longer. Notarization and mail are optional add-ons at checkout. Details are on the pricing page, and uploading your documents for a quote gives you the exact count.

Before you file, go through the whole packet with one question: is there any text on this page that is not in English? Check the reverse of every certificate, the margins of every birth record and the stamps at the bottom of every court order. That five-minute review is what prevents the RFE.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to translate my green card or passport for the N-400?

Your permanent resident card is already in English, so it needs no translation. A foreign passport generally does not need to be translated for the N-400 either, though USCIS may ask for translated entry and exit stamps if your travel history is in question.

Does USCIS require a professional or certified translator for naturalization documents?

No. Under 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3), the rule is that any foreign-language document must come with a full English translation plus the translator's signed certification that the translation is complete and accurate and that they are competent to translate. The regulation does not require a credential or a license.

Do N-400 translations have to be notarized?

No. Notarization is not part of 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3), and a notary verifies the identity of the signer rather than the accuracy of a translation. You can add notarization if another agency in your process wants it, but USCIS does not ask for it.

What if I only have a foreign-language copy and not the original document?

USCIS accepts a legible photocopy or clear photo of both the foreign document and its English translation, so you do not have to mail originals. The copy must be readable, including stamps, seals and marginal notes, because the translator has to account for everything on the page.