Which Documents Does USCIS Require You to Translate?

You have the forms filled out and a folder of documents from back home, and now you are staring at the pile trying to work out which ones actually need to be translated. Some are obvious. Others are not: a birth certificate that already prints headings in English, a passport page, a bank statement with numbers you can read perfectly well. Translating everything costs money you would rather not spend. Skipping the wrong thing costs you a Request for Evidence and weeks of delay. The rule that decides it is short, and once you know what it says you can sort the pile yourself.

The rule is about language, not about document type

USCIS does not publish a list of documents that must be translated. The requirement in 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3) is written about language: any document in a foreign language submitted to USCIS must be accompanied by a full English translation, together with the translator's certification that the translation is complete and accurate and that they are competent to translate from that language into English.

That does two useful things for you. You do not need to guess whether a divorce decree is "important enough" — if it is in a foreign language and you are filing it, it gets translated. And a document already written entirely in English needs nothing, no matter how official it looks or how foreign the issuing country is.

If it is in another language and it goes in the envelope, it needs a translation. That is the whole test.

The rule asks for nothing beyond that. It does not require a credentialed or government-licensed translator, and it does not require notarization.

Civil records almost everyone has to translate

• Birth certificates — for the petitioner, beneficiary and often for children, proving parentage and identity across most form types.
• Marriage certificates — the current marriage and sometimes a prior one. The translation has to carry the registry book, folio and entry numbers, not just the names and the date.
• Divorce decrees, annulments and separation judgments — showing that every previous marriage legally ended before the current one began. These are the longest documents in most packets; see divorce decree translation.
• Death certificates — when a prior spouse died rather than divorced, including the cause-of-death field and the physician's often handwritten notes.
• Adoption decrees and guardianship orders — any court document establishing a parent-child relationship.
• Police clearance certificates — translated in full, including the "no record found" language and the issuing authority's stamps.
• Military service records and household registration books — common in filings from Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam and parts of Eastern Europe.

If a record carries marginal notes — annotations added later recording a marriage, a divorce, a legitimation or a correction — those notes are part of the document and have to appear in the translation. They are the most commonly skipped element on Latin American civil records.

Academic, financial and medical evidence

Academic records. Diplomas and transcripts come up in employment-based petitions and in F-1 and J-1 filings. A translation is not a credential evaluation: the translation renders the document in English, while an evaluation opines on US degree equivalence. Evaluators usually want the translated transcript first.

Financial documents. Tax returns, employer letters, pay slips and bank statements filed with an I-864. Numbers do not speak for themselves — field labels, account types, currency and date format all need rendering, and a statement dated 05/03 means two different months depending on the issuing country.

Medical records and sworn statements. Foreign immunization records, and any declaration a relative wrote in another language supporting your bona fide marriage.

What people translate that they did not have to

• The passport biographic page. Machine-readable passports follow an ICAO standard that prints field labels in English alongside the national language, so the page is usually already bilingual. Older non-standard passports and handwritten endorsements are the exceptions.
• Fully bilingual certificates. If English covers the entire document, including the seal text, there is nothing left to translate.
• English-language documents from a foreign country. A Philippine court order, an Indian transcript, a Nigerian police certificate, all issued in English. The language is what matters, not the country.
• Documents you are not actually filing. Decide what goes in the packet first, then translate that.

"Bilingual" has to mean completely bilingual. A household registration book with English column headings but foreign-language content in the cells is not bilingual in any useful sense, and neither is a dual-language form whose stamp and handwritten entries appear in one script only. Look at the stamps, seals, signature blocks and anything added by hand — that is where the untranslated material hides.

What people skip that they should not have

• The reverse side. Civil records across much of Latin America print verification text, barcodes and marginal notes on the back.
• Stamps and seals. A registry's round stamp, a court clerk's authentication. These carry the authority of the document.
• Handwriting. Corrections, insertions and "see margin" references. Illegible text should be marked as illegible, not omitted or guessed.
• Visa and entry stamps when they are the evidence — for example when you are proving a specific date of entry or continuous residence.
• Blank or struck-through fields. A field reading "none" should read that way in English; an empty field looks like an omission.
• The apostille itself. It is a government authentication of the underlying record, not a comment on translation accuracy, and if it is in a foreign language it is another page in the packet.

How the pages are counted for a packet like this

A page at eVerbary is up to 250 words including numbers, not a physical sheet, and pricing is $24.95 per page. The count runs across the whole order, which matters when your packet is a collection of short records.

• A one-sheet birth certificate is usually one page, even on oversized paper, because the word count is low.
• A marriage certificate can tip into a second page if the marginal notes are long.
• A divorce decree with findings of fact is commonly several pages — the biggest line item in a typical family packet.
• Transcripts and bank statements vary; a tabular transcript with dozens of rows runs longer than it looks.

Scan everything at full page size first. USCIS accepts a legible photocopy or photo of both the original and the translation, so nothing has to be mailed, but the small print inside a seal has to be readable because the translator needs to read it too. Upload the files to get a quote and the count comes back before you commit, so you see what the whole packet costs rather than estimating document by document. Turnaround for a one- to three-page document is typically within 24 hours.

One pricing note while you sort: standard and certified translation both cost $24.95 per page. The only difference is the signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy, which is the piece 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3) asks for. There is no money to save by filing a USCIS document without it.

Frequently asked questions