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Belarusian Interpreters

Professional Belarusian interpreting, virtual or in person, for the settings where getting it wrong has consequences — asylum interviews, hearings, attorney meetings, medical appointments and school meetings.

Most people from Belarus speak Russian at home, so ask before you book either language

Do you need a Belarusian or a Russian interpreter for a client from Belarus? Usually Russian, but ask: in Belarus’s 2019 census about 71% of the population named Russian as the language they speak at home and about 26% named Belarusian. A demographer at Gomel State University, analysing the results in the Higher School of Economics’ Demographic Review, argues that even those figures overstate Belarusian, and that actual use has kept declining since 1999 while the language keeps its symbolic place in national identity.

That symbolic place is why the question is worth asking rather than assuming. For some clients, testifying in Belarusian is a deliberate choice, and a Belarus Digest guide to names notes that defaulting to Russian forms can offend Belarusians who regard it as disrespecting their identity. In an asylum matter arising from the repression after the 2020 protests, a client may want the record in Belarusian even though Russian would be easier. In the United States the Census Bureau counted only 1,805 people speaking Belarusian at home in 2009–2013, so the Belarusian pool is small and lead time matters; a Russian interpreter is far easier to staff on a near date.

Trasianka is neither standard Russian nor standard Belarusian

Millions of people in Belarus speak trasianka, a mixed Belarusian–Russian speech. Linguists at the University of Oldenburg describe it as widespread and long stigmatized as a sign of poor education, and the Belarusian contributor to their 2008 volume argues it is often used deliberately, as an alternative to either standard. Their corpus work found new word endings forming in it that match neither Russian nor Belarusian.

For interpreting, that means two things. A Russian interpreter with no Belarusian will miss the Belarusian words and forms that run through a trasianka speaker’s answers, so for these clients an interpreter who knows both languages is the right booking. And the English record should render what was said, not characterize how it was said: “broken Russian” is not a description an interpreter should be putting into a transcript.

One person, two spellings: Aliaksandr and Alexander, Hrodna and Grodno

Belarusian names and places have a Belarusian and a Russian form, and both turn up in documents. Belarus Digest gives the head of state as Aliaksandr Lukashenka or Alexander Lukashenka depending on the outlet, a former foreign minister who used the Russian form Vladimir Makei rather than Uladzimir, and cities as Hrodna or Grodno and Mahiliou or Mogilev. As the pairs show, a Belarusian h often corresponds to a Russian g, which is why the same name can look so different on paper.

Passports use the ICAO transliteration by default, but applicants may specify their own, and the same guide notes that a person can take a given name transliterated from Russian and keep a Belarusian-spelled surname. A file can therefore hold a passport, a birth certificate and a US form that each spell the client differently. Have the interpreter state both forms of each name and place once on the record; it settles the question for the rest of the hearing.

Belarusian is a limited-availability language

There are comparatively few qualified Belarusian interpreters working in the United States, and the ones there are get booked. That is why Belarusian carries the 25–30% limited-availability rate, and why lead time matters more here than with a common language: a week is comfortable, two days is a gamble.

We would rather tell you that before you book a hearing date than after. If your date is fixed and close, say so when you enquire and we will tell you honestly whether we can staff it rather than accepting and hoping.

The standard-availability languages are: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Arabic, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, Polish, Italian, German, Japanese, Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Tagalog, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, Armenian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Serbian, Bosnian, Somali and Nepali. Every other language we offer carries the 25–30% limited-availability rate. If a language is not on that list it is not because we cannot do it — it is because the pool of qualified interpreters in the United States is small enough that we will not promise a date without checking.

By video, by phone or in person

Virtual interpreting runs on Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, or over the telephone. It is quicker to arrange, costs less and carries no travel charge, and it suits appointments, calls and most meetings.

In person is what venues with their own rules tend to expect, and the right choice when documents are being signed or several people are speaking at once. Tell us the platform, or the city and the venue, when you send the request.

Where interpretation is used

The settings differ in what they demand of the interpreter, which is worth saying because they are frequently priced as though they were the same work:

• Asylum and immigration interviews. USCIS asylum interviews require the applicant to bring an interpreter, and the interview can be rescheduled if the interpreter does not appear or is not competent — which makes this the setting where getting it right matters most.
• Attorney–client meetings and declarations. Preparing testimony, taking a statement, going through documents.
• Depositions and hearings. Where the record is being made and accuracy is examined afterwards.
• Medical appointments. Note that hospitals receiving federal funding generally must provide language assistance themselves, so ask before you hire.
• School meetings. IEP meetings and parent conferences — districts also have their own obligations here.
• Business meetings and signings, such as real estate closings.

Each setting has its own page — who has to provide the interpreter, what the meeting asks of one and what it costs: see interpreters by setting.

What it costs

Rates are per interpreter, per hour, and billed from the scheduled start time rather than from when everyone actually arrives.

• Virtual — $80 per hour, one-hour minimum. Zoom, Google Meet, Teams or telephone.
• In person — $110 per hour, two-hour minimum.
• Limited-availability languages — add 25–30%. Which languages those are is listed below rather than left vague.
• Travel for in-person work — $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location.

How the travel charge works out

Travel is charged at $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location, which means you can work it out rather than wait for a quote: a 20-mile round trip is $14, a 60-mile round trip is $42, a 150-mile round trip is $105. There is no separate call-out fee on top.

We will not pretend to know in advance where the interpreter will be coming from — that depends on the language, the date and the venue. What we do is confirm the interpreter and the exact travel figure before you book, so it is never a surprise on the invoice. Virtual assignments carry no travel charge at all, which is one reason most of what we do is virtual.

How booking an interpreter works

• You send the request with the form below: the language, the setting, the format, the date and how long it should last.
• We confirm before you commit: the interpreter, the exact price and the travel figure if there is one. We reply the same business day, and no payment is taken at this stage.
• You confirm, and the interpreter is booked for your date.

What we will tell you before you book

Two things, both of which occasionally cost us the booking. Whether the venue supplies its own interpreter. Immigration court provides one. Hospitals receiving federal funding generally must provide language assistance. School districts have obligations of their own. If yours does, you should not be paying us — ask them first.

And whether we can actually staff your date. For a limited-availability language on short notice the honest answer is sometimes no, and we would rather say it than accept a booking we cannot fill. Interpretation is not translation: see certified translation at $24.95 per page if what you need is a document rendered in writing.

What to have ready

The more of this comes in the first message, the fewer exchanges before you have a price:

• The language, the date, the start time and how long it should run.
• Virtual or in person: the platform, or the city and the venue.
• The setting and the subject matter.
• How many people need interpreting for.
• Any credential the venue requires of the interpreter.

Request an interpreter

Tell us the date, the language and the setting and we will come back with the interpreter, the exact price and the travel figure if there is one — before you commit to anything.

Sources

The facts on this page about the language and its speakers in the United States were checked against these sources on October 28, 2026.

• U.S. Census Bureau — Detailed Languages Spoken at Home, ACS 2009–2013 (“Bielorussian”)
• Aleksandr Sokolov, “Assessment of reliability of results of the 2019 Belarus population census”, Demographic Review 9(4), 2022
• Hentschel & Zaprudski (eds.), Belarusian Trasjanka and Ukrainian Surzyk, University of Oldenburg (2008)
• Ryhor Astapenia, “Getting Belarusian Names and Places Right”, Belarus Digest (July 30, 2015)
• KRGV — Belarusian migrants seeking asylum at US-Mexico border (December 8, 2021)

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