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Kazakh Interpreters

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

For a client from Kazakhstan the question is often Kazakh or Russian, and the client should answer it

Does a client from Kazakhstan need a Kazakh interpreter or a Russian one? Ask the client. Both languages have official status in Kazakhstan, and by Unicode CLDR's estimates about 72 percent of the population speaks Russian and about 64 percent Kazakh. Many people from Kazakhstan are fully at home in Russian. Others give a much better account in Kazakh. Which one a person uses at a hearing is a decision about their own testimony, not a booking convenience.

The answer has practical weight because Kazakh interpreters are scarce in the United States. The Census Bureau counted only about 1,500 Kazakh speakers in 2009–2013, scattered in small numbers from Sacramento and Phoenix to Rochester, New York, and Richmond, Virginia. If the client is comfortable in Russian, a Russian interpreter is usually easier to schedule. If they are not, book Kazakh early. We confirm whether we can staff it before you book.

A Kazakh from China is a different client from a Kazakh from Kazakhstan

Not every Kazakh speaker is from Kazakhstan. Ethnic Kazakhs live mainly in northern Xinjiang in China, and Human Rights Watch found that from late 2016 they were increasingly targeted under the same Strike Hard campaign as the Uyghurs. People with ties to Kazakhstan, which is on Xinjiang's list of 26 "sensitive countries", were interrogated and detained, and some were pressured to give up Kazakhstan citizenship they had applied for. HRW's own interviews for that report were conducted mainly in Kazakh and Mandarin.

A Kazakh from Xinjiang may not speak Russian at all, may have learned Mandarin at school or in detention, and may not want to describe Chinese detention through a Mandarin interpreter. CLDR's script data has Kazakh written in an Arabic-based script in China, not Cyrillic. Ethnic Kazakhs in Mongolia, about 7 percent of that country's population by CLDR's estimate, also write in Arabic script. Tell us where the client grew up, not only their nationality.

The pressure follows people abroad. The Uyghur Human Rights Project describes how the ethnic Kazakh activist Serikzhan Bilash, who documented the Xinjiang camps from Kazakhstan, was detained there in 2019 and later moved to the United States. A client in a case like his may have the same reasons as a Uyghur client to ask who the interpreter is. Uyghur interpreting covers that concern in more detail.

Cyrillic, a Latin alphabet still being settled, and no single spelling of a name

Kazakhstan writes Kazakh in Cyrillic and has been moving toward a Latin alphabet, unevenly. The UN's romanization experts recorded a Latin alphabet decreed in October 2017, replaced by a different version in February 2018, then revised again with its timetable pushed back. So a client may hold older Cyrillic documents, newer papers that show a Latin form, and Russian-language documents as well.

There is also no single romanization of Kazakh Cyrillic. The UN working group notes that no international system has been adopted and compares two in use: ж is zh in the BGN/PCGN system and j in the one used by Kazakhstan's state news agency, and ш is sh in one and ş in the other. The same name can therefore be Zhanar on a visa and Janar on a diploma. An interpreter reading the Cyrillic aloud can say on the record that they are the same.

Kazakh is a limited-availability language

There are comparatively few qualified Kazakh interpreters working in the United States, and the ones there are get booked. That is why Kazakh 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.

• Unicode Consortium, CLDR — territory language data (languages and scripts by country)
• UN Group of Experts on Geographical Names, Working Group on Romanization Systems — Kazakh (version 4.0, March 2016)
• UNGEGN — Report of the Working Group on Romanization Systems, GEGN.2/2019/11/CRP.11 (March 4, 2019)
• UNGEGN — Current status of UN romanization systems, GEGN.2/2021/93/CRP.93 (March 12, 2021)
• Human Rights Watch — "Eradicating Ideological Viruses": China's Campaign of Repression Against Xinjiang's Muslims (September 9, 2018)
• Uyghur Human Rights Project and Oxus Society — No Space Left to Run (2021)
• US Census Bureau — Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English, 2009–2013 (October 2015)

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