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Kyrgyz Interpreters

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

A client from Kyrgyzstan may want Kyrgyz, Russian or Uzbek, so ask before booking

Do you need a Kyrgyz or a Russian interpreter for a client from Kyrgyzstan? Ask: under the 2021 constitution Kyrgyz is the state language and Russian is also an official language, so a client may be more at home in either. Which one they want to testify in is their answer to give.

There is a third possibility. The State Department’s 2023 human rights report puts ethnic Uzbeks at nearly 15% of Kyrgyzstan’s population and almost half of Osh Oblast in the south, and describes continuing discrimination, harassment and arbitrary arrests of ethnic Uzbeks, often on alleged extremism charges. A client from Osh or elsewhere in the south may be an Uzbek speaker, and in a claim about treatment by Kyrgyz authorities, a Kyrgyz interpreter is not a neutral choice for them. Ask which language the client speaks at home and whether they have a preference about the interpreter.

Kyrgyz is a Turkic language close to Kazakh, with a very small US pool

Kyrgyz is a Kipchak Turkic language; Glottolog places it in the same Southeast Kipchak group as Kazakh, and the two are close relatives, but a Kazakh interpreter is a substitute to discuss rather than assume. It has been written in Cyrillic since 1940, with three letters Russian lacks — ң, ө, ү — and an interpreter sight-translating a Kyrgyz document has to read them, which a Russian-only interpreter will stumble on.

The Census Bureau counted only 550 people speaking Kyrgyz at home in the United States in 2009–2013, more than half of whom spoke English less than “very well”; the largest groups were around Chicago and Sacramento. The pool of Kyrgyz interpreters is very small, lead time matters, and for many dates the realistic option will be a Russian interpreter if the client is comfortable in Russian, or a relay through Russian if they are not. We confirm which is possible before you book.

Testimony about the security services needs every institution named in both languages

The same State Department report describes widespread arbitrary arrests by the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) and the police, detainee abuse and extortion, particularly in the south, and the detention and deportation of Russian antiwar activists who had moved to Kyrgyzstan. That last group needs a Russian interpreter, not a Kyrgyz one: the country a case comes from does not decide its language.

Testimony about the GKNB, the courts and pretrial detention needs consistent rendering of institutional names and charges, which, with two official languages, appear in Kyrgyz on some documents and Russian on others. Have the interpreter give each name once in the original language as well as in English, so that a later document using the other language can be matched to the testimony.

Kyrgyz is a limited-availability language

There are comparatively few qualified Kyrgyz interpreters working in the United States, and the ones there are get booked. That is why Kyrgyz 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 (“Kirghiz”)
• Constitute Project — Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic (2021), Article 13
• Library of Congress — ALA-LC Romanization Tables: Non-Slavic Languages (in Cyrillic Script)
• Glottolog 5.3 — Kirghiz
• U.S. Department of State — 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Kyrgyz Republic

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