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Marshallese Interpreters

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

Marshallese speakers live mainly in Hawaii and Northwest Arkansas, and the old Census count is low

Where do Marshallese speakers in the United States live? Mostly in Hawaii and in Northwest Arkansas around Springdale, with smaller communities in Washington and Oklahoma. The Census Bureau's 2009–2013 table counted about 18,500 Marshallese speakers: 6,900 in Hawaii, 3,800 in Arkansas, 2,100 in Washington and 1,100 in Oklahoma. That Arkansas figure is now well out of date. The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) estimates about 15,000 Marshallese living in Arkansas, most of them in the northwest.

People came under the Compact of Free Association, which lets citizens of the Marshall Islands live and work in the United States without a visa. GAO counted about 94,000 compact migrants from the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau, and their US-born children, in US areas in 2018. Because Marshallese clients do not need visas, the interpreting we are asked for is mostly in clinics and hospitals, schools, benefits offices and state courts. Hawaii's judiciary lists Marshallese, Kajin Majôl, among its language access services.

Medical interpreting for Marshallese patients is largely chronic-disease work

The Marshall Islands has one of the highest rates of Type 2 diabetes in the world. UAMS researchers link it to US nuclear testing there between 1946 and 1958, which contaminated the soil and pushed people from home-grown food onto imported, processed food. A typical interpreted appointment is therefore not a single visit. It is diabetes education, medication changes, heart-disease follow-up, and the same instructions explained again months later.

Almost all of it has to be interpreted. Dr. Sheldon Riklon of UAMS is one of only two Marshallese doctors practicing in the United States. Medicaid eligibility was restored to compact migrants in December 2020, after being excluded for decades. SNAP followed federally in 2024, and Arkansas extended SNAP and TEA benefits by emergency rule that August. UAMS and community groups have since held enrollment events in Springdale to help families apply. Hospitals and clinics receiving federal funds generally must provide interpreters themselves, so check before paying for one. Consistency helps: the same interpreter across a course of diabetes care is worth asking for.

English is official in the Marshall Islands, and it is not enough for consent or court

English is an official language of the Marshall Islands alongside Marshallese, so many patients and parents have school English and will say they understand. The Census figures show how far that goes. Of the roughly 3,800 Marshallese speakers counted in Arkansas, about 2,600, two-thirds, said they speak English less than very well. In Hawaii it was more than half.

For a consent form, an IEP meeting or a plea, book the interpreter even when the client is reluctant to seem to need one, and let them use it as much or as little as they want. Marshallese is a limited-availability language with a small pool outside Hawaii and Arkansas. In person is most realistic in those two places. Elsewhere, video is the practical option. Give us the date, the setting and the town early, and we will confirm whether we can staff it before you book.

Marshallese is a limited-availability language

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

• University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences — UAMS Researchers Find High Rates of Diabetes, Heart Disease among Marshallese (June 9, 2023)
• University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences — UAMS, Community Partners Hold SNAP Enrollment Events for Marshallese (December 18, 2024)
• University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences — Sheldon Riklon, M.D., Appointed to Arkansas Minority Health Commission (October 8, 2025)
• US Government Accountability Office — Compacts of Free Association: Populations in U.S. Areas Have Grown, GAO-20-491 (June 15, 2020)
• US Census Bureau — Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English, 2009–2013 (October 2015)
• Hawaii State Judiciary — Court Interpreters and language access services
• Unicode Consortium, CLDR — territory language data (official languages of the Marshall Islands)

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