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Tigrinya Interpreters

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

Tigrinya is spoken on both sides of the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, and which side matters

Is Eritrean Tigrinya a different language from Ethiopian Tigrinya? No — it is one language, the largest in Eritrea and the main language of Tigray in northern Ethiopia, and an interpreter from either side understands the other. What differs is history, and in asylum work the side of the border the interpreter comes from can matter more than accent.

The UN Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea put the Tigrinya ethnic group at about 55 percent of Eritreans; in Tigray, more than 95 percent of people gave Tigrinya as their main language in Ethiopia’s 2007 census. The US immigration courts record the language as “Tigrigna – Eritrean”, and it is a court language of real volume: 14th of all languages in initial case completions in FY2017 and 15th in FY2018, ahead of Amharic and Somali.

Tigrinya is written in the same Ge’ez-derived script as Amharic, but it is a different language, and an Amharic interpreter is not a substitute. Tigrayan documents from Ethiopia use the Ethiopian calendar, which runs about seven years and eight months behind, so the date problems described on our Amharic page apply here too.

An Eritrean witness may not speak freely through another Eritrean

The UN Commission of Inquiry found that Eritrean embassies recruit people from within diaspora communities to report on other Eritreans, often among those who pay the 2 percent “Rehabilitation Tax” the government levies on Eritreans abroad, and witnesses told it that Eritreans abroad cannot speak freely. The same tax is the condition for a passport or consular service.

So an asylum applicant describing desertion from national service, religious practice or opposition politics may hold back in front of an interpreter they fear is connected to the government — and may not say so. Ask the client privately whether they have a concern about who interprets, and tell us; never use a relative or community member as the interpreter for this kind of testimony.

The war in Tigray that began in November 2020 adds a second pairing to think about. Sixteen governments, the United States among them, called in November 2021 for accountability for abuses by Eritrean forces in Tigray documented by the joint UN–Ethiopian Human Rights Commission investigation. A Tigrayan witness describing those events, interpreted by an Eritrean (or the reverse), is a combination to raise with the client before the booking, not after.

Not every Eritrean’s first language is Tigrinya, even when they speak it

The Commission counted nine ethnic groups in Eritrea, each defined by language. The Commission of Inquiry put the Tigre at about 30 percent of the population, with Saho, Kunama, Bilen, Afar and others making up the rest, and noted that Tigre is closely related to Tigrinya but a distinct language. Military training at Sawa is given only in Tigrinya, and conscripts from non-Tigrinya regions have to learn it — some were punished for not understanding orders.

That produces a common booking error: a lowland Eritrean who learned working Tigrinya in national service is booked a Tigrinya interpreter for testimony they would give more precisely in Tigre, Bilen or Arabic. Ask the client’s first language, not only whether they speak Tigrinya.

Names need the same care. The Commission noted that Tigrinya, like Arabic, has no formal system for writing it in the Latin alphabet, so one name is routinely spelled several ways across a passport, an asylum application and earlier filings. Have the interpreter give the spelling from the document once on the record and keep to it.

Tigrinya is a limited-availability language

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

• Executive Office for Immigration Review — Statistics Yearbook FY 2018, Table 9: I-862 initial case completions by top 25 languages
• UN Human Rights Council — Detailed findings of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea, A/HRC/29/CRP.1 (June 2015)
• CLEAR Global (Translators without Borders) — Language data for Ethiopia
• Global Affairs Canada — Joint statement on the release of the OHCHR–EHRC joint investigation (November 6, 2021)
• US Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit — Georgis v. Ashcroft, 328 F.3d 962 (2003)

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