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Wolof Interpreters

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

French is Senegal's official language, and most Wolof speakers will not testify well in it

Can a French interpreter cover a Wolof speaker from Senegal? Often not: French is Senegal's official language, but Translators without Borders, working from the 2013 census, puts the share of Senegalese who speak it at about 37%, mostly as a second language, while 72% use Wolof to talk to speakers of other Senegalese languages. Someone who got through a shelter intake or a border interview in French may still not manage a credible-fear interview, an asylum interview or a merits hearing in it.

The same census figures explain the opposite mistake. Wolof is the first language of about half of Senegal and the lingua franca of most of the rest, so a Pulaar or Serer speaker will usually "speak Wolof" — at the market, not necessarily for testimony about persecution. Ask what the person spoke at home before booking either language.

Wolof is mainly spoken, not read. Senegal adopted a Latin alphabet for it only in 1975, after a period in which scholars wrote it in Arabic script, and the 2013 literacy rate was 42.4% (35.7% for women). New York City's immigrant affairs office calls Wolof an oral language with limited use of the written form and tells agencies to prioritize interpretation over translated leaflets. In practice the documents in a Senegalese file are in French, and the interpreter sight-translates them into Wolof on the spot.

Wolof requests come from New York shelters and from immigration court

In New York City's asylum-seeker shelter data for April to September 2024, Wolof was the third most common preferred language at 3.0% and 2.7%, behind only Spanish and French, and the city designated it a "temporary language" for translation and interpretation alongside Pulaar/Fulani. New York Focus found that Mauritania and Senegal were among the top five countries of origin of the 94,000 asylum seekers in city shelters between September 2022 and October 2023, and that language barriers with caseworkers were central to their problems.

The same arrivals are now in removal proceedings. In the Cleveland Immigration Court, according to TRAC data cited by the Ohio Immigrant Alliance in December 2024, Wolof ranked among the seven most common languages, ahead of Pulaar. The court supplies the interpreter at the hearing itself; what we are asked for is the work around it — attorney meetings, declarations, asylum interviews, medical and school appointments.

Qualified Wolof interpreters in the United States are few and concentrated in a handful of cities, so a virtual booking with lead time is the realistic default. Where no Wolof interpreter is free, relay through French is possible for some meetings; we confirm whether we can staff it before you book.

A Wolof speaker may be Senegalese, Gambian or Mauritanian, and the country changes the case

Wolof began in the Senegambia region and has spread into Mauritania and Mali through migration and trade. For a Mauritanian client that matters: Human Rights Watch documents how, in 1989, Mauritania used a border conflict as a pretext to expel thousands of Halpulaar, Wolof and Soninké citizens, accusing them of being Senegalese, and how the state has since built its identity around the Arabic language. Nationality is often the contested point in these claims.

Two consequences for the booking. Do not book Arabic for a Halpulaar, Soninké or Wolof Mauritanian because Arabic is the state's language; ask. Mauritania's Haratine, mostly darker-skinned descendants of former slaves, speak Hassaniya Arabic, so neither nationality nor appearance tells you which interpreter to book. And brief the interpreter to render what is said, not to remark that a speaker "sounds Senegalese" — in a case where the government has questioned the person's nationality, that inference belongs to the adjudicator, not to the interpreter.

Wolof is a limited-availability language

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

• NYC Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs — Guidance on Temporary Languages, Local Law 13 (November 2024)
• Translators without Borders — Language data for Senegal (2013 census; archived February 2024)
• University of Pennsylvania, Penn Language Center — Wolof
• New York Focus — Shelter policy disproportionately evicts African migrants (February 15, 2024)
• Human Rights Watch — Ethnicity, Discrimination, and Other Red Lines: Mauritania (February 12, 2018)
• Ohio Immigrant Alliance — Cleveland Immigration Court: Poulaar interpreter issues (December 27, 2024)

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