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Interpreters for Asylum Interviews

At an affirmative asylum interview the officer decides on your account of what happened to you, and if you do not speak English that account reaches the officer only through the interpreter you bring. Here is what USCIS requires of that interpreter, who may not do it, what happens if they fall short, and how to book one with us.

For an affirmative asylum interview, you must bring the interpreter

This is one of the few settings where the government does not provide the interpreter. Under 8 CFR 208.9(g)(1), an applicant who cannot proceed in English must bring a competent interpreter, fluent in English and in a language the applicant speaks fluently, at no expense to USCIS. USCIS repeats it on its interview preparation page: it does not provide interpreters for the asylum interview, except for applicants who are deaf or hard of hearing, who should request an accommodation before the interview. The Form I-589 instructions add that this help must be obtained at your expense before the interview, and that quality interpretation may be crucial to your claim.

Two other stages are different, and there you should not be paying us. If your case came through a credible fear screening and is set for an Asylum Merits Interview, USCIS provides the interpreter, and the same regulation (208.9(g)(2)) puts that on the asylum officer. If your case goes before an immigration judge, the immigration court provides interpreters at government expense for the hearings.

So who books us: applicants with an affirmative interview notice, immigration attorneys and accredited representatives booking for a client, and nonprofit legal programs. Attorneys also book us for the preparation sessions before the interview, which no agency provides an interpreter for.

Who may and may not interpret

The regulation sets the floor: the interpreter must be at least 18 and fluent in English and in a language you speak fluently. It names three people who may not interpret: your attorney or representative of record, a witness testifying for you, and a representative or employee of your country of nationality (or, if you are stateless, of your last country of habitual residence).

A relative or friend who is not on that list is allowed, and it is still often a poor choice. An asylum account usually includes things people find hard to say in front of family or someone from their own community: sexual violence, sexuality, political activity, what was done to other relatives. Applicants hold back or soften details in front of people they know, and an interpreter who knows the applicant may soften them too. In a small language community the interpreter may know the people in the story. Tell us if there is anyone the applicant should not be interpreted by, or a reason to prefer a woman or a man; we will tell you whether we can staff it before you book.

Speakers of Indigenous languages need particular care. Many applicants from Guatemala, for example, speak Mam, K'iche' or Q'anjob'al as their first language and Spanish as a second. The rule allows any language the applicant is fluent in, but an account of persecution given in a second language loses detail. Those languages carry the limited-availability rate and need more lead time, so ask early.

What happens at the interview, and if the interpreter falls short

USCIS says the interview generally lasts at least an hour, and that the interpreter takes an oath to interpret accurately and truthfully alongside the applicant's own oath (USCIS). The officer asks about identity, the reasons for the claim and the bars to asylum, and the whole exchange runs consecutively: question, interpretation, answer, interpretation. Dates, place names, the names of groups and the sequence of events are where interpretation errors turn into apparent inconsistencies in the applicant's story.

USCIS also uses its own contract interpreters, who listen by telephone and monitor the interpreter you brought, and who may interject if your interpreter fails to interpret adequately, accurately and neutrally (USCIS). So a weak interpreter is noticed in the room. If you cannot speak English and do not bring a competent interpreter, USCIS says it will cancel and reschedule the interview and treat that as a delay you caused, which can lead to denial of a pending work permit application. The I-589 instructions add that failing without good cause to bring a competent interpreter may be treated as an unexcused failure to appear.

Preparing with your interpreter

• Prepare with your attorney through an interpreter before the interview, ideally in the same language. That session is where names, dates and places are fixed in both languages, and where the applicant hears their own declaration read back in their language.
• Send the interpreter a short list of names of people, towns, political parties, armed groups and organizations as they should be spelled, under the confidentiality of the booking. The interpreter does not need the full declaration to interpret, and should not coach.
• Agree on the language and variety in advance: Dari or Farsi, Levantine or Sudanese Arabic, Haitian Creole or French. Say which one the applicant is most comfortable telling a long story in.
• The interpreter renders, nothing more. They interpret in the first person, everything said, and do not explain, answer for the applicant or fill gaps. If the applicant does not understand a question, the applicant says so and the officer rephrases.
• Bring documents translated in writing. USCIS asks for a certified English translation of any document not in English (USCIS); the interpreter at the interview is not there to translate your documents.

Booking for an asylum office interview

The interpreter has to be with you at the interview: USCIS describes the interpreter as someone you bring with you (USCIS), so plan for in person. In person is $110 an hour per interpreter with a two-hour minimum, billed from the scheduled start. Waiting time before the interview is hard to predict and the interview itself takes at least an hour, so a half day is the safer booking: four hours is $440, plus travel at $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location, confirmed before you book. In a limited-availability language such as Dari, Pashto or Tigrinya the same morning is $550 to $572.

A preparation session with the attorney can be virtual: two hours by video is $160. Send the interview notice date, time and asylum office address, the language and variety, and whether derivative family members will also be questioned, when you request. Written translations of evidence are a separate service, at $24.95 per page certified.

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.

Languages

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.

Each language has its own page on what to watch for — dialects, names, dates, who the speakers usually are: see interpreters by language.

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 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

What this page says about the rules was checked against these official sources on October 21, 2026. Rules change; the source is always the authority.

• 8 CFR 208.9 — Procedure for interview before an asylum officer, paragraph (g) Interpreters (eCFR, current)
• USCIS — Preparing for Your Affirmative Asylum Interview (updated September 8, 2026)
• USCIS — Obtaining Asylum in the United States (updated July 28, 2026)
• USCIS — Instructions for Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal (edition 07/28/26)
• EOIR Policy Manual, Immigration Court Practice Manual — 3.10 Interpreters (Department of Justice)

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