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Interpreters for Consular Visa Interviews

A visa interview happens at a US embassy or consulate abroad, before a consular officer, and the interpreter rules are set by each post. Most of the time the officer interviews in English or the local language; if the applicant speaks neither, the applicant brings an interpreter, in person, under that post's conditions. This page says what the embassies say, why that is usually not a job for us, and what US families and attorneys do book us for.

At a visa interview abroad, the embassy sets the interpreter rules — and you bring one

If you are asking whether the embassy will give you an interpreter for a visa interview: generally not, but you may not need one. Officers interview in English and in the local language — in Santo Domingo, consuls are proficient in Spanish and English; in Ankara, the consular section works in English, Turkish, Farsi and Arabic (Embassy Ankara). If you speak none of those, you bring the interpreter. Santo Domingo says it will not provide interpreters and that the applicant must obtain one before the interview; if the interpreter cannot interpret adequately, the applicant is sent back to return with another.

The conditions differ by post. The consulates in Canada let an applicant bring one interpreter if consulate staff cannot interview them in their own language, and decide on the day whether one is needed. Embassy Warsaw and Consulate Krakow require the interpreter's name to be sent at least seven business days ahead, with no substitutions. Ankara requires a sworn translator certified by a Turkish notary, registered 48 hours ahead, and does not let petitioners or non-applying family members translate (Embassy Ankara). For immigrant visas, Santo Domingo asks for a third party who is neither your petitioner nor a family member; for nonimmigrant visas, family members may interpret (Embassy Santo Domingo). Check the page of the post where you will interview.

Every one of those pages describes the interpreter attending in person with the applicant, through the embassy's security; none describes an interpreter joining by telephone or video. So the person at the window has to be in that city and meet that post's rules, sometimes including a local credential. We are not usually the right answer for that, and we will say so: tell us the post and we confirm whether we can staff it before you book. Who books us instead: US petitioners and immigration attorneys, for preparation with the applicant abroad by video, and for the conversations around the case that happen before and after the interview.

What the interpreter at the window may and may not do

Santo Domingo's guidance describes the role in a way that holds everywhere: the consul asks in Spanish or English, the interpreter renders the question into the applicant's language, the applicant answers, and the interpreter renders the answer. The interpreter must not answer the consul's questions on the applicant's behalf. Note that the interpreter there may work into Spanish rather than English; what matters is the language the consul uses.

That is why the petitioner is a poor choice even where the post allows family. In a marriage or family case the officer is deciding on a relationship the petitioner is part of, and an answer that reaches the officer through the petitioner's voice is weaker for it. The same goes for anyone who wants the interview to go a particular way: the interpreter has to render "I don't remember" as exactly that.

Preparing an applicant abroad, by video from the US

What the US side can do is prepare. A petitioner who does not share a language with a parent, or an attorney who does not speak the beneficiary's language, needs an interpreter on the call to go through the case before the interview: the facts in the petition, the answers on the application the applicant will be asked to confirm, the dates of the relationship, where the family has lived, prior visits and refusals. The interpreter works consecutively on a three-way video call, and the attorney does the advising.

• Prepare in the language of the interview. If the consul will interview in Spanish and the applicant speaks Spanish well, prepare in Spanish. If the applicant will need an interpreter at the window, practice answering through one, in short pieces, waiting for the whole question.
• Go through the application in the applicant's language. An applicant who confirms answers they have never heard in their own language is where inconsistencies start.
• Settle names and dates as they appear in the civil documents, in both scripts if the language uses another alphabet.
• Plan the interpreter at the window early if one is needed: someone local, outside the family if the post requires it, registered by that post's deadline.
• Book around both time zones. Tell us the applicant's city and the US participants' time zones when you request.

Booking a preparation session

Preparation is remote: $80 for the first hour per interpreter, by Zoom, Meet, Teams or phone, with no travel. A two-hour session with the petitioner, the attorney and the applicant is $160, whatever the number of people on the call, as long as they share the languages. Limited-availability languages — Pashto, Tigrinya, Amharic, Wolof and many others — add 25–30%, so the same two hours is $200 to $208. We reply the same business day, and no payment is taken at request.

Civil documents are a separate service. Santo Domingo, for example, requires a certified English translation of civil documents not in English or Spanish (Embassy Santo Domingo); see certified translation for NVC and consular cases, 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 28, 2026. Rules change; the source is always the authority.

• U.S. Embassy Santo Domingo — Interpreter Guidance for Visa Applicants
• U.S. Embassy Santo Domingo — Preparing for your Immigrant Visa interview: Documents and language guideline
• U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Canada — Visa Process Requirements: interpreter
• U.S. Embassy in Poland — Special Information for Applicants Who Are Not Citizens of Poland: interpreters
• U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Türkiye — Interview Guidelines: interpreters/translators

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