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Certified Translation for NVC and Consular Processing

The National Visa Center has its own rules, and two of them surprise people: a document already in the official language of the country you are applying from may not need translating at all, and the translation has to be uploaded in the same file as the original, native language first. eVerbary delivers documents ready to combine that way.

Two rules that are not the USCIS rules

Consular processing runs through the Department of State rather than USCIS, and its document requirements differ in ways that cost people time:

• Documents must be translated if they are not in English or in the official language of the country in which you are applying. Applying at a post in the country that issued your documents can mean some of them need no translation at all.
• A certified translation must include a statement signed by the translator that the translator is competent to translate the document.
• When uploading, the foreign-language document and its translation go in a single file, with the native-language document first and the English translation after it. Two separate uploads is a common reason a civil document gets rejected in review.

Check the post as well as the NVC

Above the NVC's general rules sit the reciprocity schedule for the issuing country and the instructions of the specific embassy or consulate, which can be stricter and can name the exact document version they expect. Read your post's page before ordering, and if it asks for a particular form of a civil document, get that one — no translation can turn the wrong document into the right one.

The requirements described here were read from the Department of State's own guidance in September 2026 and are revised from time to time.

The civil documents this usually means

Birth certificates for the applicant and every derivative, marriage certificates and divorce decrees ending prior marriages, death certificates for deceased spouses, police certificates from every qualifying country of residence, military records, and court or prison records where there is a criminal history.

Country-specific formats matter here more than anywhere: many registries issue a short and a long form, and the reciprocity schedule usually specifies which one is acceptable. Our country pages describe the formats we see every day.

Delivered ready to upload

We return a clean PDF with a signed certification of competence and accuracy, sized to combine with your scan of the original. If you would rather we deliver the translation already positioned behind the original in one file, say so with the order and we will.

How it works

Upload a photo or a scan of your document, pick the language pair and check out online. You never have to mail originals: a legible copy is all we need.

A professional human translator, never machine translation, translates the document word for word and mirrors the layout of the original. Every certified translation ships with a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy that meets the requirements of USCIS, courts and universities.

Your translation is delivered digitally, usually within 24 hours for documents of one to three pages, and same-day delivery is available. If anything needs adjusting, we revise it.

Certified vs. standard translation

A certified translation is a word-for-word translation accompanied by a signed statement attesting to its accuracy and completeness. It is what official bodies require: USCIS, courts, universities and government agencies. Certified translations are $24.95 per page, where a page is up to 250 words.

A standard translation is for business or personal use where certification is not needed, such as CVs, client intake forms or marketing material, and is billed at $0.10 per word.

Frequently asked questions

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