New Jersey Immigration Lawyer Discusses Document Translation for U.S. Embassy
As an experienced New Jersey Immigration Lawyer, clients often ask me about if a person interviews at the US Embassy should they have their documents translated. Very often, when we are close to the end of someone’s green card processing, especially if people have to depart the country or if people have relatives abroad that are attending their interview at the US Embassy, this particular question arises. There are a lot of documents: birth certificates, marriage certificates, divorce judgments, sometimes school records, and sometimes police clearances, in another language. They want to know, “Is it absolutely necessary that we translate everything into English?”
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It is necessary, even though there are people at the Embassy that do speak the language, but it is a government requirement that when you’re processing for a green card that all the documents have to be translated into English.
Along the way, we deal with the National Visa Center prior to dealing with the Embassy after the approval with immigration. The National Visa Center asks for the original documents. That would be documents like a birth certificate, marriage certificate, divorce judgment, etc., and the certified translations. All of that has to be accomplished when we’re dealing with the National Visa Center. They also send a form called the DS-260. It’s an electronic form, and it gives a list of all the documents that the person going for the interview needs prior to the interview.
The National Visa Center is like an intermediary agency between USCIS at this end and the embassy abroad. They make sure that someone has all the documents before the appointment is scheduled. Finally, someone attends their appointment, and they bring all the originals with them again, just for inspection purposes. Even though sometimes it can be time consuming and expensive, you are required to have certified English translations for all the documents.
Are you unsure if you need your documents translated for an interview at the embassy? Contact our professional New Jersey Attorney for advice.
This educational blog was brought to you by Susan Scheer, an experienced New Jersey Immigration Attorney.