Marriage license translation (difficult question)

[Idwib]

My wife is about to submit her N-400. Our marriage certificate is from her country and in her language, so we need to submit a translation along with the copy of the original document, along with the translator's certification of competency. I have two questions about this:

1) Can my wife translate her own documents and provide certification? I have seen some people on various forums saying that they did this, and neither the N-400 instructions, nor the "General Tips on Assembling Applications for Mailing" on the USCIS site, nor the "Information about translating Foreign Documents" on the State Department site say that you can't translate your own documents. But several reputable immigration websites say things like "please note that the petitioner or the beneficiary cannot translate the documents." Can anyone clarify this?

2) Is an old photocopy of a translation and translator's certification from a foreign country acceptable? We still have copies of the translation that we submitted when applying for her green card four years ago. The translator's certification doesn't follow the form that USCIS suggests (I [typed name], certify that I am fluent etc. etc….), and doesn't include any address, but otherwise says basically the same thing. Can they make a problem out of this?

There is only one adult person that we know of in our city who speaks my wife's language, and he is wary of getting involved in someone else's immigration/citizenship business, so he won't translate and certify for us. The only translation agency that does her (rare) language is in Washington D.C. at her consulate, which might take weeks (we know about their bureaucratic inefficiency from experience). So any information, experiences or advice anyone can share would be deeply appreciated. I'm especially interested in any experiences of problems that people have had with old or inexactly certified translations, or with translating their own documents.

Thank you.

 

[Jackolantern]

Neither she nor you can translate it. Maybe some people got away with translating their own because the interviewer wasn't paying attention, but that's just their luck.

Or they got away with it because the marriage certificate was considered unimportant for one of the following reasons: (a) they were applying for citizenship with the 5-year rule, so USCIS didn't care much about the marriage certificate or (b) USCIS already had an English translation of their marriage certificate on file, which was there from their green card application or another immigration process.

Did your wife obtain her green card through marriage to you? If her situation would be like (b) above, and thus it's unlikely the interviewer would want to see the certificate. However, it's still a good idea to get the certificate translated just in case she faces a very strict interviewer who wants to see it. The translation doesn't have to sent with the application, it can be brought to the interview, so if it take weeks there's still enough time to get it done.

There are various companies that do certified translations; the translation doesn't have to be done by a government agency. Call around or search the web, you might find a company that can do it within 24 hours.

 

[Idwib]

Thank you, Jackolantern, for answering. Our situation is (b). I am not thinking about the interview yet, but about filing the N-400 and supporting material. The N-400 "Document Checklist" from USCIS says that she must send a copy of her marriage certificate with her N-400 if her naturalization is on the basis of marriage to a US citizen (it is), and the N-400 Instructions say that any foreign document must be translated with a certification statement. Of course, they should still have the certificate copy and translation on file from when she applied for her green card. But instructions still say it has to be submitted with the N-400.

I guess my remaining question is, is there any reason we can't just re-submit a copy of the marriage certificate translation that she used to apply for her green card? It is four years old, and the translator's certifying statement includes no address and is worded differently than what the USCIS suggests on their "Tips for Translating Foreign Documents" page, but it worked for the green card. Is the naturalization process more picky/strict about this kind of thing than the GC process?

 

[Jackolantern]

Thank you, Jackolantern, for answering. Our situation is (b). I am not thinking about the interview yet, but about filing the N-400 and supporting material. The N-400 "Document Checklist" from USCIS says that she must send a copy of her marriage certificate with her N-400 if her naturalization is on the basis of marriage to a US citizen (it is), and the N-400 Instructions say that any foreign document must be translated with a certification statement. Of course, they should still have the certificate copy and translation on file from when she applied for her green card. But instructions still say it has to be submitted with the N-400.

That checklist isn't an ironclad rule. Almost any document not sent with the application can be brought to the interview (with the possible exception the photographs and a copy of the green card), and documents already on file usually don't need to be sent or brought to the interview at all.

Note that some people applying for citizenship based on marriage obtained their green card through another route, so in their cases USCIS may not have seen their marriage certificate before.

I guess my remaining question is, is there any reason we can't just re-submit a copy of the marriage certificate translation that she used to apply for her green card? It is four years old, and the translator's certifying statement includes no address and is worded differently than what the USCIS suggests on their "Tips for Translating Foreign Documents" page, but it worked for the green card. Is the naturalization process more picky/strict about this kind of thing than the GC process?

Yes, the naturalization process is more strict. It's much more difficult to revoke citizenship than it is to revoke a green card, so they will apply extra scrutiny to ensure they don't approve citizenship by mistake, and sometimes that scrutiny involves reviewing your green card process to see if it was granted by mistake. Since that translation apparently doesn't satisfy current standards, they might ask for a new one which meets the standards.

You can go ahead and send the old translation, but it's still a good idea to bring a new one to the interview in case the old one doesn't satisfy them.