Translations- Certified or Notarized? What's the difference?

A

atoledo

New Member
My wife is filling out an I-130 for her sister in the Dominican Republic. Since I am fluent in both English and Spanish, I translated the documents and printed out a certification as instructed by the USCIS website. I used their format entitled "Certification by Translator".

My question is: Since I am not a certified translator, can I just take the certification letter I signed to a Notary to have it notarized? Not sure what this proves aside from assuring that it's really me signing the document.
 
You're not allowed to translate any of her documents for immigration applications, because you're a close family member.

In most places in the US it's easy to find people and companies that do certified translations of Spanish to English; look them up in Google or the phone book.

The translation doesn't need to be notarized, it just needs to be done by somebody unrelated to her who is qualified to do the translation. Not all notarized are qualified translators, and not all qualified translators are notaries.
 
Thanks Jack.

I know of several friends who can do the translation. I'll hand them my translation to use as a starting point. My goal is to save some money which is why I don't go to a translation company (there are actually a ton of them here in NY).

When you say "qualified to do the translation" do you mean somebody who is fluent in both languages, or someone who actually has a certification through an organization?
 
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