A complete English translation of your foreign birth certificate, with the translator's certification of accuracy and competence that 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3) asks for. Delivered as a PDF by the next working day.
A birth certificate translation for USCIS has to be complete: every field, stamp, seal and margin note in English, plus a signed certification that the translation is accurate and that the translator is competent in both languages. VisaDocTranslation prepares exactly that for $20.39 per page, delivered as a PDF by the next working day, or within 8 hours at $40.08 per page.
The birth certificate is usually the first document in a US immigration file and the one every later form leans on, so it pays to get the names and dates right once. If your case also involves a marriage certificate or a passport or national ID card, upload them together on one quote.
United States
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Yes, if any part of it is in a language other than English. Under 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3), USCIS requires a full English translation with the translator's signed certification that it is complete and accurate and that they are competent to translate from that language into English.
The rule covers the whole document, not just the parts that look important. USCIS policy says plainly that summary or extract translations don't qualify, so the registrar's stamp, the seal, the reference number in the corner and the handwritten note in the margin all come across in English.
What USCIS doesn't ask for is just as useful to know: no notary, no sworn translator and no apostille on the translation. The certification is a short signed statement, and ours carries the translator's printed name, the date and contact details, which recent USCIS form instructions spell out. Refreshingly low on ceremony, as government requirements go.
Most family-based and adjustment filings. A foreign birth certificate is standard evidence for Form I-130 (to prove a parent, child or sibling relationship), Form I-485 (adjustment of status), Form N-600 (certificate of citizenship) and immigrant visa and K-1 fiancé(e) visa cases.
The birth certificate often does double duty. On an I-130 it proves the family relationship, so the parents' names matter as much as yours: a petition between siblings, for example, usually needs both siblings' birth certificates showing at least one common parent. On an I-485 it establishes identity and date of birth.
One certified translation covers all of these, as long as the original hasn't changed. Keep the PDF somewhere safe: a US immigration case can run for years, and the same birth certificate tends to reappear at every stage like a recurring character.
Generally the full or long-form record from the civil registry, showing the parents' names. USCIS officers use the State Department's reciprocity and civil documents schedule to check which birth record each country issues and whether it is considered available.
Birth records come in very different shapes around the world: a civil registry certificate, a full copy of the register entry, a notarial birth certificate, or a page from a household or family register. The State Department's "Reciprocity and Civil Documents by Country" pages on travel.state.gov list, country by country, which version to request, which office issues it and which records are unavailable. Short-form extracts that leave out the parents are the classic problem, because they can't prove a relationship on an I-130.
If the schedule says a record is unavailable, or your birth was registered late, USCIS can consider secondary evidence such as school or religious records. We translate whichever version you have. A translation is faithful by design, so a short extract stays a short extract in English, however hopefully it's formatted.
We still translate all of it. Handwritten entries, faded stamps and margin annotations, such as a later acknowledgment of paternity or a name change, are translated in full, and anything genuinely illegible is marked as illegible rather than guessed.
Older certificates were often handwritten in a register, copied out later and stamped again for the copy. Each layer is part of the document, and margin notes can matter a great deal to USCIS: a legitimation, an adoption or a corrected surname changes what the certificate proves. Our guide to handwritten and old documents explains how we deal with the hard-to-read parts.
Names are where cases quietly go wrong. We ask how your name is spelled in your passport and use that spelling, so your I-130, your I-485 and your passport don't introduce three slightly different versions of you. If your records already disagree with each other, read our note on names spelled differently across documents before you file.
$20.39 per page with delivery by the next working day, or $40.08 per page for rush delivery within 8 hours. Most birth certificates are a single page, and the signed certification is included.
The price covers the translation, the certification and a quality check against your original. There's no separate certification fee, which is unusual in an industry that loves a line item. Notarization isn't needed for USCIS; if a school district, university or other US institution insists on it, add it at checkout for $26.45 per document (US use only, standard delivery only).
Every document includes 2 free revisions, so if you'd rather a spelling matched another record, tell us and we'll reissue the PDF. Upload a phone photo or scan on the quote form and you'll see the total before paying. The wider rules are on our USCIS certified translation page.
Yes. USCIS requires a certified translation, not a notarized one. The translator's signed certification of accuracy and competence is what 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3) asks for. Add notarization only if another US institution specifically requests it.
USCIS doesn't generally ask for an apostille on foreign civil documents. If your certificate already carries one, it's part of the document and we translate it along with everything else. Other US authorities, such as state courts, can have their own rules, so check with them.
USCIS generally accepts a copy of the foreign document together with the certified translation, unless the form instructions or an officer ask for the original. Check the instructions for your specific form.
If every word also appears in English, you may not. If any field, stamp, seal or note appears only in another language, that part needs a certified translation, and the simplest route is to translate the document as a whole.
We follow the spelling in your passport, so the translation matches your other immigration documents. Tell us the passport spelling when you order, or we'll ask before we start.
Yes. A certified translation stays valid for as long as the original document hasn't changed, so you can submit the same PDF at each stage of your case.
The State Department's reciprocity schedule notes where birth records are unavailable, and USCIS can then consider secondary evidence such as school, religious or census records. We translate those documents with the same certification.
Every document includes 2 free revisions. Send us the wording of the Request for Evidence by WhatsApp or email and we'll correct the translation and send you a new certified PDF.
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