Document Translation for the United States

The commonest misconception among people preparing documents for the United States is that a Turkish habit will travel with them: “I will get it notarised, that will do.” Notarisation is not what the American side is looking for. What it looks for is a signed statement attached to the translation declaring that the translation is complete and accurate. Notarisation does not stand in for that statement; it may or may not be there, but as long as the statement is present the file moves.

The full-text expectation is strict

American authorities expect a translation to account for the whole of the source document. That means not just the main text, but the headings, the wording of seals and stamps, serial numbers, handwritten notes and the annotations on the reverse. Every field skipped on the grounds that “this part does not matter” leaves the file incomplete.

In practice the parts most often left out are these: the explanatory lines on civil registry extracts, the certification annotations on the back of diplomas, the marking-scale table on academic transcripts and the QR code captions printed on documents. Leaving those fields blank raises a question mark over the accuracy of the translation as a whole.

A further expectation is that the translation should keep the layout of the source document. Turn a tabular academic transcript into running text and it becomes impossible to read which mark belongs to which course. The person carrying out the assessment has to be able to compare; preserving the original layout is therefore not a matter of presentation but a functional necessity.

Diploma recognition is a world of its own

In the United States the assessment that establishes what your diploma is worth is a process entirely separate from any immigration application, and it is carried out by private evaluation agencies. Most of those agencies want the documents not from you directly but from the university you graduated from, in a sealed envelope or through an official electronic channel. Sending the certified translation you already hold is not always enough.

The type of assessment changes the outcome too. A report showing only the level of the degree and a detailed report giving the equivalent of every single course serve different purposes. Postgraduate applications and certain professional registrations call for the detailed one. Ordering the wrong type doubles both the fee and the time.

The level of detail expected in family files

In family and marriage applications the American authorities want to see the reality of the relationship in documents. That expectation goes well beyond the marriage certificate: shared address records, jointly opened accounts, insurance policies and correspondence may all go into the file. Everything drawn up in Turkish has to be translated, because a selective submission cannot show that the relationship has been continuous.

For civil status documents, full-format extracts are expected. A birth certificate has to carry the mother’s and father’s details, the place of birth and the registration particulars. The short printouts so widely used in Türkiye do not carry that information, which is why they are found wanting in American files and the document is asked for again.

Where a divorce is involved, the court judgment is required in full; translating the operative provisions alone counts as a deficiency. The annotation confirming that the judgment is final forms part of the document and must appear in the translation. In applications that turn on a remarriage, this is the single most critical detail in the process.

Do not underestimate the differences between states

Immigration matters run at federal level, but professional practice, driving licences, marriage records and the registration of educational institutions are regulated state by state. The consequence is that the same document may be accepted in one state and made subject to an additional condition in another. If you know which state you are moving to, the list of documents needs to be verified with the relevant body in that state.

State boards in the health professions and in law are particularly exacting. Files of that kind call for curricula, internship records and clinical practice hours; the volume climbs far above the diploma itself. To see the budget in advance, have a look at our rates page.

The mistakes that send a file back

• A summarised or selective translation; the full text is what is expected.
• No statement attached at all, or reliance on notarisation alone.
• The wording of seals and stamps left untranslated.
• The academic transcript sent by hand instead of through the official channel.
• A spelling of the name that does not match the passport; in American record systems that discrepancy creates a problem which is hard to put right later.

Timing

The longest item in American processes is usually the evaluation report together with the processing times of the institutions involved, and neither can be hurried from outside. The part under your control is having the documents prepared correctly and completely from the start. Set the request for official documents from your university in motion as the first step, and run the translation alongside it. To settle the scope together, you can send us your documents.

This page is intended as guidance; the certification regimes of individual countries and the document formats they require may be updated over time. We recommend confirming the current position with the authority that will handle your matter.