Professional Qualification Certificate Translation for the USA

State licensing boards, no federal scheme

In the USA the regulation of professions sits largely at state level; the licence required to practise a profession is issued by the relevant board in that state, and the conditions differ from profession to profession and from state to state. A Turkish qualification certificate is put before such a board as foreign evidence that the holder has been certified against a particular standard. The translation lets the board read correctly which profession and which scope the qualification was awarded for; the document is not equated with an American licence or title but carried across with its own identity. Which state the application goes to also affects the form in which the translation will be required.

A certificate is not to be confused with an educational diploma or with an employment certificate issued by an employer; the three prove different things and may sit side by side in one file. The translation preserves that distinction, because the language of the document is the language of a qualification and of its scope. Translating the name of the qualification freely can make the scope of the profession look broader or narrower than it is.

In many regulated professions a licensing board may accept a foreign qualification and still require an examination or a period of supervised experience on top of it, and this is one of the things that sets the American system apart from automatic recognition on the strength of documents. The translation is no substitute for those examinations; it only lets the board read the holder’s existing qualification and its scope correctly. Since which route applies depends entirely on the practice of the state and the profession involved, this is established at the outset.

Credential evaluation by a NACES member

Foreign qualifications and degrees in the USA are usually assessed not by a central authority but by independent credential evaluation organisations that are members of NACES, such as WES or ECE, which examine the document and produce an evaluation report. The translation of the qualification certificate is what allows the document to be understood correctly during that assessment; the evaluation decision, however, belongs to the evaluating organisation and not to the translation. Knowing that distinction from the start keeps anyone from expecting an evaluation to come out of a translation.

Name, date and occupational details are expected to be consistent from one document to the next. A name spelled differently from the passport weakens the impression, before an evaluating organisation or a licensing board, that the file belongs to one and the same person, which is why the spelling of the name is kept identical across every document.

There is no EQF equivalent, so the level is set out

The USA is not part of a shared level scale such as the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), so the EQF or national framework level shown on the Turkish document is not converted into an American level. The level stated in the document, along with any ECTS credits, is conveyed as it stands; rather than manufacturing an American equivalent, the information in the source is preserved, because the comparison is for the evaluating organisation or the licensing board to make. Interpreting the level can distort the true worth of the qualification.

Credential evaluation organisations place a qualification at a level within the American system by their own methods, sometimes document by document and sometimes course by course, and that outcome is produced by the evaluation, not by the translation. The translation’s task is to present the name, scope and level of the qualification consistently and in full so that the organisation can carry out that examination. When one concept is referred to by a single term throughout a text, the evaluator is not left with the impression that two separate qualifications are in play, and that consistency counts for a great deal across a long set of documents.

• Do not equate the qualification with an American licence or title.
• Convey the EQF or national framework level as it stands; do not manufacture an American equivalent.
• Check that the certificate of accuracy has been attached to the translation.

Approval: a signed certificate of accuracy

There is no sworn translator regime in the USA; a translation put before a licensing board or a credential evaluation organisation is usually accompanied by a signed certificate of accuracy, and that declaration is what makes it a certified translation. What counts is the accuracy of the translation and a faithful rendering of the qualification and its level. The USA is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention; where a public document needs an apostille it is obtained from the governor’s office or the district governor’s office, and the current position should be confirmed from the official HCCH list. You can run your file through our single office in Ankara Kızılay, see the cost on our pricing page, and upload your document to request a quote. This page is for general information only; confirm the exact requirements with the relevant professional board in the state you are heading to.