EB-1 evidence translation for foreign-language awards and press

Evidence for an EB-1 or EB-2 NIW petition that is written in another language needs a complete English translation with the translator's certification, and the only common exception is a newspaper or publication, where just the relevant article is translated. The attorney or accredited representative decides which items go into the Form I-140 filing, and the translation company then translates each chosen item exactly as it appears.

Petitions in the extraordinary ability, outstanding professor or researcher, and national interest waiver categories depend heavily on documents that the petitioner collected over a career. When that career took place partly abroad, a large share of the file may be in Chinese, Korean, Russian, Spanish or another language, and each piece has to be readable by an officer who works only in English.

Which EB-1 and EB-2 NIW evidence usually needs translation

The documents differ from one petitioner to the next, but the foreign-language items in these files tend to fall into the same groups:

• Award certificates, prize announcements and membership letters arrive from professional associations and organizing bodies.
• Published articles and conference papers come with citation records that show how often other authors cited them.
• Newspaper, magazine and website coverage reports on the petitioner or the petitioner's work.
• Invitations to judge the work of others, such as peer review or committee requests, document that role.
• Employment contracts, offer letters and salary or tax records come from foreign employers.
• Patents and recommendation letters written by colleagues abroad round out many files.

Each item is a separate document with its own layout, so each one gets its own translation and its own certification.

Certification rules for EB-1 evidence translation

USCIS regulations require a full English translation of any foreign-language document, accompanied by the translator's statement that the translation is complete and accurate and that the translator is competent to translate from that language into English. In practice the statement carries the translator's typed name, signature, date and contact information, and it identifies the document it covers. One certification per document is the safer way to file. A certified document translation for USCIS from a translation company meets that description, and it keeps the certification independent of the petitioner's own case.

USCIS keeps no approved list of translators or companies, so "USCIS-certified translation" only means that the translation carries the certification USCIS asks for. Machine translation alone has no human certification and tends to mishandle names, dates and institutional titles, so it does not meet the requirement. USCIS evaluates the evidence itself, not claims about translation quality, and a missing or incomplete certification can lead to a Request for Evidence.

Newspaper and press coverage: only the relevant article is translated

For a newspaper or other publication, the requirement is narrower than for most documents. The translator renders the relevant article in full, from headline and byline through captions and the final line, and does not translate the rest of the page. Pages of unrelated stories, advertisements and classified listings can be left out.

The article still has to be tied to its source. The translation therefore also covers the masthead or publication name, the issue date, the page number and any circulation information printed in the publication. An online article is handled the same way, with the site name, the web address and the publication date as they appear on the page. An officer reading the English text should be able to match it to the copy in the filing without guessing where it came from.

Announcements issued by an organization, such as a press release about an award, are different from news coverage. A press release translation follows the full-document rule, including the organization's name block and any contact lines at the bottom.

Scientific articles, citation records and patents

A long scientific article gives the attorney a choice. Some petitions include the full article, which means a full translation of every section, table caption and reference list entry. Others submit only the first page and the abstract together with the citation record, which shows who cited the article and where. The attorney decides which approach fits the petition, and the translation company works from that decision.

Whatever is submitted is translated completely. If the filing contains the first page and the abstract, then those pages are translated in full, and the certification names the pages it covers. Citation records are tables and lists, so the translator keeps the columns, journal names, years and counts in their original order.

A patent is translated the same way, and the whole document is usually what gets filed. A patent application translation includes the title, the abstract, the claims, the drawings' labels and the registration or filing numbers, since officers use those numbers to check the record.

Awards, recommendation letters and contracts in a foreign language

An award certificate is short, but every element on it counts: the name of the awarding body, the title of the prize, the recipient's name, the date, the signatures and any seal or stamp. The translation describes the seal by its wording and position, and it renders the prize title the way the organization itself names it in English when the award announcement gives one.

A recommendation letter written abroad is translated from the first line to the last. The translation includes the letterhead, the date, the writer's title and institution, any stamp or seal, and the contact details. A signature is described in brackets as "[signature]", and a stamp is described by what it reads and where it sits. Letters are often short, so omitting a line is easy to notice and hard to explain.

Employment contracts and salary records are handled as legal and financial documents. A legal contract translation keeps clause numbering, defined terms, signature blocks and attachments, and the figures stay exactly as written. Amounts remain in the original currency, and the translator does not convert them or add an exchange rate unless the source shows one. Dates are written in the U.S. order in the translation, and the translator notes the source format when it is not obvious, as with Chinese dates that run year first.

Institution names and titles receive the same attention. The English rendering of a university, ministry, journal or association is chosen once and used everywhere, and the original name is shown in parentheses at first mention when no established English name exists. A Chinese diploma translation and a Chinese recommendation letter from the same university, for example, should name that university identically. Petitions with Chinese-language material benefit from Chinese translation services that keep one terminology list across the whole file.

Preparing an EB-1 or EB-2 NIW file for translation

Names of the petitioner and co-authors should match the passport spelling in every translated document, because officers compare them across exhibits. If a source shows a different romanization, the translation reproduces it and the attorney decides whether an explanation is needed. Illegible words are marked "[illegible]" instead of being guessed, and blank sections are marked as blank.

Before ordering, the petitioner should send clear scans of every page of each chosen item, including the backs of pages that carry stamps or notes, along with the attorney's list of exhibits so the translations can follow the same order. Degrees that belong in the file are handled the same way, and we prepare each diploma translation with its own certification.