H-2A and H-2B workers: certified translation requirements by document

A worker on an H-2A or H-2B visa usually needs very few translated documents, because the employer's petition rarely includes the worker's own records. The translations matter later, at the consular interview and in any future filing where the worker's identity, marriage, or children have to be proved.

The employer files the petition on Form I-129, and that filing is about the job, the season, and the employer's need for labor. The worker's civil records belong to a different stage: the consular interview that follows the DS-160, and any later family petition or change of status. Once a record reaches USCIS, it must be accompanied by a full English translation and a signed certification.

H-2A and H-2B visa translation at the consulate

Consular rules for civil documents generally ask for a certified translation when a document is neither in English nor in the official language of the country where the visa is sought. A Mexican worker who applies in Mexico with an acta de nacimiento in Spanish usually falls on the official-language side of that rule. Records from Jamaica are issued in English and normally need no translation at all.

The official-language exception belongs to NVC and consulates only. The same acta de nacimiento needs a certified document translation for USCIS on the day it is filed with USCIS, because everything in a USCIS file must be in English. For that reason many workers who return for several seasons end up translating the same few records eventually, even if the first interviews never asked for it.

The Department of State publishes the Visa Reciprocity and Civil Documents by Country schedule. It lists which civil documents Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador issue, who issues them, and which version is acceptable. Checking it before ordering a translation avoids paying for the wrong version of a record.

Passport and birth certificate translation for seasonal workers

The passport is the document a worker presents first. Machine-readable passports often print the data page in English as well as the national language, but a passport translation for a filing covers every page that carries text, including visa pages, entry and exit stamps, and endorsements. Stamps and signatures are described in brackets, and anything unreadable is marked "[illegible]" instead of guessed.

The birth certificate is the record that every other document gets matched against. A Mexican acta de nacimiento, which lists the CURP, or a certificate from the Guatemalan RENAP, the Honduran RNP, or the Salvadoran RNPN gives the full name, the parents' names, and the date and place of birth. The birth certificate translation follows the layout of the original so that an officer can match each translated line to the source, and it includes margin notes and the back of the page if either carries anything.

Marriage and children's birth certificates in later petitions

A worker who marries or has children while returning for seasons will need those records if a spouse or child is later included in a petition, for example a Form I-130 filed by or for the worker. A marriage certificate translation shows both spouses' names, the date, and the registry that recorded the marriage. Each child's birth certificate is translated separately and carries its own certification.

Spanish names with two surnames cause most of the mismatches in these files. The translation keeps the surnames in the order printed on the original, and the same order has to appear in the passport, the marriage record, and each child's record. The guide to Mexican and Central American civil records describes how the registries differ. The attorney or accredited representative decides which of these records go into a given filing.

Experience letters from foreign employers

Some H-2 job offers ask for prior experience, and a worker may document it with letters from earlier employers abroad. A letter written in Spanish is foreign-language evidence like any other, so it is translated in full, including the letterhead, the stamp, the signature, the telephone numbers, and the dates of employment.

Dates deserve attention in these letters. A date written 05/06/2019 in Mexico means 5 June, and the translation writes the month out so that no reader can take it for May 6. The article on employment letter translation covers pay slips and contracts as well.

Police certificates and court records only on request

A consulate asks for a police certificate or a court record only when the case calls for one, and it says so in the instructions given to the worker. When one is requested and it is in Spanish, the whole document is translated, including the statement that no record was found, the issue date, the issuing office, and any seal or stamp. A partial translation of the relevant lines does not meet the requirement.

Who certifies the translation of a worker's documents

The certification is a signed statement by the translator about the translator's own competence in both languages and the completeness and accuracy of the work. When the worker, a spouse, or another close relative signs it, that person is certifying evidence in their own case, and officers may give it less weight or question it. A translation company provides a certification that is independent of the case.

USCIS does not keep an approved list of translators or companies, so "USCIS-certified translation" only means a translation that carries the certification USCIS asks for. Machine translation alone has no human certification and mishandles names and dates, so it does not meet the requirement. A missing, incomplete, or uncertified translation can lead to a Request for Evidence or a Notice of Intent to Deny, and officers may also deny a filing without an RFE. For Spanish records, certified Spanish to English translation from a translation company meets that standard.

Keeping one set of translations across return seasons

A worker who returns for many seasons benefits from translating each record once and keeping the result together. Every spelling in the first translation becomes the spelling that later filings have to match. A worker's file works best when it holds these items:

• A clear scan of each original record, front and back.
• The English translation of each record, with its own certification attached.
• The passport spelling of the name, which the translation company uses for every later order.
• A note of which filing or interview each translation was used for.

When a record is reissued or a name is corrected, the new version is translated as well, and the old translation stays in the file with a note about which one applies. Bringing the earlier translations to a new order lets the translation company repeat the same spellings.

Before the first interview, a worker can gather the passport, the birth certificate, and any marriage or children's records into one folder and compare each against the Reciprocity Schedule. We prepare each record with its own certification, and a Spanish birth certificate translation is a sensible first document to have on hand.