I-829 EB-5: certified translation of business records for removal of conditions

Form I-829, the petition an EB-5 investor files to remove the conditions on permanent residence, needs a full English translation with a signed certification for every foreign-language record in the file. That covers bank transfer confirmations, loan and gift papers, corporate filings of a foreign company, and tax records. The translations should also match, name for name and figure for figure, the ones filed with the I-526E.

USCIS regulations require the translator to certify that the translation is complete and accurate and that the translator is competent to translate from that language into English. USCIS does not keep a list of approved translators, so a certified document translation for USCIS means a translation that carries that certification, not one that USCIS has endorsed. The Form I-829 page and its instructions list what the petition must show: that the investment was sustained and that the required jobs were created. The investor's attorney decides which records go in the filing; the translation question starts once that list exists.

I-829 records that need certified translation

The I-829 file usually draws on records from the same sources as the earlier petition, plus newer material that shows what happened to the money and the business afterward. Foreign-language items commonly seen in that file include:

• Wire and bank transfer confirmations issued by a bank in the investor's home country.
• Loan agreements, gift letters, and related payment records that continued from the I-526E stage.
• Registration documents, shareholder records, and financial statements of a foreign company that funded the project.
• Tax returns and tax certificates issued by a foreign tax authority.
• Marriage and birth certificates of family members, where a new copy or a changed record is being filed.

Each record is translated in full. Stamps, seals, signatures, handwritten entries, margin notes, and anything printed on the back of a page are part of the document and appear in the translation, with illegible parts marked "[illegible]" instead of guessed. A summary or an extract of a long statement does not meet the requirement.

Bank transfer confirmations and statements from abroad

A transfer confirmation looks short, but it holds several details that an officer may compare with other records: the sender, the receiving account, the bank, the date, the amount, the currency, and the reference line. Each of those appears in the translation exactly as printed. A bank statement translation follows the same rule for every line of the statement, including opening and closing balances, running totals, and the bank's own notes at the bottom of the page.

The translator does not convert currencies, round amounts, or recalculate balances. If the source shows an amount in a foreign currency, the translation shows that amount in that currency. Any conversion into dollars belongs in a separate schedule prepared by the investor's advisers, so that the translated page still matches the original page line by line.

Loan, gift and contract papers carried over from the I-526E

Many investors document part of their capital through a loan or a gift, and the papers behind it do not stop mattering once the I-526E is approved. Payment records, amendments, and repayment evidence can come back in the I-829 file. A legal contract translation covers the whole instrument: recitals, numbered clauses, signature blocks, schedules, and attachments. A clause that was left out of the earlier translation is still a gap, and a translation filed now has to agree with it on every shared term.

Texliff has written separately about loan agreements and promissory notes as source-of-funds records, and the same handling applies when those records return in the I-829 file. Where a signature appears in the source, the translation notes it, for example as "[signature]", and a stamp is described with the words it carries.

Foreign company filings and tax records in an I-829 file

When a foreign company supplied the funds, its registration certificate, articles, shareholder register, and annual financial statements may be in the file. These documents contain legal terms that differ from one country's system to another, so the translator keeps the original entity name beside its English rendering and uses the same English term each time the same office or filing type appears.

Tax records follow a similar approach. A tax return translation includes the form headings, the field labels, the figures, the filing stamps, and the notes added by the tax office. Field labels are translated even when the field is empty, and an empty field is marked as blank so the officer can see that nothing was left out.

How financial tables are translated

A balance sheet or a transfer ledger is a table, and the officer reads it by comparing columns and rows. The translator reproduces the table with the same number of columns and rows in the same order. Headers and row labels are translated into English. Figures stay exactly as they are printed, including negative amounts, brackets, and any note marks beside them.

Dates inside tables get the same treatment as dates elsewhere. A Chinese statement, for example, writes the year first, then the month, then the day, and the translation puts the date into the U.S. month, day, and year order. If the source uses a different calendar, the translation shows the printed date and the converted one so that the officer can match it to the original. Totals are never corrected in the translation, even when the translator notices an arithmetic slip; the slip is a feature of the source and it is left as printed.

Using the same translation company and spellings as the I-526E

The I-829 officer has the earlier petition in the record. When a bank name, a company name, or the investor's own name is spelled one way in the I-526E translations and another way in the I-829 translations, the officer has to decide whether the difference is a typo or a different person or entity. Keeping the same translation company across both filings lets the same glossary apply: one spelling per name, one English term per legal term, and the same format for dates and amounts.

For a Chinese-language file, the main risk is the romanization of names and places. The investor's passport shows the accepted spelling of the name, and the translation of each record follows it. Texliff's page on Chinese translation services describes how Chinese records are handled in general, and the older EB-5 source of funds translation guide covers the first-stage records in more detail. Giving the translation company the earlier translations before the new work starts lets the translator copy the names and terms already in use.

Derivative family members in the I-829 filing

A spouse and unmarried children who hold conditional residence through the investor are usually included in the same petition. Their civil documents were translated for the first filing, so in many cases nothing new needs translating. A new translation is needed when a record is new or changed: a marriage certificate for a later marriage, a birth certificate for a child born after the first filing, a corrected record, or a name change.

Each family member's record is translated under its own certification, and the spellings match the passport and the earlier filing. Before ordering anything, check the Department of State's Visa Reciprocity and Civil Documents by Country schedule for the version of the civil record that is acceptable, since translating the wrong version costs time.

Before the translation starts, collect the earlier translations, the passport pages, and complete scans of every record, including the reverse sides. Texliff prepares each Chinese financial statement translation as a full table-for-table copy with its own certification.