L-1 visa document translation: the foreign company's documents

An L-1 petition filed on Form I-129 needs an English translation of every foreign-language document that shows the link between the foreign company and the US company, and that shows the employee's year of work abroad. The usual set is the foreign company's registration documents, its ownership records, its financial statements, an organizational chart, and the employee's own employment records. USCIS requires each of these to come with a full English translation and a signed certification from the translator, which is the standard that certified document translation for USCIS follows.

L-1 petitions and the foreign documents they rely on

L-1A covers executives and managers, and L-1B covers employees with specialized knowledge. In both categories the employee must have worked abroad for the qualifying company for one continuous year within the three years before the filing, and the foreign and US entities must have a qualifying relationship such as parent, subsidiary, branch, or affiliate.

Both points are proved with documents. The relationship is shown through ownership and control records, and the year of employment is shown through contracts, payroll, and a description of the role. When the foreign company operates in another language, nearly all of that paper has to be translated. The attorney or accredited representative decides which documents go into the petition, and the translation company works from that list.

Which company documents are translated in full

Registration documents come first. A commercial register extract, a certificate of incorporation, or a business license translation shows that the foreign entity exists, what form it takes, and who represents it. Articles of incorporation and bylaws show the share structure and the powers of the directors. A shareholder register or a share certificate shows who owns what, which is usually the center of the qualifying relationship.

USCIS regulations require the translation to be complete, so a register extract is translated line by line, including stamps, seals, handwritten notations, and any entries on the back. A translator cannot decide that a clause about registered capital or a list of historical amendments is unimportant and leave it out. If a section is blank, the translation says it is blank, and an unreadable stamp is marked "[illegible]".

Foreign companies often record major decisions in writing, and board resolutions and shareholder meeting records are translated the same way. Meeting minutes keep their original order of items, attendee list, and signature blocks, so an officer can match each line with the source.

How a translation company handles foreign company forms

Corporate forms do not have exact equivalents between legal systems, so a translator should not replace them with a guess. A GmbH is not the same thing as a US corporation, and an S.A. or a Ltda. has its own rules about capital and liability. The accepted practice is to keep the original legal form in the translation and add a short bracketed explanation the first time it appears, for example "Müller Maschinenbau GmbH [German limited liability company]".

The same treatment applies to Chinese names ending in 有限公司, which are rendered as the romanized name with "[limited company]" after it, and to Japanese names ending in 株式会社, which are given with "[joint stock company]". The company name itself is not translated into a new English name unless the document gives an official English name. Keeping one spelling for the entity across the whole filing matters, because the petition, the registration extract, and the financial statements all have to point to the same company.

A Japanese register certificate also carries dates in era years rather than calendar years, and the translation converts them to the Gregorian date, with the original era date kept in brackets. A Japanese business license translation follows the same rule for the license date and the date of establishment.

Translating financial statements and accounting terms

Financial statements are often filed to show that the foreign company has been doing business, and that the US entity is financed and owned as described. The translator renders the balance sheet, the income statement, and the notes in full, and does not restate the numbers. Amounts stay in the original currency, and the currency is named where the source gives only a symbol or an abbreviation.

Accounting terms need care because the same English word can describe different line items in different systems. A German statement uses Bilanz for the balance sheet, Gewinn- und Verlustrechnung for the income statement, and Stammkapital for the share capital of a GmbH. The translation gives the standard English term and, where the German term has no clean match, keeps the original in brackets. A German financial statement translation also keeps the decimal and thousands separators as printed, since German figures write them in the reverse of the US order. Where a number could be misread, the translator adds a bracketed note instead of changing the figure. Other German company papers fall under German translation services.

Employment records for the year abroad

The employee's year abroad is documented with an employment contract, a letter from the foreign employer, payroll records, tax statements, and a job description. An employment contract translation includes every clause, the schedules attached to it, and the signature page. Payroll and tax records are translated with their headings and codes, because an officer may compare the dates and the position title with the rest of the petition.

Job titles are rendered consistently. If the foreign contract says one title and the organizational chart says another, the translation keeps both as written, and the petitioner explains the difference in the filing. The translator does not make titles match.

Blanket L petitions and larger document sets

A blanket L petition lists several related companies instead of a single foreign entity. Each listed company can bring its own registration documents, ownership records, and statements, so the number of pages to translate grows with every entity added. Employee records are then added for each person who transfers under the approval.

For a large set, two habits help. The same entity name and the same translated terms should be used in every document, and a glossary of company names, titles, and department names should be agreed before the first page is translated. Each document should also carry its own certification, since a separate certification for each document is the safer practice when the pages are later separated or reviewed one by one.

Preparing the document set for translation

Gather complete copies of each document, including every page and any attachments, and scan them at a resolution where stamps and small print are readable. Check that the register extract is the current one, and send the full statement with its notes rather than only the summary pages. Texliff issues each translation with its own signed certification, so a financial statement translation and the registration papers can be reviewed separately.