N-400 through marriage: certified translation of three years of records

An applicant who files the N-400 after three years as a permanent resident, married to and living with a US citizen, needs a certified English translation of every foreign-language record in the file. On this route that usually means the marriage certificate, divorce decrees from earlier marriages, children's birth certificates, and any joint bank or property records issued abroad.

USCIS regulations require a full English translation of each such document, together with the translator's certification that the translation is complete and accurate and that the translator is competent to translate from that language into English. The Form N-400 page and its instructions list the evidence for each filing basis, and the attorney or accredited representative decides what goes into the packet. Once the documents are chosen, certified document translation for USCIS covers each one separately.

N-400 marriage route: which records need translation

The marriage route asks the officer to look at more than the applicant's own history. The officer reads the marriage, the spouse's citizenship, the marital history of both spouses, and the life the couple shares. Any of those points can rest on a record issued outside the United States.

• The marriage certificate, when the wedding took place outside the United States.
• Divorce decrees or death certificates that ended an earlier marriage of either spouse.
• The spouse's birth record or other civil papers, when the spouse was born abroad and the file relies on them.
• Birth certificates of the children the form asks about.
• Joint bank statements, deeds, or lease agreements from another country.

Documents that are already in English need no translation. A US marriage certificate and a US naturalization certificate for the spouse go into the packet as they are.

Marriage certificate from abroad and the spouse's records

The marriage certificate fixes the date and place of the marriage, and the officer compares both with the Form N-400 and with the earlier I-130 file. The translation therefore has to carry every element of the page: the issuing office, registry and book numbers, both spouses' names and the names of their parents, witnesses, stamps, signatures, and any marginal notes added later.

A couple married in France holds an acte de mariage, and French civil registry offices issue both full copies and shorter extracts of it. The version that was filed with the I-130 and the version brought to the interview should be the same one, which is why a French marriage certificate translation starts by identifying exactly which copy is being translated. Applicants who need other French records in the same packet can use certified French to English translation for the whole set.

The Department of State's Reciprocity Schedule lists which marriage record each country issues and which version is acceptable. Checking it before ordering a translation avoids paying for a version that the file cannot use.

The spouse's own records follow the same rule. If the spouse became a citizen by naturalization, the certificate is in English. If the spouse was born abroad and the file includes the birth record, that record needs its own translation and its own certification.

Divorce decrees for both spouses

The N-400 asks about the marital history of the applicant and of the current spouse. Every earlier marriage that ended in divorce is shown by a decree, and a decree issued by a foreign court is a foreign-language document like any other. The translated divorce decree has to include the court name, the case number, the date the decree became final, the names of both former spouses, and every stamp and handwritten annotation.

The officer reads the end date of each earlier marriage against the date of the current one, so a date that is mistranscribed or converted from another calendar can raise a question that the document itself never raised. Decrees for the applicant and for the spouse are translated separately, because they come from different courts and often in different languages.

Joint foreign bank and property records

Couples sometimes include records of a shared life that were issued abroad. A joint account at a bank in another country is the usual example, along with a property deed or a lease with both names on it. A bank statement translation covers the account holders' names, the column headings, every transaction line, the currency, branch stamps, and any notes in the margin. A summary of the balance is not a translation of the statement.

Whether to submit such records at all is a decision for the attorney or accredited representative. When they are submitted, the names on the statement and the deed should be spelled the same way as on the passports and the green card, so that the officer does not have to wonder whether two spellings belong to one person.

Children's birth certificates

The form lists the applicant's children, and officers may ask for their records. A certified birth certificate translation shows each child's name, date and place of birth, and the names of both parents. When the child's other parent is a former spouse, the birth certificate and the divorce decree should agree on that parent's name, and the two translations should spell it the same way.

Reusing a translation filed with the I-130

Many couples filed the I-130 and the green card application years before the N-400. A translation prepared then can be filed again only if the document in the packet is unchanged. A reissued marriage certificate, a corrected entry, a new certified copy with additional notations, or an extra page makes it a different document, and the older certification no longer describes it. The article on reusing an old certified translation sets out how to check the match.

At the interview the officer sees the foreign-language original beside the English translation and the certification. Each translated line should be easy to match to its source, and the certification should name the document it covers by title, date, and issuing office. Names, dates, and places should read the same way on every page of the file, whether the record dates from the original filing or from last month.

Before the packet is assembled, list every foreign-language record, check that each one is the version the file actually uses, and set aside any that has been reissued since the last filing. Texliff prepares a separate certified translation for each of them, starting with the marriage certificate translation, and the attorney or accredited representative decides what is filed.