Awfulecho

Hi. Just wondering...regarding translating foreign language documents into
English, to what extent do I have to translate the foreign language in
question? I did the birth certificate, police record, some emails. Should I
translate receipts from Poland that I am submitting as proof of visitation as
well? A few letters from my girl have a word in Polish or two, should I
translate this as well? Basically, how anal should I be about translating to
avoid an RFE?

Thanks!

saidsgirl

I believe it would be the "official documents" that you would need to make sure were translated.

I did not translate any of the receipts from when I was in Morocco. Also, I wrote small bits or Arabic to my sweetie in letters and emails and I did not translate those. So, I think you'd be safe to simply make sure that the "official documents" are translated.

However, if you are just at the beginning stages (turning in the I-129F), I don't think you will need any of those documents right now (from your sweetie)....those are for the Consulate phase of the process.

I wish you all the best....

Peace,
~k

meauxna

Originally posted by Awfulecho
"Basically, how anal should I be about translating to
avoid an RFE?"

Conventional Wisdom around here holds that neither petitioner should do the translations.
That said, some have.

Noorah101

Hi Awfulecho,

The only document I had officially translated for my I-129F submission was my fiance's statement of intent which he handwrote in his native language, since his English wasn't good enough. I submitted a few bits of communication in Farsi with no translations and got no RFE for it.

I paid a hefty sum to get a certified translation, but in retrospect I should have had a competent friend do it with a statement that it is a true translation of the original and that the person translating is fluent in both languages. I am of the opinion that the petitioner should NOT be the one doing the translating, no matter what needs it.

Best Wishes!
Rene

p.s. to Saeidsgirl....I think it's very cool that you read and write Arabic! :-)

saidsgirl

p.s. to Saeidsgirl....I think it's very cool that you read and write Arabic! :-) [/QUOTE]

Hi Rene....

My written Arabic is verrrrrrrrry limited....and all I can really say, and write in english letters, are lovey dovey words and enough to communicate and get by with his family. And it's in Darija, which is a Moroccan "dialect" of Arabic. Confusing, that language *scratching head* (once again, I'm sure that Leslie has some super cool icon for head scratching and looking confused!)

I hope to learn it much better when he is here, and also have him teach me to write it. It will be great to learn to write that language, but one definitely needs an intelligent teacher! He's got his work cut out for him, as he is "scheduled" to teach my children French and teach me Darija! HA!

Where did you learn Farsi? I understand from your posts that you speak (and write?) this language.....it's quite challenging, no?

Peace,
~k

ironporer

I am one of those- I translated all of our official documents for our original K-1 submission...with no RFE.

I did not translate things such as hotel receipts, e-mails, etc which we submitted as proof of relationship, just labeled them as to what they were on the various pages... ie "Hotel Receipt from Zarautz Spain 11-12-01" or "Personal E-mail From fiance"

As I said in a recent post- I always thought it was OK to self translate, as long as you sign it stating that you are competent to do so at the end of the translation.Perhaps I was just lucky...although by the time the K-1 was approved, we had already completed the DCF (with the same self translations, signed by a friend also fluent in Spanish).