If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments and I will try to answer them.
Services for certified translation
There are many great services that can prepare a certified translation for you or your family member who is submitting the files to USCIS. The translation service will be able to translate the document into English, sign the document, print it on corporate letter head and also, usually, notarize it. The notary stamp is required for most legal purposes.
Cost of a certified translation
Most services will charge a small fee per document for this legal and important service of certified translation. The fee can range anywhere from $20-40 per document, or more. The cost may depend on the quality of the document since a poor quality document will be difficult and more time consuming to translate properly. Also a translation service might charge for additional copies of the translation, if you need more than one copy. For an entire family to get all of their documents certified, the cost could be as much as $200 or more.
Speed of certified translation
Most legal translators will be able to process your documents within a day or two at most. If it is a complex document, it could take more than 2 days. For instance, if it is a very long document, or it is extremely technical. If you are applying for an H1-B visa, you may need to submit your academic transcript, and these can often take longer than 2 days to translate due to the content.
K-1 and K-3 visas
K-1 and K-3 visas are the easiest visas to get in order to work legally, but they will also come under the most scrutiny, as they can be easily abused. You are required to marry within 90 days of the K-1 visa being issued.
K-1 visas and K-3 visas may require documentation of the relationship to be included, and if the documentation is not in English, the translation should be included. Any document sent to USCIS must have the certified translations attached if it is not in English.
Other than the documentation, the K-1 and K-3 visas require that the birth certificate of each person is included, so if either of these are not in English, be sure to order a certified translation of this. Also, if either person has been married before, the marriage certificate as well as the divorce or death certificate of the ex-spouse must be attached. These must all be processed as separate documents.
This has been an introductory post about certified translations. Please comment below if you have questions I can answer in post #2.
