Certified translation into American English, transcription of English audio and editing of English written by non-native speakers. There is no American English interpreter to book, and this page says so.
Prism Linguistics provides certified translation into American English from any of our 300+ languages for USCIS, court, university and employer filings anywhere in the United States, together with American English transcription of hearings, depositions and dictation and American English editing of affidavits, statements and papers written by people whose first language is not English. We do not offer American English interpreting, because interpreting runs between two languages and English is the one people are interpreted into.
Last reviewed September 2, 2026 by Sarah J, Prism Linguistics
American English is the target of every translation we certify, which makes this page different from the others on the site. Nobody arrives with a document written in American English and asks for it in another language; they arrive with a Brazilian birth certificate, a Nigerian diploma or a UK-made translation and need it in the English a USCIS officer, a court clerk or a registrar in this country expects to read. Our office is in New York and our translators and editors work remotely, so the job is the same from any city.
There is no American English interpreter, and we will not invent one. A person who needs an interpreter gets one in their own language, and American English is simply the other side of that conversation. What people are usually looking for when they search the phrase is one of three written services: a transcript of English audio, a translation into American English that will hold up before USCIS, or a clean edit of something they wrote in English themselves. Those three are below.
Depositions, hearing recordings, body-camera audio and physician dictation come to us for a clean, timestamped American English transcript. Where a stretch of the recording is in another language, the transcript marks it and a certified translation of that passage sits alongside, so an attorney can hand the court one document rather than two. We flag inaudible words rather than guess at them.
An asylum declaration drafted by someone thinking in Tigrinya or Punjabi, a personal statement for a graduate program, a research paper, a business letter: all of these arrive in English that is understandable and not quite idiomatic. Editing into American English means fixing the grammar and the idiom without shifting the meaning, and in an asylum declaration that restraint is the whole job, because an officer will compare the written account with the spoken one. We also rewrite dense notices into plain American English before they go out for translation, since a clear source is the cheapest route to a clear translation.
The recurring problem is the translation done abroad by a UK-trained translator. It reads well, and it writes colour and licence and 12/09 for 12 September, which a USCIS adjudicator or a university registrar reads as December 9. We re-edit such translations into American English, check them line by line against the original document, and issue a fresh signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy in our own name. It is quicker than retranslating and it removes the one thing most likely to draw a Request for Evidence over a date.
USCIS regulations at 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3) require a full English translation of any foreign-language document, with the translator's certification that the translation is complete and accurate and that they are competent to translate. Notarization is not required and USCIS keeps no list of approved translators, so the certification and the quality of the English carry the weight. Full means full. Every stamp, seal, margin note and handwritten entry on the original is rendered, dates are given month first, spelling is American, and the legal vocabulary is the vocabulary a US clerk uses: a marriage certificate, not a marriage act; a police clearance, not a certificate of good conduct. Names are spelled to match the passport, and where the original spells them differently we say so in a translator's note. Each translation is delivered with a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy. The full document service is at certified translation.
Tell us the date, the city and the setting, or send a clear scan of the document. We reply with a fixed price and, for interpreting, a named linguist. Call +1 (833) 282 8883, email info@prismlinguistics.com, or use the quote form and you will hear back within 60 minutes during business hours.
Our only office is in New York, and our American English interpreters work nationwide. For in-person work we assign someone based in or near the city. These are the areas where American English work is concentrated; the full list of 288 cities is below it.
Prism Linguistics is rated 4.6 out of 5 across 67 client reviews for its interpreting and translation work in the United States. That is the company-wide figure; we do not publish a separate rating per language because there is no honest way to measure one. If an American English assignment ever falls short, tell us and we put it right.