A small Gabonese language, arranged honestly: Bandjabi interpreting mostly by phone or video, and certified translation of the French paperwork behind it.
Prism Linguistics provides Bandjabi interpreters, usually by phone or video, for USCIS interviews, court hearings and medical appointments anywhere in the United States, and certified English translation of the French-language civil records that Bandjabi speakers from Gabon and the Republic of Congo file with USCIS.
Last reviewed September 2, 2026 by Sarah J, Prism Linguistics
Bandjabi, which appears in linguistic references as Njebi or Nzebi, is spoken by the Nzebi people of southern Gabon and the neighbouring part of the Republic of Congo. Its whole native-speaker population is around 140,000 on the figures gathered between 2000 and 2007, which makes it one of the smallest languages we are asked for, and one of the few where we tell callers at the first conversation that the assignment will probably not be in person. Our office is in New York. Bandjabi interpreters are wherever we can find them, and a phone line or a video link is how they reach a courtroom in Houston or a clinic in Minneapolis.
Nearly every Bandjabi speaker who reaches the United States also speaks French, the language of school and government in Gabon, and most bookings for a Gabonese client are correctly made in French. The exceptions decide whether Bandjabi is worth arranging at all. An elderly parent brought over on a family petition, a witness who has to explain a land dispute or a family matter in the words it happened in, or a patient describing pain in the language she uses at home: for those, a French interpreter leaves gaps and a Bandjabi one closes them. We ask which situation you have before we go looking, because the search takes longer than for French.
Several dialects, one small pool. Bandjabi is spoken in a handful of closely related dialects, and with so few interpreters in the country we cannot promise a village match. What we can do is tell you the interpreter's own background before the session so you know what you are getting.
This is the form almost every Bandjabi assignment takes. In-person Bandjabi interpreters are very scarce in the United States, and rather than promise one and fail, we set up a phone or video session that a courtroom, a USCIS field office or a hospital consultation room can join from wherever it is. Video is better than phone for anything longer than a few minutes; the interpreter can see when a speaker has stopped understanding, and an older person finds a face easier to trust than a voice.
At a naturalization or adjustment-of-status interview the applicant may bring an interpreter, and a Gabonese or Congolese family will usually bring a French speaker. Where the applicant's French is thin, the officer's questions come back half understood and the answers sound uncertain in a way that has nothing to do with the case. A Bandjabi interpreter on a phone or video line renders each answer exactly as given, without softening or adding, and lets the applicant speak in the language they actually think in. We do not send a relative to do that job, and we advise families against it.
No state runs a court interpreter certification exam in Bandjabi, and it is hard to imagine one ever will. A court that needs the language uses a qualified Bandjabi interpreter and notes the basis of qualification on the record, and we give the judge or the clerk whatever they need for that note. Bandjabi is exactly the kind of language courts come to us for after other providers have said no. We are a private agency, not a court-appointed vendor, and we say so. Hospitals are a separate obligation: any provider that takes federal funding must give a Bandjabi-speaking patient an interpreter at no cost, and video reaches the ward where a person cannot.
In practice a certified Bandjabi translation is a certified French translation, because neither Gabon nor the Republic of Congo issues a civil record in Bandjabi. The birth record is an acte de naissance kept at the mairie of the commune, or of the arrondissement for a Libreville birth, and supplied as a copie or an extrait; marriage records come from the same office, and school and university certificates complete the usual set. A copy prepared for use abroad carries a legalisation stamp from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Libreville, and USCIS expects that stamp translated along with every other mark on the page, not a summary of the main entries.
The Bandjabi itself, where there is any, is a letter or a statement a family member wrote by hand, and we translate it alongside the French so the file reads as one. Names are spelled to match the passport with the original variant noted, and every translation carries a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy. The document service is described 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 Bandjabi interpreters work nationwide. For in-person work we assign someone based in or near the city. These are the areas where Bandjabi 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 a Bandjabi assignment ever falls short, tell us and we put it right.