Word-for-word, USCIS-compliant translations with a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy, in 326 languages.
A birth certificate translation is a complete, word-for-word English translation of your certificate, delivered with a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy. Prism Linguistics prepares USCIS-compliant birth certificate translations in 326 languages, usually ready in 24 to 48 hours, from around $24.95 per page. A clear photo or scan is all we need.
Last reviewed August 24, 2026 by the Prism Linguistics editorial team
The birth certificate is the document Americans have translated more than any other, and most of the ones we handle are headed into a green card or citizenship filing. The stakes are real: USCIS issues Requests for Evidence over missing or faulty certification statements every day, and a bounced translation can set a case back by months. This page explains who asks for the translation, what a compliant one contains, and how to order yours.
Birth certificates sit inside our wider certified translation service. Send a photo through the quote form or call +1 (833) 282 8883; you will have a fixed price within 60 minutes during business hours.
USCIS, more than anyone else. A birth certificate proves identity and parent-child relationships, so it appears as a supporting document in the I-130 family petition, the I-485 green card application, and the N-400 naturalization application, as well as asylum and consular cases. If yours is not in English, USCIS requires a certified English translation filed alongside a copy of the original.
| Receiving office | Typical purpose |
|---|---|
| USCIS | I-130, I-485, and N-400 supporting documents; proof of identity and family relationship |
| Social Security Administration | Social Security cards, name records, and benefits claims |
| DMV | REAL ID and license applications where the birth certificate is the identity document |
| Schools and districts | K-12 enrollment, proof of age and guardianship |
| Department of State and foreign consulates | US passport applications and dual citizenship claims |
A birth certificate rarely travels alone. In a family-based filing it usually sits next to a marriage certificate translation and a passport translation; our immigration document translation page covers the whole bundle, and one order can include every document in it.
A USCIS-compliant birth certificate translation contains two things: a complete, word-for-word English translation of the certificate, and a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy in which the translator certifies that they are competent to translate and that the translation is complete and accurate, with a name, signature, and date.
Complete means complete. Every stamp, seal, registrar's note, and handwritten annotation is translated; nothing is summarized or skipped, and anything unreadable is marked as illegible rather than guessed at. The certification statement is the piece most do-it-yourself translations are missing, and it is the usual trigger for a Request for Evidence. Every translation we deliver includes that certificate on company letterhead, checked by a second linguist before it is signed.
We format the translation to mirror the layout of your certificate, so the officer can compare the two side by side without hunting for fields. Seals and stamps are noted in brackets where they appear, for example [round seal: Civil Registry Office]. Names are copied letter for letter; where the original is in Arabic, Cyrillic, or another non-Latin script, we transliterate to match the spelling in your passport, because a name mismatch is the most common reason a certificate gets questioned.
Many countries issue two versions: a long-form certificate that names the parents, and a short-form or extract version that often does not. For USCIS family petitions the long form is generally the one to file, since the parent-child relationship is usually the point. We translate whichever version you hold, and if you are not sure which one that is, send it over and we will tell you before you spend anything.
Spanish is the language we translate birth certificates from more than any other, from Mexican actas de nacimiento to certificates issued in Guatemala, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic; our certified Spanish translation page covers that work in depth. Every certificate is handled by a native-speaker translator and reviewed by a second linguist, whether the client is in New York, Houston, or Los Angeles.
The same certified format applies across all 326 languages we cover, including these frequent requests:
Four steps, most of them ours. Your part takes about five minutes, and you never mail the original.
Upload a clear photo or scan of your birth certificate through our quote form, or email it to info@prismlinguistics.com. A phone photo is fine if every word, seal, and stamp is legible. Tell us the language and your deadline.
We reply within 60 minutes during business hours with a fixed price and turnaround. Nothing starts until you approve, so there are no surprises later.
A professionally qualified translator produces a complete, word-for-word translation that mirrors the layout of your certificate, a second linguist checks it, and we attach the signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy.
You get a signed PDF by email, usually within 24 to 48 hours. If the receiving office wants paper, we mail a wet-ink hard copy by USPS or FedEx anywhere in the US.
As a guide, certified birth certificate translation in the US market starts at around $24.95 per page, and since most certificates fit on one page, most people pay a single fixed fee agreed before work begins. Rare language pairs and handwritten or damaged certificates can cost more; your quote confirms the exact price, and the quote is free. Broader context, including per-word rates for longer documents, is on our pricing page.
Turnaround for a one-page certificate is typically 24 to 48 hours from quote approval. Against a genuinely tight deadline, same day translation is sometimes possible for a short certificate, subject to translator capacity, so call rather than email and we will confirm before you commit.
A few receiving offices, some state agencies and foreign consulates among them, want a notary's seal on top of the certification. We do not provide or arrange notary or apostille services, but we prepare the certified translation in exactly the form a notary public needs. Our notarized translation page explains the sequence. Worth knowing: USCIS itself asks only for a certified translation, so a notary is usually money spent for nothing.
The questions we answer most often before a birth certificate order is placed.
Send a photo, tell us the deadline, and you will have a fixed price and turnaround within 60 minutes during business hours.
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