Asylum, USCIS and medical interpreting for the very small number of Bubi speakers from Bioko in the US, almost always by phone or video, and certified translation of their Spanish records.
Prism Linguistics provides Bubi (Bube) interpreters for asylum interviews, USCIS appointments, court hearings and medical visits anywhere in the United States, almost always by phone or video, together with certified English translation of the Spanish civil records, late registrations and baptismal papers that families from Bioko, Equatorial Guinea actually hold.
Last reviewed September 2, 2026 by Sarah J, Prism Linguistics
Bubi is a language we are asked for a few times a year, not a few times a week, and we would rather say that than pretend otherwise. The speakers are from Bioko, the island where Malabo sits, and the community in the United States is tiny. Our office is in New York; a Bubi interpreter is reached by phone or video from wherever they are, and in-person is a rare exception. The reason to call a specialist agency for a language this small is that the alternative is usually no interpreter at all.
Around 51,000 people spoke Bubi on Bioko in 2011, in northern, southern and central-eastern varieties, and nearly all of them also speak Spanish, the country's official language, with Pichi, the island's English-based creole, in daily use around Malabo. That bilingualism is why the first thing we ask is whether Spanish would serve. For a young applicant from the capital it often does, and we will book a Spanish interpreter instead.
Where on the island? An older person from a village in the south of Bioko may have little Spanish, and anyone recounting in an asylum interview what was done to them will do it best in the language they lived it in. For those speakers we assign a Bubi interpreter, and we ask the village or district first because the varieties differ.
Asylum and immigration court work is nearly all of our Bubi demand. The credible-fear interview and the merits hearing both turn on detail, and an account relayed through a second language loses the detail an officer is listening for. We brief the interpreter to render each answer exactly as given, hesitations included, and never to explain or soften. Where the attorney wants a preparation session, the same interpreter can cover it so the file stays consistent.
No state runs a court certification exam in Bubi, so a judge uses a qualified interpreter, and for a language with this few speakers in the country that means a phone or video connection to wherever the interpreter is. Courts contact us for languages like this once every other option has failed. Give us the court, the case type and the speaker's district on Bioko and we confirm who is available before the date. Prism is a private agency and holds no court appointment as a vendor.
A hospital that takes federal funding owes a Bubi-speaking patient an interpreter at no cost, and a Spanish-speaking staff member is only a partial answer for an elderly patient from the island's south. Phone covers a short consultation; video is better for a consent conversation or a discharge plan. We connect the interpreter remotely, since expecting one to be in the same city is not realistic for Bubi.
There is no Bubi document to translate, because Equatorial Guinea keeps its civil registry in Spanish and Bubi is hardly ever written down. What a family brings is a Spanish certificate from a Registro Civil office of the Ministry of Justice, which has operated a Central Civil Registry in Malabo since 1996, or, just as often, nothing so tidy: a late registration, a baptismal record, or a sworn statement standing in for a certificate that was never issued. We translate whatever the applicant holds in full, keep the issuing office as printed, and deal with the one Bubi element on the page, the names, by spelling to the passport and noting the registrar's variant. The service, with a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy, 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 Bubi interpreters work nationwide. For in-person work we assign someone based in or near the city. These are the areas where Bubi 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 Bubi assignment ever falls short, tell us and we put it right.