Bilingual Catalan and Spanish records translated in full, Andorran documents by a Catalan translator, and an interpreter for the witness who thinks in Catalan.
Prism Linguistics provides certified Catalan to English translation of birth, marriage and death certificates, university records, notarial deeds and company documents from Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands and Andorra for USCIS, courts and universities, and Catalan interpreters for depositions, hearings, USCIS interviews and hospital visits anywhere in the United States.
Last reviewed September 2, 2026 by Sarah J, Prism Linguistics
Most Catalan work that reaches us is paper, and most of the interpreting requests are corrections to a booking someone else made in Spanish. Both come down to the same fact: nearly every Catalan speaker is bilingual, so the language gets treated as optional until a marginal note or a nervous witness proves it is not. Our office is in New York; our Catalan translators work from scans and our interpreters attend wherever the deposition or the appointment is, or join by phone or video.
Demand for a Catalan interpreter in the US is modest, and we say so. Courts and hospitals reach for a Spanish interpreter by reflex and it often serves. The exceptions are the ones that matter: a witness who grew up speaking Catalan at home and reaches for it under cross-examination, an older relative from a village in the Pyrenees or Mallorca whose Spanish is serviceable and not much more, and a commercial deposition or arbitration where the contracts, emails and board minutes were written in Catalan and the interpreter has to sight-read them.
Spanish certification does not cover Catalan. They are separate Romance languages. A Spanish interpreter will follow most of a Catalan sentence and quietly misrender the rest, which is worse than following none of it, because nobody notices. No US state certifies court interpreters in Catalan, so a court works with a registered or otherwise qualified one. Valencian and Balearic speech are close enough for any fluent Catalan interpreter, and we match the variety when a client asks.
Catalan court work is mostly civil: depositions of executives from Barcelona-based companies, arbitration over distribution agreements, the occasional family matter involving a child in Catalonia. The exhibits are the hard part. A contract drafted in Catalan, a Generalitat certificate, an email thread that switches language mid-sentence: the interpreter must handle those live, and a Spanish-only interpreter cannot. Tell us the court or the arbitral body, the case type and what the documents are in, and we confirm what will be accepted before you book. We are a private agency, not a court-appointed vendor.
Medical Catalan requests are rare and nearly always concern an elderly visitor or a recent arrival who is unwell, and the question we ask is which language the patient thinks in when they are frightened. If the answer is Catalan, a Spanish interpreter is a compromise the patient should not have to make. A provider that receives federal funding must supply an interpreter at no cost, in the patient's language, and Catalan counts. Video covers most consultations; we send someone in person for discharge planning or a capacity assessment when one is within reach.
Spanish and Andorran citizens sit USCIS interviews mainly for marriage-based residence and for naturalization, and most take them in English or Spanish. A Catalan interpreter is asked for when the applicant is more precise in Catalan or when an Andorran document set is on the table. The interpreter renders every answer as spoken and adds nothing; we brief them that way and we do not use a spouse. If the applicant would rather proceed in Spanish we say so, since Spanish is easier to schedule at short notice.
Read both columns, then read the margins. A certificate from a Registre Civil in Catalonia, Valencia or the Balearics is issued through Spain's Ministry of Justice and usually carries Catalan and Castilian side by side, with stamps and handwritten entries in one or the other. The Catalan column and the marginal annotations are where the later marriage, the divorce or the name change is recorded, and a Spanish translator who works from the Castilian side alone leaves them out. Valencian forms may call the language valencià; it is the same language for translation purposes. Andorra has no Spanish column at all: its Registre Civil issues in Catalan only, and it needs a Catalan translator, full stop. Degrees and transcripts from Catalan universities, Generalitat certificates, notarial deeds, judgments and company filings follow the same rule. Names and towns switch between languages from one document to the next (Girona or Gerona, Joan or Juan); we keep what each document prints, spell the applicant's own name to the passport and note the variant. Each translation carries a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy. Details 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 Catalan interpreters work nationwide. For in-person work we assign someone based in or near the city. These are the areas where Catalan 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 Catalan assignment ever falls short, tell us and we put it right.