USCIS, court and hospital interpreting for Chavacano speakers from Zamboanga across the US, by a creole interpreter rather than a Spanish one, plus certified translation of the paperwork around a PSA record.
Prism Linguistics provides Chavacano interpreters for USCIS interviews, asylum and family cases, court hearings and medical appointments anywhere in the United States, by phone, by video or in person where a Chavacano interpreter is based nearby, together with certified English translation of the Chavacano affidavits, annotations and letters that support a Philippine civil record.
Last reviewed September 2, 2026 by Sarah J, Prism Linguistics
Chavacano is a Spanish-based creole from the Philippines, spoken mainly in and around Zamboanga City, and it fools people. A Spanish interpreter hears familiar words and assumes the rest; a Tagalog interpreter hears Philippine grammar and assumes the same. Neither is right. Prism assigns Chavacano interpreters as Chavacano interpreters, from a single office in New York to USCIS offices, courtrooms and hospitals across the country, usually by phone or video and in person where one is based nearby.
Zamboangueño has around 700,000 speakers and is the variety we are asked for almost every time; Caviteño and Ternateño, from Luzon, are small and different enough that we ask which before assigning. Most Filipinos who settle in the United States arrive with English, so the person who needs a Chavacano interpreter is a parent or grandparent at a USCIS interview, or an applicant in a family or asylum case who copes in English day to day and is precise only in Chavacano when the questions get hard.
Eight or nine words in ten are Spanish. The sentence is not. Chavacano builds its tense with particles rather than Spanish verb endings, and its word order and grammar follow Tagalog, Cebuano and Hiligaynon. A Spanish speaker follows the nouns and loses whether something happened, is happening or will happen, which in a credibility interview is the entire point.
Adjustment and naturalization interviews for petitioned parents, and the occasional asylum interview, make up the USCIS work. The applicant brings the interpreter, and the officer wants one who is fluent in the applicant's actual language rather than a related one. Our Chavacano interpreters render each answer as given, particles and all, and do not explain or improve. We do not send a Spanish interpreter to a Chavacano interview and hope the overlap carries it.
No state offers a court certification exam in Chavacano, and it is the sort of language a court's contracted vendor cannot find at all, so the call comes to us: a deposition in a family case, a guardianship hearing, a witness from Zamboanga in a matter that has nothing to do with immigration. We supply a qualified Chavacano interpreter, normally by video into the courtroom. Prism is a private agency and not a court-appointed vendor.
Medical requests are for the elder relative. A hospital that takes federal funds must provide a Chavacano interpreter free of charge, and the family is entitled to one even when a Tagalog or Spanish interpreter is easier to find; easier is not the same as understood. Video handles most consultations. We send someone in person for a surgical consent or a mental health assessment where the patient's own phrasing matters.
The PSA birth or marriage certificate is in English and USCIS accepts it as issued, so the certificate is rarely what we translate. The Chavacano translation covers the supporting paper: an affidavit of delayed registration or of one and the same person sworn before a Zamboanga notary, a barangay certification, a parish baptismal record, a handwritten annotation in a margin, and the letters and messages that support a family or fiancé petition. Older Zamboanga records mix Chavacano with Spanish, and a translator who reads the creole as broken Spanish mistranslates the tense particles ya, ta and ay, which changes what the document says happened and when. We translate the creole as a creole, spell names to the passport, and sign a 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 Chavacano interpreters work nationwide. For in-person work we assign someone based in or near the city. These are the areas where Chavacano 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 Chavacano assignment ever falls short, tell us and we put it right.