Kalaallisut interpreting by phone or video for USCIS, courts and hospitals across the US, and certified translation of the Danish-language records Greenlanders actually hold.
Prism Linguistics provides Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) interpreters, mainly by phone or video, for USCIS interviews, court hearings and medical appointments anywhere in the United States, together with certified English translation of the Danish and Greenlandic civil records that families from Greenland hold.
Last reviewed September 2, 2026 by Sarah J, Prism Linguistics
Greenlandic is a language we are asked for a handful of times a year, and we would rather say that plainly than pretend to a queue of interpreters on every corner. The requests come from courts, hospitals and attorneys who have already discovered that nobody local speaks it. Our office is in New York; our Greenlandic interpreters are few and work remotely, and that is how nearly every assignment in this language is delivered.
Kalaallisut, the West Greenlandic standard, is the language of the great majority of Greenland's roughly 57,000 speakers and the only official language of the territory since 2009. Two smaller Inuit varieties survive alongside it, Tunumiit on the east coast and Inuktun in the far north, and they are different enough that we ask where in Greenland the speaker grew up before confirming anyone. Nearly every Greenlander also speaks Danish, which gives us a second route when the person is comfortable in it.
Danish is often enough; sometimes it is not. A working-age Greenlander who went through school in Danish may be perfectly served by a Danish interpreter, and Danish interpreters are easier to seat quickly. An older person, or anyone giving evidence about home and family, thinks in Greenlandic and should be interpreted in it. We put the choice to the client at intake rather than deciding by default.
No state offers a court interpreter certification in Greenlandic, so a judge seats a qualified interpreter on the record, and in practice that interpreter joins by phone or video. Greenlandic is exactly the kind of language courts come to us for after their own lists run dry. Give us the court, the hearing type and the speaker's home district and we confirm a named interpreter. We are a private agency rather than a court-appointed vendor, and we take bookings from courts, attorneys and law firms directly.
Naturalization interviews, adjustment of status appointments and family petitions make up the USCIS side of Greenlandic work, and the officer relies on the interpreter for every word of the applicant's answers. Ours render what is said and add nothing. Because Greenlandic builds long compound words that carry a whole clause, a rushed interpreter can drop a qualifier that changes the answer; we brief against exactly that.
A hospital or clinic that takes federal funds must provide an interpreter at no cost, and a Greenlandic patient can ask for Greenlandic by name even where the hospital's contract line offers only Danish or nothing at all. Video is the realistic option for a language this rare and it works well for a consultation, a consent discussion or a follow-up. We say so at booking rather than promising an in-person interpreter we cannot place.
Most of what a Greenlander files with USCIS is written in Danish, because Greenland's civil records have been kept inside Denmark's CPR system since 1972 and the personattest that serves as a birth certificate is issued in that system. Municipal, school and church papers issued since Kalaallisut became the official language can be in Greenlandic alone or in both languages, and where a document carries two texts we translate both and note any point where they differ. Names are the recurring problem: a Greenlandic form on a church record and a Danish spelling on the passport, or a compound word that a translator unfamiliar with the language divides in the wrong place and so mistranslates. We spell to the passport, flag the variant and attach a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy. The full service 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 Greenlandic interpreters work nationwide. For in-person work we assign someone based in or near the city. These are the areas where Greenlandic 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 Greenlandic assignment ever falls short, tell us and we put it right.