Chilunda interpreters for USCIS interviews, courts and hospitals across the US, usually by phone or video, plus certified translation of the English, French and Portuguese records Lunda families hold.
Prism Linguistics provides Lunda, or Chilunda, interpreters for USCIS interviews, court hearings and medical appointments anywhere in the United States, usually by phone or video, together with certified English translation of the English, French and Portuguese records that Lunda speakers from Zambia, the DRC and Angola carry.
Last reviewed September 2, 2026 by Sarah J, Prism Linguistics
Lunda, or Chilunda, is a rare language spoken by about 600,000 people, mainly in Zambia's North-Western Province, in Angola and in the Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There is one distinction to get right before anything else: Lunda, Luvale and Kaonde are three separate languages of the same region, and a Lunda interpreter is not a Luvale one. Our office is in New York, Lunda linguists are few and scattered, and most work reaches you by phone or video from a nationwide network. The person who needs the interpreter is usually an older relative, or a Congolese or Angolan speaker whose second language is French or Portuguese rather than English.
Which Lunda? It is worth a question. The Eastern or Kazembe Lunda of Zambia's Luapula valley are Lunda by identity but long ago took up Bemba, so for them a Lunda interpreter is the wrong booking and a Bemba interpreter the right one. For Lunda speakers from North-Western Province, from Angola or from the DRC, we assign a Lunda interpreter and confirm the country first. Lunda is one of Zambia's seven official regional languages, so a younger Zambian speaker will often manage in English; it is the older relative, or the Congolese and Angolan speakers, who need Lunda in the room. Courts come to us for exactly this kind of language.
No state runs a court certification exam in Lunda, so a court works from a qualified Lunda interpreter rather than a certified one, and because so few Lunda linguists live in the United States the session is usually by phone or video. Tell us the court, the case type and where the speaker is from, and we confirm what the bench will accept and rule out a Kazembe speaker who really needs Bemba. Prism works as a private agency and holds no court appointment; the value is a language most providers cannot supply.
At a naturalization or asylum interview the Lunda interpreter gives the officer each answer as it was spoken, with nothing rounded off. Many Lunda applicants come through French-speaking DRC or Portuguese-speaking Angola, so English is a third language and a real Lunda interpreter, not an approximate one, keeps the account intact. We confirm the country and variety at intake and never seat a bilingual relative in the interpreter's chair.
Remote is how most Lunda assignments actually happen. A qualified Lunda interpreter for a Zambian, Congolese or Angolan speaker may be in another state entirely, so we connect by phone for a short matter and by video where the appointment needs faces and paperwork visible. A federally funded hospital has to provide the Lunda interpreter at no cost to the patient, and a video link is often the fastest way to get one onto the call.
Three countries, three document languages, and not one of them Lunda. A Zambian family holds a birth certificate in English from the Department of National Registration, Passport and Citizenship. A Congolese family holds an acte de naissance from the commune's civil registry, or, where the birth was not declared within ninety days, a jugement supplétif and an attestation de naissance, all in French. An Angolan family holds an assento de nascimento or cédula pessoal from a Conservatória do Registo Civil, in Portuguese. The Lunda part is the names: a family that has crossed borders can hold the same Lunda name in an English, a French and a Portuguese spelling, which an officer reads as different people. We translate each record from the language it is issued in, plus any affidavit or letter written in Lunda, set the names to the passport and note every variant, and sign a 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 Lunda interpreters work nationwide. For in-person work we assign someone based in or near the city. These are the areas where Lunda 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 Lunda assignment ever falls short, tell us and we put it right.