Maay Maay interpreting for asylum, medical and immigration settings nationwide, assigned to an Af Maay speaker rather than a standard Somali one, with certified translation of camp records.
Prism Linguistics arranges Maay interpreters, Af Maay, for asylum interviews, USCIS appointments, medical visits and court hearings across the United States, in person, by phone or by video, and produces certified English translation of the affidavits and refugee-camp records that Somali Bantu families hold in place of civil certificates.
Last reviewed September 2, 2026 by Sarah J, Prism Linguistics
The first thing to settle on a Maay booking is that Maay is not standard Somali. They read alike on the page and do not understand each other in speech, and sending the wrong one wastes the appointment. Maay is the language of the Somali Bantu, from the river valleys of southern Somalia, and most of the community resettled here speaks it. Our office is in New York and the interpreter works from wherever the interview or the clinic is; for camp cases spread across resettlement cities, phone and video carry much of the load.
The United States took in about 13,000 Somali Bantu refugees between 2003 and 2007, and Maay is the home language for most of them. They landed in a set of resettlement cities and have moved on to others since, so the demand is scattered rather than concentrated in one metro. What holds across all of it is the mix-up we are called to fix: a provider books a Somali interpreter, the Maay speaker cannot follow, and the visit stops. The federal health office that advises on refugee care says to reach for a Maay interpreter first with this community, and we agree.
Standard Somali is a different language, not a dialect to get by in. Some states certify court interpreters in standard Somali, Minnesota among them, through the national NCSC exam; none certifies anyone in Maay. So a Maay case runs on a qualified Maay interpreter, usually remote, and it is exactly the rare-language gap that courts and hospitals come to us to close. For standard Somali we keep that work on a separate roster.
A hospital is where the Somali-for-Maay mistake does the most harm. A Maay-speaking grandmother in an emergency room, handed a standard Somali interpreter, may nod along and answer a question she did not actually understand. Any provider on federal funding has to supply a Maay interpreter at no cost to her, and most families have never been told that. Video handles a consult or a specialist review. We send someone into the room for a discharge conversation, an obstetric appointment, or a mental-health assessment where presence matters.
Asylum is the heart of the Maay caseload, and it is unforgiving of a loose rendering. The officer is measuring the applicant's exact words, the pauses and the inconsistencies together, and an interpreter who tidies a hesitant answer or softens a hard detail changes the record. We brief every Maay interpreter to render and nothing else, to hold the register the applicant used, and never to fill a silence. A relative is never put in that seat.
No state examines court interpreters in Maay, so a court works from a qualified Maay interpreter, generally by phone or video because there is no local bench of them anywhere. This is the rare-language shortfall a court hands to us when its own list has only standard Somali on it. We take assignments from judges, attorneys and law firms, and we are candid about it: Prism is a private agency, never a vendor a court has appointed.
There is often no certificate to translate, and knowing that saves a family a frustrating search. The State Department's own reciprocity guidance records that Somalia has no functioning authority issuing civil documents and that its records were largely lost after 1990, so an applicant is asked instead for sworn affidavits from two people stating where and when a birth took place and the parents' names. That affidavit is the document, along with UNHCR registration and ration cards from Dadaab or Kakuma and school or clinic papers from the camps, written in Somali, English or Swahili.
Names are the recurring problem. Maay is written in the Latin alphabet, but rival spellings have circulated since the 1980s, so one person's name can appear three ways across a family's papers. We translate each document as it was issued, set the spelling to the travel document, and record every variant so an officer can see they belong together. The full document service sits 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 Maay interpreters work nationwide. For in-person work we assign someone based in or near the city. These are the areas where Maay 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 Maay assignment ever falls short, tell us and we put it right.