Asylum, re-parole, court and hospital interpreting across the US, in Ukrainian when the speaker asks for it, plus certified Ukrainian translation.
Prism Linguistics provides Ukrainian interpreters for asylum and re-parole interviews, court hearings and medical appointments anywhere in the United States, in person, by phone or by video, in Ukrainian rather than Russian by default, and certified English translation of Ukrainian documents, including bilingual Soviet-era records.
Last reviewed September 2, 2026 by Sarah J, Prism Linguistics
The single most important question in Ukrainian interpreting is which language the person wants to work in. Most Ukrainians also speak Russian, and for years American courts and hospitals booked a Russian interpreter for a Ukrainian speaker by default. Since 2022 that default is wrong. Prism Linguistics assigns Ukrainian interpreters nationwide from one New York office, in person where the interview or hearing is and by phone or video where it is not, and we ask before we book. If the answer is Ukrainian, we send Ukrainian.
Ukrainian or Russian? Do not assume. To someone who fled the war, being handed a Russian interpreter can feel like being made to testify in the language of the army that shelled their town, and an asylum claim that turns on dealings with Ukrainian officials or occupation forces uses administrative and military vocabulary a Russian interpreter renders inexactly. The two are close, and a scheduler who treats them as interchangeable is taking a risk with both accuracy and trust. We put the question to the person and follow their answer, not the intake form's guess.
Uniting for Ukraine brought more than 240,000 Ukrainians in on humanitarian parole, and they account for most of today's Ukrainian interpreting: re-parole and asylum interviews, Temporary Protected Status filings, and medical appointments for the parents and grandparents who travelled with them. The working-age arrivals often manage in English. The older generation does not, and that is where the bookings concentrate. The community has settled unevenly, with long-standing centres in Chicago, the Northeast and the Pacific Northwest and newer arrivals wherever a sponsor happened to be.
Asylum and re-parole interviews are the bulk of the work, and they are the hardest interpreting a Ukrainian linguist does. The applicant is describing a bombardment, an occupation or a detention to a stranger, and the officer weighs every detail for consistency. An interpreter has to be neutral and complete, which is harder than it sounds when the account is this raw, and one who softens or condenses can cost a claim its credibility. We brief Ukrainian interpreters to render fully and in the register used, and we keep the same interpreter across a continued interview where we can.
Most Ukrainian medical bookings are for the older parents and grandparents who arrived under parole and never worked in English. Any hospital that takes federal funding must provide a Ukrainian interpreter at no charge, and many families arriving under a sponsor do not know they can ask. Video handles a consult or a consent conversation. We send someone in person for discharge planning, for a mental health assessment, which is common in a population that has lived through a war, or whenever the family wants a person in the room.
Few states run a court certification exam in Ukrainian; California, for one, treats it as a registered rather than a certified language, so courts work with a registered or otherwise qualified Ukrainian interpreter. Tell us the court and the case type and we confirm the requirement before you book. We take work from attorneys and the courts directly, and we say what we are: a private agency, not a court-appointed vendor. And we still ask, for a Ukrainian speaker, whether the appearance should be interpreted in Ukrainian or Russian.
A Ukrainian applicant's file usually runs two languages deep. Anyone born before 1991 holds a Soviet birth certificate that is bilingual Ukrainian and Russian, and on records from the eastern and southern oblasts the Ukrainian column is often left blank while the entries sit only in the Russian half. Records issued since independence come from the DRATsS civil registry offices, and because Ukraine has been an Apostille country since 2003, a modern duplicate can be apostilled where a Soviet original cannot. We translate both halves of a bilingual certificate and say which language each entry was written in, because an officer comparing it with a Ukrainian passport needs to know.
Names are the usual place a Ukrainian translation goes wrong. The passport uses the official Ukrainian transliteration, so Oleksandr, Yevhen and Kyiv, while that same person's Soviet certificate shows Alexander, Evgeny and Kiev on the Russian side. A translator who works from the Russian side produces a name the passport does not carry, and one who quietly turns the Russian into Ukrainian has changed the record itself. We translate each entry from whichever language it was written in and match the header to the passport. Each file carries a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy; the full service is at Ukrainian translation services.
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 Ukrainian interpreters work nationwide. For in-person work we assign someone based in or near the city. These are the areas where Ukrainian 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 Ukrainian assignment ever falls short, tell us and we put it right.