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When filing visa applications in the United States, one sometime needs to provide certified translations of official documents from the country of birth. Is there any online resources that would give translation templates or examples for French official documents such as birth certificate, diplomas, or transcriptsm into English?

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  • Are you in France? If so, apostille / transducteur are the usual go-to for this, but they are expensive.
    – la femme cosmique
    Feb 20, 2016 at 13:00
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    If you're in America, find a Notary Public which offers translation services (not all of them do). Sometimes this can be found at the DMV, but usually you'll have to google to find a notary which is capable of translating from French. DMV notaries just do certified copies, usually. You will need both a translation and a notary certification. Anyway, can give a comprehensive answer if you state your location.
    – la femme cosmique
    Feb 20, 2016 at 13:03
  • @lafemmecosmique Thanks, I am located in the United States (Massachusetts). For the visa application that I am filing, I am allowed to do the translation myself (I just need someone proficient in both French and English to sign the translated version). But I am trying to do a decent job at it, and I was hoping some online resources could help me save time.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Feb 20, 2016 at 16:30

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There are plenty. I used REV, but there are countless other similar services.

That said, "certified" means the translator certifies that he/she knows both languages well enough to translate, and that's it. Rarely you'd need an official or notarized translation in the US. So if you have a friend who's fluent in French and English - they can do the translation for you, and certify that they know the languages well enough. Here's a USCIS example for a certification.

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  • Thanks. I guess I was hoping for a free pool of templates / examples, since as you said no need for an official or notarized translation, which is great as I'd save me a few hundreds USD. Side note: do you know why USCIS rarely asks for official or notarized translation?
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Feb 21, 2016 at 15:19
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    @FranckDernoncourt I suspect they have enough speakers of whatever language that may be, and as far as I know there's no concept of notary in the US which is similar to what you're used to from Europe.
    – littleadv
    Feb 21, 2016 at 18:20

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