Form I-485, the application to adjust status to permanent resident, follows the same translation rule as every USCIS filing: any document in a foreign language must come with a full English translation and the translator's certification that it is complete and accurate and that they are competent to translate the language (8 CFR § 103.2(b)(3)). What changes from case to case is which documents you send.
Documents most I-485 filers translate
- Your birth certificate. USCIS lists it as required initial evidence for most categories. Translate the whole record, including stamps, seals and any notes added to it later.
- Your marriage certificate, if you're applying through your spouse or your spouse is applying with you.
- Divorce decrees, annulments and death certificates that ended any earlier marriage - yours and your spouse's.
- Court and police records, if you have ever been arrested, charged or convicted anywhere: USCIS wants the record of how each matter ended.
- Name-change records, if your name today differs from your birth certificate for a reason other than marriage.
Documents that usually don't need translating
- The medical exam (Form I-693), which the civil surgeon completes in English.
- US tax transcripts and other US records, which are already in English. Foreign bank statements or employment letters you add as evidence do need translating.
Keep the names the same everywhere
An I-485 usually travels with a petition such as an I-130, an affidavit of support and your passport. If a translation spells a name differently from those, the officer has to decide whether it's the same person, and a Request for Evidence is the usual way they ask. Give your translator the spellings from your passport and forms before they start.
A pre-filing checklist
- Every non-English document has a full translation, front and back.
- Each translation is attached to a copy of the original it translates.
- Every certification names the translator, says the translation is complete and accurate and that the translator is competent in both languages, and is signed and dated.
- Names, dates and places match across the translations, the forms and your passport.
- You keep the originals for the interview.
With Verdacert
Upload each document, tell us how the names are spelled on your passport and forms, and choose a speed. Each document comes back as its own certified PDF with the original attached and a certificate anyone can verify online. If USCIS rejects a translation for a translation error, we re-translate or refund (conditions apply - see our Refund Policy).