Apostilled, certified, or notarized–oh my! Several different document certifications can be required, but the how, where, and why for each can be confusing. For immigration, business, and judicial purposes, it’s essential to understand how documents–including translated matters–must be handled to meet processing requirements. Certified Translations A certified translation doesn’t certify that the original document is […]
Employment Agreements
What is Title 42?
News about Title 42 is hitting the headlines in recent news. Democrats and Republicans are arguing about the possible removal of provisions that were put in place in March 2020, alleging the impact of immigration at the border will be greater than our country’s infrastructure can handle. What is Title 42, and how does it […]
Parole Status Helps Ukrainian Refugees at the U.S. and Mexico Border
In an April 11, 2022, news report, 9,926 Ukrainians were provided with parole status and allowed to enter the United States. This follows a statement provided by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on March 31 that the U.S. would help protect Ukrainians fleeing from the war in their country by giving them “Temporary Protected […]
How do Fiancé and Spouse Visas Compare?
Congress has made amendments to naturalization provisions to better facilitate the immigration process for spouses of U.S. citizens. Yet, what if the couple isn’t yet married but intends to? Achieving naturalization requires at least three years of permanent residency, making the first step of any immigration process entry to the United States with a visa. […]
Immigration Green Card Approvals Continue to Be Impacted by COVID Backlog
In January 2022, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released statistics concerning the past several years of immigration green card applications and approvals that illustrate unresolved issues in the system. According to their report, as of January 2020, the USCIS had a backlog of 2.5 million green card application cases due to an “unanticipated […]
Why do Many Languages use Grammatical Gender?
English speakers who first begin to learn a second language are often met with a perplexing challenge–the use of gender-specific nouns. While English assigns gender to people and animals (for example, “she drove her car to work” or “my dog refused to eat his breakfast”), inanimate objects like “car” and “breakfast” are gender-neutral. Whether you’re […]
USA Immigration Laws Geared to Advance STEM Fields
In January 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration announced several changes to enhance the ability of STEM students and professionals to obtain entry and residency in the United States. STEM includes science, technology, engineering, and mathematics–all fields the administration feels are critical to the prosperity, security, and health of our country. Changes to the USA Immigration laws […]
Translating Rhetoric in Advertising
One doesn’t have to search far on the internet to find an abundance of articles regarding the many mistakes that can and have been made in advertising related to poor translations. For example, when KFC took their slogan of “finger lickin’ good” to China, they inadvertently promoted their product to be as good as “eat […]
Aligning Text with Context: Evaluating Accuracy of Legal Translations
Language translation begins with a relatively simple premise–to convert the words used in one language into another. For inexperienced translators, the work is precisely that. Using little more than a computerized translation system, it’s common for translators to transcribe the text written in the source language (SL) to the target language (TL) with less than […]
Ukrainian Crisis Increases Needs for Qualified Legal Translators
As of March 1, the United Nations reported that 660,000 Ukrainian refugees have successfully escaped into Poland, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, and other countries since the Russians began their invasion into Ukraine less than a week ago. Most of these people were only to take a few items with them and will be building a life […]