Arabic to English
Certified Marriage Certificate Translation, Arabic to English
A certified Arabic to English translation of a marriage certificate costs $24.95 per page, where one page is up to 250 words of the source document. A typical marriage certificate runs 1 to 2 pages, so most orders come to $24.95 to $49.90. Certified orders are delivered in 2 to 3 business days as a PDF containing the complete translation and a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy from the qualified professional translator who completed or reviewed the work, prepared for official use including USCIS filings.
Pricing
Exact prices, shown before you pay
Most marriage certificates are one page of up to 250 source words; civil registry acts with witness details, marginal annotations, or legalization stamps can reach two. Certified translation is $24.95 per page, so a typical order of 1 to 2 pages comes to $24.95 to $49.90. The exact total is measured from your document and shown before payment.
Standard
$19.95 per page
3 to 5 business days
A professional translation with digital delivery.
Certified
$24.95 per page
2 to 3 business days
A certified translation accepted for official use.
Premium
$39.95 per page
1 to 2 business days
A certified translation, translated first.
One page is up to 250 words.
Requirements
What reviewers require for a certified marriage certificate translation
- Any foreign language marriage certificate submitted to USCIS must be accompanied by a full English language translation certified by the translator as complete and accurate, with the translator's certification of competence to translate from that language into English (8 CFR 103.2(b)(3)).
- For immigrant visa processing, the Department of State requires certified translations of documents not in English or in the official language of the country of application, including a statement signed by the translator that the translator is competent to translate, uploaded together with the original document in one file.
- The translation must be complete and word for word, covering the spouses' names, the date and place of marriage, the registering authority, registration numbers, officiant and registrar signature blocks, seals, stamps, and any marginal annotations, which in many countries are where divorces, name changes, and corrections are recorded on the marriage record.
- Where the country of marriage requires civil registration, US immigration authorities expect the civil marriage record, not only a religious ceremony certificate. The translation must be of whichever document the process actually requires.
- Seals, stamps, and signatures are described in brackets in the translation, and illegible portions are marked [illegible] rather than reconstructed.
- Both spouses' names must be transliterated consistently and should match their passports, birth certificates, and prior filings. Maiden and married name forms are rendered exactly as they appear on the record.
- USCIS requires certification of the translation, not notarization.
Common reasons translations get rejected
- Marginal annotations on the marriage record are left untranslated. In many civil law countries divorces and corrections are annotated in the margin of the original act, so an untranslated margin can hide legally decisive information and undermines the claim that the translation is complete.
- Only a religious ceremony certificate is submitted and translated when the country of marriage requires civil registration, leading to a request for the civil record.
- Prior marriage termination documents are missing or untranslated, so the file cannot establish that the current marriage is legally valid.
- Spouses' names in the translation do not match their passports or birth certificates because of inconsistent transliteration, creating identity discrepancies across the file.
- A partial or summary translation is submitted instead of the full word for word rendering the regulation requires.
Good to know
About Arabic-language marriage certificates
An Egyptian Muslim marriage is concluded before a ma'zoun (مأذون شرعي, a licensed marriage registrar) on an official marriage contract (وثيقة عقد زواج) that records the spouses, the bride's guardian or agent where there is one, two witnesses and the dowry (الصداق or المهر), split into an advance portion (مقدم الصداق, muqaddam) and a deferred portion (مؤخر الصداق, mu'akhkhar) payable on divorce or death, plus any conditions the parties add. Marriages between an Egyptian and a foreigner are concluded at the Ministry of Justice civil marriage office, and the Civil Status Organization later prints a computerized marriage certificate from its database. A translator translates the dowry amounts, conditions and witness details in full.
Jordan and Lebanon have no civil marriage, so Muslim marriages are concluded in sharia courts and Christian marriages in church courts, then registered with the civil status authority. A Jordanian marriage certificate typically gives the spouses' full names and national numbers, nationality and religion, the contract date, the name of the sharia court or church, the dowry and how it is paid, the consent of a Muslim bride's guardian, and any agreed conditions. In Syria the sharia court certifies and stamps the contract before the civil registry issues the certificate, and in the Gulf marriages are registered through the courts or the Ministry of Justice. A translator keeps the court name, the contract or case number and any Hijri date exactly as written.
In Morocco a marriage act (عقد الزواج, acte de mariage) is drawn up in Arabic by two adouls (عدول, notaries trained in Islamic law) and approved by the family judge in charge of notarization (قاضي التوثيق); it records the dowry (الصداق) and the guardian where one is involved, and the marriage is then noted on the spouses' birth records. In Algeria and Tunisia marriages are registered with the civil status office of the town hall, which issues the marriage certificate and the family book. A translator keeps the adouls' names and the register and act numbers exactly.
Official Arabic-language civil records come from each country's civil status (civil registry) authority, usually part of the interior ministry. In Egypt this is the Civil Status Organization (مصلحة الأحوال المدنية, Maslahat al-Ahwal al-Madaniyya) of the Ministry of Interior, which issues the national ID card, birth, death, marriage and divorce records, and family and individual registry extracts (قيد عائلي, qaid a'ili, and قيد فردي, qaid fardi). Comparable bodies are Jordan's Civil Status and Passports Department (دائرة الأحوال المدنية والجوازات), the civil status and national card directorates of Iraq's Ministry of Interior, Lebanon's Directorate General of Personal Status (المديرية العامة للأحوال الشخصية), Saudi Arabia's Civil Affairs (الأحوال المدنية), and in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia the civil status office (الحالة المدنية, état civil) of the commune or town hall. Marriages and divorces are usually concluded before a religious official or court (a ma'zoun in Egypt, sharia or church courts in Jordan and the Levant, adouls in Morocco) and then registered with the civil authority.
Egypt issues birth certificates in two forms, a handwritten certificate from the Health Office (مكتب الصحة) of the district where the birth was registered, and a computerized certificate (شهادة ميلاد مميكنة, shahadat milad mumayakana) printed by the Civil Status Organization of the Ministry of Interior from the national civil registry database. Computerized birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates are printed at civil status offices and self service kiosks from the same database, and they show the 14 digit national number (الرقم القومي, al-raqam al-qawmi). An older handwritten certificate and a newer computerized printout of the same birth can differ in layout and spelling, so a translator translates the document actually supplied and does not merge the two.
How it works
From upload to certified delivery
Step 1
Upload and get an instant quote
Send us your document, choose your languages, and see your price right away.
Step 2
A professional translator translates it
A qualified professional translator translates your document.
Step 3
Reviewed for accuracy and certified
Your translation is reviewed for accuracy and certified with a signed certificate of accuracy.
Step 4
Receive your certified translation
You receive your certified translation, ready for official use.
Questions
Common questions
- We married in a religious ceremony abroad. Is a translation of the church certificate enough?
- Usually not on its own. Where the country requires civil registration of marriages, USCIS and consular posts expect the civil registry record, and a translation cannot substitute for the correct underlying document. Confirm which record your process requires, then have that document translated.
- Does the certified translation need to be notarized for USCIS?
- No. USCIS requires the translator's signed certification that the translation is complete and accurate and that the translator is competent, not a notarization.
- There are handwritten notes in the margin of our marriage certificate. Do those get translated?
- Yes, and they matter. In many countries divorces, name changes, and corrections are recorded as marginal annotations on the marriage act, so a complete translation must include them. Anything unreadable is marked [illegible] rather than guessed.
- Can my spouse translate our marriage certificate for the petition?
- The regulation does not prohibit it, but a translation certified by one of the spouses is a translation certified by an interested party, and adjudicators can question it. A qualified professional translator's certification removes that doubt.
- My marriage certificate was issued in Egypt. What should I know before ordering?
- An Egyptian Muslim marriage is concluded before a ma'zoun (مأذون شرعي, a licensed marriage registrar) on an official marriage contract (وثيقة عقد زواج) that records the spouses, the bride's guardian or agent where there is one, two witnesses and the dowry (الصداق or المهر), split into an advance portion (مقدم الصداق, muqaddam) and a deferred portion (مؤخر الصداق, mu'akhkhar) payable on divorce or death, plus any conditions the parties add. Marriages between an Egyptian and a foreigner are concluded at the Ministry of Justice civil marriage office, and the Civil Status Organization later prints a computerized marriage certificate from its database. A translator translates the dowry amounts, conditions and witness details in full.
A translation error is ours to fix
If your certified translation is rejected because of a translation error we made, we correct it at no charge, and if the corrected translation is rejected again for that same error we refund what you paid for it. Our Refund Policy sets out the conditions and what it does not cover. Your documents are encrypted and kept confidential from start to finish.
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