Passport Translation

Prism Language Solutions translates foreign passports into English and certifies the translation for USCIS, state DMVs, banks and employers. The biographic page is one page and is usually delivered the same day from around $24.95; visa pages and entry and exit stamps are priced per page on top. Names are spelled exactly as the passport's machine-readable zone has them, every stamp is dated and attributed, and the translation carries a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy in the form 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3) requires.

Last reviewed September 11, 2026 by Sarah J, Prism Language Solutions

Most of a passport is already in English, which is why people are surprised to be asked for a translation. The biographic page of almost every modern passport is bilingual, and the machine-readable zone at the bottom is Latin letters only. What is not in English is everything else: the issuing authority's stamps, the observations page where a name change is endorsed, the visas from third countries, and the entry and exit stamps an immigration officer or a DMV clerk needs to read. We translate the pages the recipient asks for, against the machine-readable zone, so the name comes out the way every other US record will carry it.

Certified translations prepared to meet USCIS requirements
Human linguists only, matched to the subject
Fixed written quote within 60 minutes in business hours
One office in New York, linguists in every state

Which Passport Pages Need Translation

It depends on who is asking, and we ask before we quote. Four kinds of page come up.

The biographic (ID) page. Name, nationality, date and place of birth, passport number, dates of issue and expiry, issuing authority, and the machine-readable zone. Where the labels are bilingual we translate the entries and the authority; where the page is in one script only, as on some older passports, the whole page.
Observations, amendments and endorsements. The page where a previous name, a change of name, a child's inclusion or a validity extension is written or stamped, often by hand. USCIS and DMVs read this page because it links two names; it is the page most often left out.
Visas. A US visa is in English. Third-country visas are not, and a page of Schengen, Gulf or Chinese visas is a page of dates, categories and issuing posts that an officer reviewing travel history wants rendered.
Entry and exit stamps. Small, overlapping, half-legible, and in the local language and sometimes a local calendar. Each is translated as a line: country, port, date, direction, and whether it is readable.

Passport Translation for USCIS

USCIS forms ask for passport pages more often than people expect. The I-130 instructions tell a permanent resident petitioner who has not yet received the green card to file copies of the passport biographic page and the page showing admission as a permanent resident. The I-485 checklist asks for inspection and admission or parole documentation, which in practice means the I-94 and the passport page carrying the admission stamp and visa. The N-400 page lists the passport showing entry and exit stamps as evidence of continuous residence, and asks for proof of residence for any trip of six months to a year. All of those forms carry the same instruction: a document in a foreign language must come with a full English translation and the translator's certification that it is complete and accurate.

What we do with the stamps. Each entry and exit stamp becomes a numbered line with the country, the port where legible, the date converted to the Western calendar if it was struck in another one, and the direction of travel. An illegible stamp is listed as illegible with its position on the page, never guessed, because the officer is reconciling the stamps against the travel history on the form and an honest gap beats a confident error. The full immigration set is on the USCIS translation page.

Passport Translation for the DMV, Banks and Employers

DMVs. The New York DMV's proof-of-identity form accepts a foreign passport as proof of date of birth, and as proof of lawful status only with a valid visa and I-94 or an I-551 stamp; the same form says foreign-language documents must be accompanied by a certified English translation. Other states differ, and a few prefer a consulate translation for certain documents, so tell us which DMV; the license itself is covered under driver’s license translation. Banks. The federal customer identification rule lets a bank verify a non-US person against a passport number and country of issuance, and the branch decides whether it wants a translation of the pages it copies. Employers and schools. HR departments completing an I-9, universities issuing an I-20 and licensing boards all copy the biographic page, and the name on it has to match everything else, which brings us to transliteration.

Passport Name Transliteration and the Machine-Readable Zone

The two lines of chevrons at the bottom of the biographic page are governed by ICAO Doc 9303, the international standard for machine-readable travel documents. Part 3 restricts the machine-readable zone to the Latin letters A to Z, the digits 0 to 9 and the filler character, gives 39 positions to the name on a passport, and publishes transliteration tables for the Latin, Cyrillic and Arabic families of characters. The visual zone above may carry the name in the national script with diacritics; the machine-readable zone may not. So one passport can spell a name two ways on one page, and the US system has picked a side: DHS tells schools that a student's name in SEVIS should match the passport's machine-readable zone.

Our rule is to spell to the MRZ and note the rest. A Russian passport issued after the 2014 switch to ICAO transliteration may show Iurii where an older one showed Yuri; an Arabic name may be Mohamed on the passport and Muhammad on the birth certificate; a Korean surname may be romanized Lee on one family member's passport and Yi on another's. The translation carries the MRZ spelling as the name, and a translator's note lists the variant on the visual zone or on the other documents in the packet, so the officer can see they are one person. That is also why we ask for the passport page with every civil document we translate: birth certificate translation, marriage certificate translation. Language pages: Russian, Arabic, Korean, Chinese.

Passport Translation Cost and Turnaround

As a guide, the biographic page is certified from around $24.95 as a single page in the US market; each further page of visas, stamps or endorsements is priced as a page, and a passport with a dozen stamped pages is quoted as a set. The signed certificate is included; notarization for a bank or a foreign consulate adds about $15 to $25 (notarized translation). The biographic page alone is usually back the same business day; a full set of stamped pages within 24 to 48 hours. Photograph each page flat and in focus, since a stamp shot at an angle is the commonest reason we ask for a retake. Wider ranges are on the pricing page; the certificate itself is described under certified translation.

Ready to start? Send the document or the booking details through the quote form, call +1 (833) 282 8883, or email info@prismlinguistics.com. You get a fixed written price within 60 minutes during business hours.

Questions we get asked

My passport's ID page is already in English. Do I need a translation at all?

Often not for that page. If the labels and entries are bilingual and the recipient only needs the biographic data, a copy may be enough. Translation is needed for stamps, visas and endorsement pages in another language, and for older passports where the page is in one script only.

Which spelling of my name goes on the translation?

The spelling in the machine-readable zone at the bottom of the biographic page. If the visual zone or another document spells it differently, we note the variant so the reviewer can match them, but the passport's MRZ is the anchor.

Do you translate every entry and exit stamp?

Every stamp on the pages you send, one line each, with country, port, date and direction. Stamps that cannot be read are listed as illegible with their position on the page rather than guessed.

Can the DMV refuse a translation from a private translator?

Some prefer a translation from the issuing country's consulate for certain documents. The New York DMV's own form asks for a certified English translation; other states word it differently. Tell us which DMV and we will say whether our certificate is the right tool or the consulate is.