Dari Translation Services

Prism Language Solutions translates Dari documents into English and English into Dari for use in the United States. Dari is Afghan Persian, and the work is almost entirely immigration: tazkiras, marriage and school records, employment letters, threat evidence and court papers behind asylum, Special Immigrant Visa and parole cases. Every file is delivered complete, with a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy.

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

Three languages get mixed up on Afghan files and the mix-up costs real time. Dari is the Persian of Afghanistan. Farsi is the Persian of Iran, close in formal writing and different in everyday and administrative vocabulary, with a completely separate document set behind it; see Farsi translation. Pashto is not Persian at all. Many Afghans use both Dari and Pashto, and plenty of Afghan documents carry both on the same page.

So the first job on an Afghan document is reading it, not translating it. A certification that names the wrong source language has misdescribed the evidence before the first line of English. We identify what each part of the document is actually written in, say so on the certificate, and treat a mixed-script page as the mixed thing it is rather than picking one label for the whole file.

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

Dari Translation of the Tazkira and Afghan Identity Documents

The tazkira is the foundation document, issued through the civil registration authority under the Ministry of Interior, and it comes in two very different shapes. The old paper version is a single sheet, frequently handwritten, sometimes barely sealed, in one of several formats that have circulated over decades. The electronic tazkira introduced in recent years is printed, carries a chip and puts some fields in English on the reverse.

A tazkira identifies a person by given name, father's name and grandfather's name. There is no surname box, and a translator who invents one to fill an American form has created the discrepancy the applicant then spends a year explaining. We render the name structure as it stands, translate every stamp and marginal addition, and mark illegible handwriting as illegible instead of reading what we expect to see.

Certified Dari Translation for USCIS, Asylum and SIV Filings

The requirement is 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3): a full English translation, certified by the translator as complete and accurate. No notary, no foreign seal and no authentication of the original is called for, which matters here because for most Afghan applicants none of those is obtainable anyway. See certified translation and USCIS translation.

Special Immigrant Visa files sit slightly apart. The core of an SIV application is English already, the HR letter and the supervisor's recommendation, so what needs translating is the identity and family evidence around it and any Afghan-issued paper supporting the claim. Asylum files are the opposite: most of the evidence is Dari and none of it is a certificate.

Tazkiras, paper and electronic, standing in for a birth certificate
Nikah khat marriage documents and family court papers
Passports, visas and travel documents issued before and after 2021
School certificates, university degrees and transcripts
Threat letters, summonses, police and medical reports supporting an asylum claim

Afghan Names in a Certified Dari Translation

One Afghan name can be spelled six ways across a file, and usually is. Whoever typed the evacuation manifest chose one form, the passport office chose another, a resettlement caseworker typed a third, and the tazkira has none of them because it is in Persian script. Ahmadi and Ahmadey, Rahimullah and Rahim Ullah, Zarmina and Zarmeena are the same people.

We spell to whichever document the filing is built around, usually the passport or the parole or SIV paperwork, keep the Dari as printed, and list the variants in a translator's note. Officers are used to this on Afghan files; what they are not used to is a translation that silently picks a spelling and leaves the rest unexplained.

Dates and Missing Records in Dari Document Translation

Afghan civil documents run on the Solar Hijri calendar, the same system Iran uses, with Afghan month names. Older tazkiras do something else entirely: they record the holder's apparent age at the time of issue rather than a date of birth. That is a fact about the document, not a gap to be filled, so we reproduce the age as written and convert the issue date, leaving the arithmetic visible.

Missing records are ordinary rather than exceptional. Births at home were often never registered, offices were destroyed or their files lost, and a replacement obtained in the last few years may have been issued under an administration a US agency treats with caution. We translate what exists and describe the document exactly as it presents itself, including the issuing office and the date, so the adjudicator is reading the evidence rather than our gloss on it.

Afghan Document Authentication and Certified Dari Translation

There is no usable authentication route for most Afghan documents in the United States. The Afghan embassy in Washington and the consulates in New York and Los Angeles stopped operating in March 2022, so the consular step families remember from before is simply not available. Afghanistan is not in the Apostille Convention either, so an apostille is not an option.

In practice that leaves the certified translation doing the work. What USCIS wants is a complete and accurate English rendering, not an authenticated original, which is why a well-built translation with a clear note on what the document is matters more on Afghan files than on almost any others we handle.

Dari Translation Cost and Turnaround

Dari is quoted above the common European pairs because the qualified translator pool in the US is small and much of the material is handwritten. A tazkira or a marriage document follows the per-page guide, from around $24.95 as a US market figure, and an asylum bundle of letters and reports is priced per source word. A clean single-page document is usually back within 24 hours of a confirmed quote; a stack of handwritten threat letters takes two to four business days, because reading them is most of the work. Ranges are on the pricing page.

Dari Interpreters for Asylum, Court and Medical Appointments

Interpreting is booked separately and the considerations are different, starting with the fact that an Iranian Farsi speaker is not a substitute for an Afghan one when an officer is probing for detail. Community ties and interpreter gender both come up on Afghan cases and both are worth raising at booking. See Dari interpreters for asylum, immigration court, hospital and USCIS work.

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 tazkira has no surname. What goes in the translation?

Exactly what the document says: given name, father's name and grandfather's name, in that structure. We do not create a surname to fit a US form. Where the passport or SIV paperwork shows a surname that the tazkira does not, we note the difference rather than reconciling it.

Is Dari the same as Farsi, and can an Iranian translator do the job?

They are both Persian and they are not interchangeable for this work. Formal written Dari and Farsi are close, but Afghan administrative vocabulary, place names and document formats are their own thing. Afghan documents go to Afghan translators. Tell us which country issued the paper and we assign from there.

My old tazkira gives an age instead of a date of birth. How is that translated?

As it appears. Older tazkiras record the holder's apparent age at the date of issue, so we reproduce that statement, translate the issue date and convert it from the Solar Hijri calendar. Inventing a birth date from an age is how a file acquires a discrepancy it did not have.

Does an Afghan document need to be authenticated before USCIS will accept it?

What USCIS asks for is a complete certified English translation, not an authenticated original. That is fortunate, because the Afghan embassy and consulates in the United States closed in March 2022 and Afghanistan is not an Apostille Convention country, so there is no straightforward route to authentication in any case.