Dhivehi Translation Services

Prism Language Solutions translates Dhivehi documents from the Maldives into English and supplies Dhivehi interpreters for US appointments. The records are written in Thaana, a right to left script used for no other language, which is why a general South Asian or Arabic translator cannot start on them. Certified work leaves with a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy, and names are spelled to match the passport.

Last reviewed September 12, 2026 by Sarah J, Prism Language Solutions

Dhivehi has fewer than 400,000 speakers, almost all of them in the Maldives, and it shares neither its script nor much of its vocabulary with any neighbour. The US community is correspondingly small: students, the relatives who visit them, people here for medical treatment, and a scattering of long-settled families. That means a Dhivehi request is a specialist job rather than a routine one, and it is usually handled remotely.

• 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

Dhivehi Birth Certificates and ID Cards in Thaana Script

The documents that reach us are birth certificates, national identity cards, marriage and divorce records, school certificates and the occasional court or council letter. A birth in the Maldives is registered with the city or island council where it happened, and the Department of National Registration assigns the national identity number and issues the card. Those bodies print in Dhivehi, so the certified translation under 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3) is a genuine Dhivehi to English job, not a formality.

We translate each record complete, reproduce the issuing council exactly as it prints, render the seals and stamps, and keep the Dhivehi date conventions clear where a document carries both a Gregorian and a Hijri date. Where a translation gives the names and skips the council letterhead, that is the one that comes back with a question. See certified translation and birth certificate translation.

Romanizing Dhivehi Names on a Certified Translation

This is where Maldivian files usually go wrong. There is no single official way of writing a Dhivehi name in Latin letters. The government approved a Latin transliteration in the 1970s so the language would work on telex machines, reinstated Thaana in 1978, and the effect of that episode is that families settled on their own Latin spellings and kept them. Two brothers can be Hussain and Hussein on their passports and be spelled identically in Thaana.

So a translator who romanizes the Thaana from first principles hands the officer a name that does not match the passport, and the file stalls over a discrepancy that was manufactured in translation. Our rule is the reverse: we spell every personal name exactly as the travel document spells it, print the Thaana form alongside, and note in the certificate that the Latin spelling follows the passport rather than a transliteration standard.

Maldives Apostille Status and Dhivehi Document Authentication

The Maldives is not a contracting party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so there is no Maldivian apostille and nobody can obtain one for you. Where a US or foreign body insists on authentication, the route is consular legalization through the relevant ministry and mission, arranged in the Maldives before the document leaves.

For USCIS the requirement is simply a complete certified English translation of everything not in English, and an apostille is not part of it. Arrange any authentication first, so the stamps are translated with the page rather than turning up afterwards on a document your translation no longer matches. See apostille translation and notarized translation.

Male or Addu: Which Dhivehi Interpreter to Book

Standard Dhivehi is the speech of Male and it serves for most appointments. The southern atolls are different. The varieties of Addu, Huvadhu and Fuvahmulah diverge far enough that speakers from the capital do not follow them, which is not a matter of accent but of comprehension.

For a routine consultation or a naturalization interview a standard Dhivehi interpreter is fine. For an older speaker from the far south, a detailed account, or anything where a misunderstanding is expensive, we look for a southern speaker and tell you honestly whether we found one. Ask the person which atoll they are from; that single question does more than any amount of scheduling.

Dhivehi Interpreters for Hospitals, Courts and USCIS Interviews

Health settings generate most of the demand: a student in an emergency room, a parent who has travelled for treatment, a consent conversation where nodding is not agreement. The interpreter is owed to the patient at no cost by any provider receiving federal health funding, under 45 CFR 92.201, and Maldivian families almost never arrive knowing it.

Dhivehi has no court certification exam in any state, so a bench works from an otherwise qualified interpreter, and Prism acts as a private agency rather than a court-appointed vendor. Almost every assignment runs by video or phone, arranged with the clerk or the scheduler in advance. In a USCIS interview the interpreter renders the applicant's answers and adds nothing, and a relative never takes that chair however fluent they are. Details sit under medical interpreting, court interpreting and USCIS interview interpreting.

Dhivehi Translation Cost and Turnaround

Dhivehi sits at the rare end of the range because the pool of translators is small and nobody else can check the work. Short certified records are quoted per page and usually returned in two to three business days rather than overnight; longer material is quoted per project after we have seen a scan. Interpreting is booked by the hour with a minimum, remotely in nearly all cases. Include the passport page with the documents, because the name spellings on it decide part of the job. Ranges sit on the pricing page; the written quote fixes the price before work starts.

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