Kurdish Translation Services

Prism Language Solutions handles certified English translation for Kurdish cases: Kurmanji, Sorani and Behdini source text, and the Arabic, Turkish and Persian records that arrive in the same envelope. Every certified job comes with a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy. Tell us the variety and the country of issue when you send the file, because a Kurdish order with neither of those on it cannot be assigned.

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

Kurds are spread across four states and three writing systems, and the paperwork shows it. Nashville holds the largest Kurdish community in the United States, settled in waves since the mid-1970s and drawn mainly from Iraqi Kurdistan, with Syrian, Iranian and Turkish Kurds alongside; local estimates put it between 15,000 and 20,000 people. The work that reaches us from there, and from Dallas, San Diego, Phoenix and the Detroit area, is dominated by asylum and family petitions.

• 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 Kurdish: Kurmanji, Sorani or Behdini for Your Translation

Kurmanji and Sorani are written languages, not accents of one another. Kurmanji uses the Hawar alphabet, a Latin script, and is the Kurdish of Turkey, Syria and the Duhok area. Sorani uses an Arabic-based alphabet, is the Kurdish of Sulaymaniyah, Erbil and much of Iranian Kurdistan, and is one of the two official languages of Iraq alongside Arabic. A translator who works in one does not automatically read the other.

Kurdish Documents Usually Arrive in Arabic, Turkish or Persian

This is the point a competitor’s page will not make. Kurdish has only recently been a language of official record anywhere, and for most of the twentieth century it was actively suppressed in several of the states where Kurds live. The practical result is that a Kurdish client’s file is rarely in Kurdish. Iraqi records are in Arabic, with Kurdish beside it on newer documents. Turkish records are in Turkish. Syrian records are in Arabic. Iranian records are in Persian.

We staff accordingly. A single Kurdish matter can need an Arabic translator for the civil registry extract, a Turkish translator for the nufus record, and a Kurdish linguist for the handwritten letter, the membership card and the recorded call. Quoting it as one language, at one rate, is how a file ends up half translated.

Certified Kurdish Translation for Asylum and USCIS Filings

Anything filed with USCIS in another language needs a complete English translation certified as accurate, under 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3). In an asylum case completeness carries extra weight, because the decision often turns on whether the documents corroborate a chronology: which town, which checkpoint, which year, which armed group. A translator who quietly converts a Kurdish place name into its Arabic or Turkish official form has broken the link between the declaration and the exhibit. We keep the form the document uses and give the alternative in a note.

• Asylum declarations, witness letters and police and security records
• Party, union and association membership cards
• Arrest and court papers from Iraq, Turkey, Syria or Iran
• Medical records supporting a claim of past harm
• UNHCR registration papers and camp documents where no civil record exists

Iraqi National Card and Kurdistan Region Records in Kurdish Files

Iraq has changed its identity paperwork inside the last decade, and half the confusion we see comes from that. The biometric Iraqi National Card, issued by the Ministry of Interior since January 2016, replaced the nationality certificate, the civil status identity document and the residency card, and it carries its fields in both Arabic and Kurdish. Issuance of the two older documents inside Iraq was stopped in the spring of 2024, so families now hold a mixture of old and new.

Send everything, including the superseded cards. We translate both faces of each document, both language columns where they appear, every stamp, and the name as the card records it, which in Iraqi practice strings the father’s and grandfather’s names after the given name.

Kurdish Name Spelling on Turkish, Syrian and Iraqi Records

Names are the commonest reason a Kurdish file draws a query, and the reason is political rather than linguistic. Turkey’s 29-letter alphabet, fixed by the 1928 reform, has no q, w or x; the Kurdish alphabet has all three. Their use in official records was restricted until a reform announced in 2013, so a great many Kurds from Turkey carry an official Turkish name alongside the Kurdish one their family uses, and the two look nothing alike.

Add transliteration from Arabic script for the Iraqi and Syrian documents and one man can be Muhemmed, Mehmet and Mohammed across three papers. Our rule does not vary: spell to the passport, reproduce each source spelling as printed, list the variants in a note, and never harmonize the documents silently. If a difference is substantive rather than orthographic, that is for the attorney to address. See immigration attorneys.

Apostille Rules for Kurdish Document Translation by Country

The four countries do not answer this the same way, which catches people out. Turkey has been in the Apostille Convention since the 1980s, so a Turkish civil registry record can carry an apostille. Iraq, Syria and Iran are not contracting parties, so no apostille exists for documents issued there, including those under a Kurdistan Region header. For USCIS none of it is required. Where a university or a foreign authority does demand legalization, arrange it at source before sending the document. See apostille translation.

Kurdish Translation Cost and Delivery

Kurdish prices above the common languages because the pool is small and the assignment is specific. Certified single pages are quoted from around $24.95 as a US market guide, running text by the source word, audio by recording length. One identity card or certificate is usually back within a business day. A file mixing Sorani, Arabic and Turkish takes longer, because it is three assignments held together by one project manager. See the pricing page, and rush translation where a hearing date is close.

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