Romani Interpreter

Prism Language Solutions supplies Romani interpreters for USCIS asylum interviews, immigration and state court hearings, hospital appointments and school meetings anywhere in the United States, in person, by phone or by video. Romani has no single standard, so we ask which country the family left and which group they belong to, and match the interpreter to that dialect. Where the documents in the case are in Romanian, Hungarian or Slovak, we book a translator for those separately.

The Roma brought their language, an Indo-Aryan one, across Europe over many centuries, and today it survives in dozens of varieties. It is not Romanian, and it has nothing to do with Romanian beyond the accident of a similar name. That mix-up is the single most common reason a Romani hearing goes wrong: a clerk sees Romania on the file, books Romanian, and an hour of court time goes on discovering the problem.

Nobody has a reliable count of Romani speakers in the United States. Estimates of the Romani American population run to about a million, with long-settled Kalderash communities in New York, Chicago and Fort Worth, Machwaya families concentrated in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles, and newer arrivals from Romania, Hungary and Slovakia, many of them asylum seekers. Each of those groups may need a different interpreter.

• 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

Romani Interpreter for Asylum Interviews

Asylum is where most of our Romani work sits. From September 2023 the Romani-speaking asylum applicant, like every affirmative applicant, arrives at USCIS with their own interpreter, who must be at least 18, fluent in English and in the applicant’s language, and not the attorney, a witness, or a representative of the government of the country the applicant fled. In practice that rules out a lot of the people a family would reach for first, and it is where we come in.

Roma claims rest on the individual’s own account of what happened, not on group membership, which is why the interpreting has to be exact. An officer weighs how the story holds together over several hours. Our interpreters render hesitations, repetitions and self-corrections as they come and do not tidy a rambling answer into a neat one. A relative or a community elder does not take the chair, whatever the family would prefer. See USCIS interview interpreting.

Which Romani Dialect to Request from an Interpreter

When you contact us, give the country the family left, the region if you know it, the group name they use for themselves, and whether the person also speaks the national language of that country. Use the family’s own word for their variety where they have one. Where an exact dialect match is not available on your date, you hear that from us before you confirm and explain what the nearest match will and will not carry.

Romani Court Interpreter Alongside a National-Language Interpreter

Romani has no state certification exam behind it and no federal one either, since federal courts certify in Spanish only, so a judge qualifies a Romani interpreter on the record from training and experience. Ahead of the hearing the clerk receives the interpreter’s background from us, so the voir dire takes minutes rather than a recess.

Some hearings need two linguists. The witness testifies in Romani, but the exhibits, a Romanian police report, a Hungarian birth record, a Slovak court decision, are in a national language, and a Romani interpreter is not necessarily the right person to sight-translate them. Tell us what the exhibits are and we book accordingly. The certified document work sits on our Romani translation page, and the courtroom side on court interpreting.

Romani Medical Interpreter for Hospitals and Clinics

In a hospital, the passport tends to decide the language. A Roma grandmother from Romania gets a Romanian speaker on the video screen, nods politely, and follows part of the consent conversation. Providers that receive federal money owe patients language assistance at no cost, in a language they actually understand, and they may not hand the job to a child in the room.

Video works for a review or a routine follow-up once the dialect is right. Diagnosis, mental health assessment and childbirth call for someone in person where one can reach the ward. Ask the hospital to route consent and medication instructions through the interpreter. More on medical interpreting.

Booking a Romani Interpreter: Notice and Cost

Romani interpreters are few and spread across the country, so most sessions run by video or phone, and in-person attendance is arranged where an interpreter in the right dialect is within reach. For an asylum interview, contact us the day the notice arrives. A dialect match can take days to confirm.

Send the date, the setting, the country, the group and any exhibits through the quote form, or phone +1 (833) 282 8883; the intake desk takes urgent calls at any hour. A day on site is billed hourly, typically $45 to $95 an hour in the US market, with a two-hour minimum, and the written quote you get back is the price. Guide ranges are on the pricing page.

Questions we get asked