Shikomoro Translation Services

Prism Language Solutions handles Shikomoro, the Comorian language, for families from the Union of the Comoros and from Mayotte. Almost every document in a Comorian file is French, because the civil registry works in French, so the certified job is usually a French one done by a translator who also reads Shikomoro and Arabic. Interpreting is a separate booking, and the island matters more than callers expect.

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

Shikomoro is spoken by almost everyone in the Comoros and shares official status with French and Arabic under the 2001 constitution. It is not one uniform language. Shingazidja belongs to Grande Comore and is the most widely spoken, Shindzuani to Anjouan, Shimwali to Moheli, and Shimaore to Mayotte, which is a French department rather than part of the Union.

• 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

Comorian Civil Records Are French, Not Shikomoro Documents

A Comorian birth, marriage or death record is an acte d'état civil, held by the prefecture where the event was registered on Grande Comore, Anjouan or Moheli, and written in French. That is the paper USCIS wants translated under 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3), and it is translated as the French document it is.

The Comorian and Arabic layers still have to be read. Religious and community documents carry Arabic, the registry annotations can be handwritten, and a village attestation or a family letter may be in Shikomoro itself. We assign someone who reads all three rather than sending the page to a French translator who will leave a line untranslated and hope nobody notices. Every issuing authority is reproduced as printed, stamps and seals described where they sit.

Shikomoro Names and French Spelling on a Certified Translation

Comorian names pass through French orthography before they reach a passport, and the result is the single most common problem in these files. A father's name is treated as a surname on one document and as a given name on the next. A name recorded by ear at a prefecture appears with a different vowel on a school certificate. Two records for one person can read as two people.

Our rule is unchanged from any other language with this problem and worth stating plainly: spell to the passport, print the source spelling exactly as the registry has it, and set out the relationship in a translator's note. What we do not do is reconcile the documents for you. If the acte and the passport genuinely disagree, an attorney needs to see that, not a tidied translation that hides it.

Which Island a Shikomoro Interpreter Should Come From

Ask this at intake, because the varieties do not all reach each other. Shindzuani and Shimaore understand one another, and so do Shimwali and Shingazidja, but comprehension falls away across those two pairings. An Anjouan interpreter for a Grande Comore witness is a compromise rather than a match, and in a hearing a compromise shows.

Mayotte is its own case. It is a French overseas department, so Mahorais records come from a French mairie and look like any other French civil document, while the spoken language at home is Shimaore. A family from Mayotte may therefore need no document translation and a Shikomoro interpreter, which is the reverse of what people expect. See Mahorian.

Shikomoro Interpreters for Court, Clinics and USCIS Interviews

French runs the administration of the Comoros, so a younger, French-schooled Comorian is often well served by a French interpreter, which is faster to arrange and easier to seat in person. We say so when it is true. Shikomoro is the booking for an older relative, or for testimony about a life that was lived in the language rather than in the language of the prefecture.

The Comorian population in the United States is small and scattered, so most assignments run by video or phone, and that is usually quick. No state examines court interpreters in Shikomoro, so a judge qualifies one on the record after asking about training, experience and island. Prism takes those instructions from courts and attorneys as a private agency holding no court appointment. Providers receiving federal financial assistance must supply the interpreter at no cost to the patient. More on court interpreting, medical interpreting and USCIS interview interpreting.

Comoros Legalization and Shikomoro Document Translation

The Comoros is not a contracting party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so no Comorian apostille exists and nobody should be sent looking for one. Authentication demanded by a receiving body abroad runs through consular legalization arranged in the Comoros and the relevant mission, not a stamp obtained in the United States.

For a USCIS filing none of that applies. The rule asks for a complete certified English translation of the foreign-language document and nothing more. Where a body has demanded legalization, get the stamps on the page before you send it to us, so they are translated along with the rest of the record rather than in a second order. See apostille translation.

Shikomoro Translation Cost and Delivery

French actes are quoted as French, from around $24.95 a certified page as a US market guide, and a short record is generally back within a business day. Handwritten registry annotations and Arabic religious documents take longer to read than they do to translate. Material genuinely written in Shikomoro is quoted once we have seen it. On-site interpreting carries a two-hour minimum and is billed hourly, with shorter minimums for video. Guide ranges live on the pricing page.

Questions we get asked