Siraiki Translation Services

Siraiki work splits cleanly at Prism Language Solutions. Pakistan issues nothing in Siraiki, so the certified translation on a southern Punjab file is Urdu into English, done by a translator who can also read the Siraiki behind the names. The spoken side is the part clients underestimate: a Punjabi interpreter booked for a Siraiki speaker can seem to be working, right up to the point where an asylum officer or a cross-examiner asks for detail. Each certified page goes out with a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy.

Siraiki, also spelled Saraiki, belongs to the belt of southern Punjab around Multan, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan and Rahim Yar Khan. Pakistan's 2023 census counted close to 29 million speakers, which makes it one of the largest languages in the world with almost no presence in US language-access planning. The bookings come from every corner of a family file: a visiting parent at a cardiology clinic, a relative giving a statement about a family property, an applicant at a naturalization interview.

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

Certified Siraiki Translation of Urdu Civil Records

Before anything is quoted we want to see the scans, because the phrase Siraiki translation almost always describes an Urdu document held by a Siraiki family. Pakistan registers births through the Union Council and then through NADRA, and neither issues in Siraiki. A nikah nama comes in Urdu, frequently handwritten by the registrar. School certificates from Multan or Bahawalpur are Urdu or English. The Siraiki content in a file, when there is any, is a letter or a sworn statement written by hand.

For a USCIS filing, 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3) requires a full English version of each foreign-language document, certified as complete and accurate, and that is what we produce for the Urdu pages. One habit is worth adopting: NADRA forms print Urdu and English side by side, and the two sides disagree more often than anyone expects, usually on a date or on a father's name. Our translators read both and flag the discrepancy on the face of the translation instead of choosing the tidier version. More at certified translation and USCIS translation.

Siraiki Names in Shahmukhi on a Certified Document

Here is the part that is genuinely about the language rather than about Urdu. Siraiki is written in an extended Shahmukhi alphabet with additional letters for its implosive consonants, sounds that Urdu simply has no signs for. A Siraiki name is therefore flattened once when a clerk writes it in ordinary Urdu spelling, and flattened again when a passport office romanizes it. By the time the name reaches a US form it has passed through two lossy conversions and can look nothing like the family's own pronunciation.

The practical consequence is variant spellings that an officer may read as different people. We spell to the passport controlling the filing, reproduce the source spelling exactly as printed, and record the variants in a translator's note. Where a name uses one of the implosive letters we say so, so that a reviewer looking at two apparently different surnames can see they are one name written in two systems.

Siraiki or Punjabi: Which Interpreter a Southern Punjab Speaker Needs

Booking Punjabi for a Siraiki speaker is the standing error, and it is easy to see why. The two share a great deal of vocabulary, and in a five-minute clinic conversation nothing appears to be wrong. Put the same speaker in front of an asylum officer, or into a deposition about a land dispute, and the interpreter from Lahore starts reconstructing rather than rendering.

If no Siraiki interpreter is free, let the speaker choose the fallback. Ask whether an Urdu interpreter or a Punjabi one would suit them for a routine appointment; with a second-language booking, both parties at least know they are working across a language boundary. For testimony, consent or an asylum interview, hold out for Siraiki, and book it by name so the request is not quietly converted.

Siraiki Medical and USCIS Interpreting for Visiting Parents

Clinic appointments for visiting parents make up a large share of Siraiki interpreting. When a relative interprets instead, a diagnosis can be compressed into something tolerable, and nobody records what the physician actually said. Any provider taking federal funding owes the patient an interpreter at no cost under 45 CFR 92.201, and the patient or family can ask for Siraiki by name. Video suits a consultation or a specialist review; we push for someone in the room for a mental-health assessment or a discharge conversation.

At USCIS the work is naturalization and adjustment interviews, with occasional protection claims. The officer is weighing the applicant's own wording, so an interpreter who rounds a Siraiki idiom into Urdu changes the record. We brief each linguist to render and stop, and a bilingual relative never takes that seat. No state runs a certification exam in Siraiki, so a court qualifies the interpreter on the record; we set out in writing what ours holds. Prism works for courts and firms. See medical interpreting and USCIS interview interpreting.

Siraiki Translation Rates and Delivery Times

Short certified certificates run from about $24.95 per page as a US market guide, longer Urdu text is priced by the source word, and interpreting typically sits between $45 and $95 an hour with a two-hour minimum on site. A one-page Union Council certificate is normally back inside a business day. Handwritten nikah namas and older affidavits take longer, because a careful reader will not be hurried through a registrar's handwriting. Where the file proves to be largely English we requote downward and explain the change. Ranges are on the pricing page.

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

Do I need a Siraiki translation of my birth certificate or nikah nama?

No, because neither document is in Siraiki. Pakistan issues civil records through the Union Council and NADRA in Urdu and English, so the work is an Urdu to English translation with a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy. We reconcile the Urdu against the English already printed on a NADRA form and spell every name to your passport.

The hospital has offered a Punjabi interpreter. Is that close enough for Siraiki?

For a short routine visit, possibly. For a medical history, a consent discussion or anything the patient has to act on, no. Where Siraiki cannot be staffed, the patient should pick between Urdu and Punjabi. Tell the provider the patient speaks Siraiki and ask them to book that, since a federally funded hospital must supply it at no cost to the patient.

Why does my surname look different on my passport and my old school certificate?

Usually because Siraiki has consonants that Urdu spelling cannot represent, so the name is approximated once into Urdu and again into Roman letters. The result is two spellings of one name. We keep both on the translation, spell to the passport, and add a note explaining the relationship so an officer does not read it as two people.

Can you place a Siraiki interpreter outside New York?

Yes. Our only office is in New York and our Siraiki linguists work across the country, so an in-person booking goes to one based near you where that is possible, and phone or video covers the rest, often the same day. Give us the city, the date and the setting and we will say which we can staff before you confirm.