Sorani Translation Services

Sorani is the one Kurdish variety that regularly appears on government documents, because it is the working language of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq. Prism Language Solutions translates the Sorani and the Arabic sides of a Kurdistan Region record rather than working from whichever column is easier, and handles the Persian paperwork that Iranian Kurds bring in its own language. Each certified document carries a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy.

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

Central Kurdish, Sorani, is spoken in Sulaymaniyah and Erbil in Iraq and in Sanandaj, Mahabad and the Kurdish provinces of Iran. Which of the two you need, this or Kurmanji, is a question the Kurdish translation page answers. What follows here assumes Sorani is settled and deals with the document side, which behaves differently from every other Kurdish variety for one reason.

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Sorani and Arabic Columns on Kurdistan Region Civil Records

Civil status records issued under a Kurdistan Regional Government header are commonly bilingual: Sorani beside Arabic on one sheet, under one seal. Birth and marriage certificates, the civil status identity card, the nationality certificate and the newer unified National Card all appear this way, and older cards from before the region standardized its forms vary again.

The failure we are asked to correct most often is a translation done from the Arabic alone. It reads fine, it covers most of the fields, and it quietly omits an entire column of the document that a certifying translator has just sworn is complete. We translate both columns, note in the translator’s note where they differ, and reproduce each seal and header as printed. Where the two sides disagree on a date or a spelling, that goes to the attorney rather than into a silent reconciliation.

Sorani Script and Name Romanization on a Certified Translation

Sorani is written in an Arabic-based alphabet with letters Arabic does not have, and unlike Arabic it writes its vowels. That matters for names. A Sorani name passes through the alphabet once when the passport office romanizes it and again when a resettlement agency, a university or a hospital types it, and the two seldom agree. Shwan, Shwane and Shivan can all be one man.

Our rule is the one we apply on every file and it is worth stating rather than assuming: the passport spelling governs the English text, every source spelling is reproduced as it stands, and the note lists the variants and where each came from. Iraqi naming practice strings the father’s and grandfather’s names after the given name, so a US form with three boxes will mangle it unless someone explains the structure. We explain it.

Sorani Speakers from Iran: Persian Records and Kurdish Evidence

Iran is the opposite case to the Kurdistan Region. Persian is the only language of Iranian official documents, so an Iranian Kurd’s shenasnameh identity booklet, national card, marriage record and academic transcripts are Persian, and they go to a Persian translator. See Farsi translation. Iran is not a contracting party to the Apostille Convention, so no Iranian apostille exists to be obtained, whatever a receiving body may have asked for.

The Sorani in an Iranian file is the evidence rather than the identity documents: party membership material, letters, statements about arrest or interrogation, messages, recordings. The varieties matter here in a way they do not in Iraq. Mukriyani around Mahabad and Ardalani around Sanandaj carry Persian loanwords where Iraqi Sorani carries Arabic ones, and a translator who works only on Iraqi material will stumble over vocabulary that is perfectly ordinary in Sanandaj.

Certified Sorani Translation for Asylum and Special Immigrant Visa Files

A large share of Iraqi Kurdish filings are asylum cases or Special Immigrant Visa cases built on employment with US forces and contractors. Both types run across years and several agencies, and both are decided partly on internal consistency. A letter of recommendation from a unit, a badge, a termination memo and a personal declaration may pass through three translators at three dates.

So we hold spellings steady across a file rather than translating each document as if it were the first. Place names get one English form and a note where the Arabic and Sorani versions of a town differ, personal names follow the passport throughout, and unit names and job titles are rendered as written rather than converted into their nearest American equivalent. 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3) requires a complete certified translation of anything not in English; see USCIS translation.

English to Sorani Translation for Clinics, Schools and Agencies

The other direction is steady and mostly institutional: consent forms, discharge instructions, school notices, benefit letters and public health material for Kurdish communities in Nashville, San Diego, Dallas and elsewhere. Providers taking federal health funding carry language assistance duties under 45 CFR 92.201, and recipients of federal funds generally sit under Title VI at 42 U.S.C. 2000d.

One caution before you commission a print run. Many Sorani speakers under forty read Kurdish comfortably, and many older speakers were schooled in Arabic or Persian and read those more easily than their own language. Ask the community organization which the intended readers use. On material that has to be acted on, a recorded Sorani version or an interpreter at the appointment often reaches further than a leaflet. See medical translation.

Sorani Translation Cost and Turnaround

A bilingual Kurdistan Region certificate is one document with two languages on it, quoted as a single short certified page from around $24.95 as a US market guide, not as two jobs. Longer Sorani running text is priced by the source word, handwritten statements after we have seen them, and audio on running time. English into Sorani is quoted per project because institutional material arrives as a set. Turnaround on a single card or certificate is usually a business day. See the pricing page.

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