Translation and Interpreting Services in New York City

Prism Language Solutions arranges certified translation and on-site interpreting for New York City from its office at 100 Church Street in Lower Manhattan, near the Centre Street courts and the immigration court and USCIS field office at 26 Federal Plaza. Interpreters are assigned per appointment from linguists based across the five boroughs; translations are ordered online and emailed back. Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Bengali and Haitian Creole are requested most.

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

New York is the one city where the office and the work are in the same place, and it still runs like everywhere else. There is no walk-in counter at 100 Church Street. A request arrives by form, email or phone, and a linguist who already lives in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx or Manhattan is booked for it.

In the 2018-2022 American Community Survey, 49 percent of New Yorkers, 3.84 million people, spoke a language other than English at home and 1.79 million were limited English proficient. Local Law 30 of 2017 names ten citywide languages in order of that need: Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Bengali, Haitian Creole, Korean, Arabic, Urdu, French and Polish. Those ten are most of what we book here; the rest is the long tail, from Punjabi in Richmond Hill to Mam at Federal Plaza.

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

Court Interpreters in New York City

The trial courts are organized by county. Felonies and larger civil cases go to the Supreme Court of the State of New York for that county: 60 Centre Street for Manhattan civil matters and 100 Centre Street for criminal, 360 Adams Street in Brooklyn, 88-11 Sutphin Boulevard in Jamaica, 851 Grand Concourse in the Bronx, 26 Central Avenue on Staten Island. Misdemeanors go to the Criminal Court of the City of New York, housing and small claims to the Civil Court. The federal courts at 500 Pearl Street and 225 Cadman Plaza East work under the Court Interpreters Act, 28 U.S.C. 1827.

The state courts supply interpreters for proceedings, and the shortage is documented. The Office of Language Access reports service in more than 125 languages, but from 2019 to 2025 the city’s courts lost 66 staff interpreters, a 27 percent drop. Spanish and Mandarin are requested most, then Bengali, Urdu, Punjabi, Haitian Creole, Russian, Arabic and Polish. We cover what the court does not: attorney-client meetings, depositions, arbitration, and the rare language the per diem registry cannot fill. A private agency, not a court-appointed vendor. See court interpreting.

Certified Translation for USCIS New York Field Office

Most New Yorkers are interviewed at the New York Field Office at 26 Federal Plaza; Queens residents go to the Queens Field Office, which moved in October 2024 to 31-00 47th Avenue, Long Island City. Affirmative asylum is split by borough: Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island fall under the New York Asylum Office at 1065 Stewart Avenue, Bethpage, while Manhattan and Bronx cases go to the Newark Asylum Office through its Manhattan branch at 201 Varick Street. Everywhere the file rule is 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3): a full English translation of every foreign-language document, certified as complete and accurate.

Rejections are nearly always about completeness, not wording: an untranslated stamp on the reverse of a Dominican acta, a notarial page left off a Chinese household register, a summary sent in place of the record. A birth certificate translation for a Federal Plaza interview is usually back the next business day; the form-by-form list is under USCIS translation.

Immigration Court Interpreters at 26 Federal Plaza

New York City has three immigration courts: 26 Federal Plaza on the 12th floor, 290 Broadway on the 15th floor of the Ted Weiss Federal Building, and 201 Varick Street on the 5th floor. EOIR provides the interpreter for the hearing; the attorney arranges everything around it, from intake to the declaration in the client’s language, and that is where we place interpreters. Language identification is the recurring problem in this building. Speakers of K’iche’, Mam, Mixtec and Nahuatl arrive booked as Spanish speakers, and sorting that out before the master calendar hearing saves a wasted date. A Mam interpreter can sit with counsel even when the court has arranged its own.

Medical Interpreters for New York Hospitals

NYC Health + Hospitals runs eleven acute-care hospitals, among them Bellevue, Elmhurst, Kings County, Lincoln and Jacobi, and advertises interpretation in more than 200 languages; NewYork-Presbyterian, Mount Sinai and Montefiore hold 38 percent of the city’s licensed hospital beds. All run contracted phone and video lines, as Section 1557 (45 CFR 92.201) requires. What reaches an outside agency is the encounter the line does not fit: a scheduled in-person Bengali interpreter for an oncology consultation in the Bronx, a Fuzhou-dialect speaker for a psychiatric evaluation in Brooklyn. See medical interpreting and medical translation.

Spanish, Chinese and Bengali Translation in New York

The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs reports that about 70 percent of limited-English immigrant New Yorkers speak Spanish, Chinese, Russian or Bengali. Spanish translation is mostly Dominican, Mexican, Ecuadorian and Colombian records; a Spanish interpreter for a Bronx deposition has to keep pace with Dominican speech. Chinese had 486,604 speakers in the 2016-2020 ACS according to the Asian American Federation, and the split decides who we send: a Mandarin interpreter for Flushing, a Cantonese interpreter for older Chinatown families, Chinese translation in either script. Bengali, 110,320 speakers in the same survey, makes a Bengali interpreter for Jackson Heights a daily booking. Russian translation is Brighton Beach; a Haitian Creole interpreter serves Flatbush; a Punjabi interpreter serves Richmond Hill. Korean, Arabic, Urdu and Polish follow.

Translation for New York Universities and Resettlement Agencies

New York University and Columbia hosted 27,532 and 20,733 international students in 2024-25, more than any other two institutions in the country: steady diploma translation and transcript translation for admissions. Resettlement is the other source. The International Rescue Committee’s New York office reported serving more than 3,000 people in a year, with arrivals from Ukraine, Venezuela, Guatemala and Afghanistan; Catholic Charities Community Services resettles refugees from 80 Maiden Lane. Their caseworkers need Dari, Pashto, Ukrainian and Tigrinya interpreters at a day’s notice.

On-Site Interpreting in New York and How It Is Assigned

For an in-person job in the five boroughs, Long Island, Westchester or northern New Jersey, we assign the linguist who lives nearest the appointment and holds the credential the setting calls for: New York State court certification for a courtroom, CCHI or NBCMI for a hospital, a background check for a school. On-site work is billed by the hour with a two-hour minimum; travel inside the city is not charged (pricing). Send the date, address and language through the quote form; a written confirmation follows within the hour on a business day. Under an hour, phone or video remote interpreting is the better buy.

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

Can I bring my documents to your New York office for translation?

There is no walk-in service. Upload a scan or phone photo through the quote form or email it; the certified PDF is emailed back, usually within one business day for a short certificate.

Does the New York court provide an interpreter, or do I need to book one?

For the proceeding itself the state court supplies an interpreter free of charge. For attorney meetings, depositions, mediation or anything outside the courtroom you book your own, and we supply New York State certified court interpreters for those.

Which USCIS office will my New York interview be at?

Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx and Staten Island residents are generally interviewed at 26 Federal Plaza, Queens residents at the Queens Field Office at Long Island City; your notice states the office. Asylum interviews are at Bethpage for Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island and at 201 Varick Street for Manhattan and the Bronx.

How quickly can you place a medical interpreter at a New York hospital?

For Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Bengali and Haitian Creole, same-day on-site placement in the five boroughs is usually possible if we hear before midday. For rarer languages we start on video within the hour.