Translation and Interpreting Services in Daly City

For Daly City, California, Prism Language Solutions delivers certified translation and in-person, phone or video interpreters, assigning human linguists from a nationwide network to San Mateo County courts, Seton Medical Center and immigration appointments. Daly City residents interview at the USCIS San Francisco Field Office on Sansome Street, criminal and traffic cases go to the Superior Court’s Northern Branch in South San Francisco, and Tagalog, Chinese and Spanish are the languages people ask for. We are based at 100 Church Street, New York, our only office, and quote in writing within 60 minutes in business hours.

That changes what a translation job looks like. A Filipino family’s immigration file may need far less translation than they expect, while a Cantonese-speaking grandparent at a medical appointment needs an interpreter who speaks Cantonese rather than Mandarin. Getting those two things right is most of the work here.

• 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

Tagalog Interpreters in Daly City

Filipino (Tagalog) is one of the twelve spoken languages in which California certifies court interpreters, so for a hearing, deposition or attorney meeting we can send a Tagalog interpreter who holds the state credential. A clinic visit or a parent-teacher conference calls for a qualified medical or community interpreter instead.

Philippine Document Translation for the USCIS San Francisco Field Office

USCIS assigns every Daly City ZIP code, 94013 through 94017, to the San Francisco Field Office at 630 Sansome Street, and the San Francisco Asylum Office at 75 Hawthorne Street covers San Mateo County. The requirement both apply is 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3): a full English translation of any document in a foreign language, certified by the translator as complete and accurate.

A certificate from the Philippine Statistics Authority is issued with English headings and usually English entries, and a certificate entirely in English needs no translation. Tagalog translation is needed for the pieces around it: an affidavit of delayed registration sworn in Tagalog, a civil registrar’s annotation, a parish record written in the vernacular. Two details cause trouble on US forms. On a Philippine certificate the entry for middle name holds the mother’s maiden surname, not a second given name, and a late registration date years after the birth is recorded as it stands, with a translator’s note where it helps. See USCIS translation.

Cantonese and Mandarin Translation in Daly City

Chinese is Daly City’s second non-English language, and the spoken and written sides need separate decisions. For interpreting, choose between a Cantonese interpreter and a Mandarin interpreter by what the person speaks, and mention Toishanese if the family is from Taishan, since a Cantonese interpreter may not follow it comfortably.

For documents, Chinese translation is set in traditional or simplified characters depending on where the record came from: Hong Kong, Taiwan and older records in traditional, mainland notarial certificates in simplified. A mainland Chinese notarial birth or marriage certificate often arrives with an English version already bound in; USCIS still needs the translator’s certification, so we check the existing English against the Chinese and certify our own.

Court Interpreters for the San Mateo County Northern Branch

The Superior Court of San Mateo County hears criminal and traffic cases from the north county at its Northern Branch, 1050 Mission Road, South San Francisco, where family law facilitator services are also offered. Civil, probate and most other matters are handled at the Hall of Justice and Records at 400 County Center in Redwood City.

The court arranges interpreters for its own proceedings. Defense attorneys, family law practitioners and landlords in Daly City book us for the rest: client interviews, depositions, mediation, and the translation of evidence such as text messages and letters written in Tagalog or Chinese. See court interpreting.

Medical Interpreters at Seton Medical Center

AHMC Seton Medical Center, at 1900 Sullivan Avenue, is Daly City’s acute care hospital, licensed for 256 beds with a basic emergency department. Federal rules under 45 CFR 92.201 require the hospital to provide language assistance. Families, law firms and care coordinators come to us when they need a medical interpreter present in the room for something longer or more sensitive than a phone line suits, or when discharge papers and records must be translated for a caregiver abroad through medical translation. Spanish work for the city runs through the same desk, from a Spanish interpreter for an appointment to certified Spanish translation of records.

Questions we get asked