To Translate Documents Or Not?

[Time Traveller]

A Question regarding documents for the US embassy in BKK. I’m applying for an IMMIGRANT visa for myself and family, and would like to know if documents in Thai need to be translated for the interview?

I have an explanation from the state dept saying “…documents not in English, or in the official language of the country in which application for a visa is being made, must be accompanied by certified translations….”

So, apparently this means that Thai language documents are ok without a translation. Can anyone confirm this please? (As I have heard from other people that they had to translate these documents into English.)

Or is this a recent change that they can now accept Thai language documents without the translation?

[juanellis]

English or Thai documents will be acceptable at the embassy. You may want to go ahead and have the critical ones (marriage certificate, birth certificate, etc) translated in Thailand as it will be easier and cheaper. You will need them in the USA eventually (banking, driver's license, insurance, etc). If the immigrant visa is a CR versus IR (conditional if less than 2 years of marriage) then you will have to file to remove the conditional status of the green card and will need documents in english to do so in the USA.

[tripplejjj]

All documents not in English or Thai must be accompanied by certified English translations.

The above statement was from the "INSTRUCTION PACKAGE FOR IMMIGRANT VISA APPLICANTS

(Packet 3)"

http://bangkok.usembassy.gov/immigrant_visas/packets.html

I recently submitted all the required documents to the US Embassy without an English translation. I do agree with @Juanellis that you would need to get the Thai documents translated to English for future use in the States. I planned to do the same for my wife's birth certificate. I already had my marriage certificate translated to English.

PS: When you have the Thai documents translated to English, please check carefully to make sure that they were translated correctly.