For material submitted to USCIS, the rule calls for a full English translation and the translator’s certification that it is complete and accurate and that the translator is competent to translate. Check current instructions for CBP or a consular application separately.
Check completeness before delivery
Give the translator all pages of the source record, including relevant reverse sides and annotations. Verify that names, dates, credential titles, and document identifiers can be matched to the source without quietly changing their meaning. Keep any name-change evidence alongside the packet.
Ask the reviewer whether the translation addresses the actual evidentiary issue; a technically complete translation does not itself establish that a foreign credential satisfies the chosen TN profession. Translation quality is judged by whether the English version lets a reviewer read the original without the original. Every seal, stamp, marginal note and reverse-side entry belongs in the translation, marked as such, because an omitted annotation is invisible rather than harmless.
The certification should name the translator, state competence in both languages, assert completeness and accuracy, and carry a date. Hypothetical example: A horticulturist’s foreign transcript carries a handwritten grade correction initialled by a registrar, and translating the printed grade alone produces a document contradicting the original it was meant to explain. Where a name differs between passport and diploma, the record reconciling them belongs in the packet beside the translation rather than in a covering note.