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APPLICATION ANSWERS · TN FIELD GUIDE

Do French-language diplomas have to be translated for a TN case?

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THE DIRECT ANSWER

For a USCIS filing, a document containing French must include a full English translation certified as complete and accurate, with the translator certifying competence. Confirm the instructions for a different visa or admission route separately. Translation makes the record readable; it does not establish academic equivalence or change the credential awarded.

Separate readability from proof

A translation makes the document readable; it does not prove the degree satisfies the listing. Those are two different questions and they are answered by different things: the translation by an accurate rendering, the eligibility question by the listing's own credential terms and, where relevant, an evaluation. Treating the translation as if it settled eligibility is how a file ends up thin at exactly the point that matters.

Set the two questions out on paper as separate lines. The first asks whether the document is readable in English and properly certified; the second asks whether the credential named in that document satisfies the listing being relied on. Only the second line can be answered by reading the listing.

Hypothetical example: a graphic designer applies to a United States publishing house with a French-language diploma and a certified translation, and the translation resolves nothing about the credential requirement, because that listed profession states its own qualification alternatives. Ask which alternative is being relied on before ordering anything, and record the answer where everyone working on the file can see it.