People search for “translate my medical records” for very different reasons, and the right answer depends almost entirely on who is going to read the translation.
- An official body, such as USCIS deciding an immigration case.
- A doctor who reads another language, here or abroad.
- You, or family, trying to understand what a letter actually says.
Those three need different things, and paying for the wrong one is common. A certified translation of a twenty-page discharge summary takes time and money. An app translation is quick, and will not meet USCIS’s rule. This guide sorts out which is which, with every rule linked to its source.
Disclosure
I am a doctor, and I founded exora, a personal health record app that can show your record in another language for reading. It appears once, near the end, and I am explicit there about what it is not.
When you need a translation at all
The usual situations:
- Immigrating to the US. Medical and vaccination records from another country have to reach USCIS, or a civil surgeon, in a form they can use.
- A new doctor here. Your history is in Spanish, Tagalog or Korean, and your new primary care doctor reads English.
- Moving abroad. A doctor in another country needs your history, and it is in English.
- Treatment abroad. A surgeon or clinic asks for your scans, results and specialist letters before they will book you.
- Insurance. A claim for care you had overseas comes with bills and reports in another language.
The first question in every case is the same: is the reader an official body with rules about translations, or a person who just needs to understand?
What “certified translation” means in the US
In the US, a “certified translation” describes the document, not the translator. The American Translators Association (ATA), a professional association of translators and interpreters, puts it plainly: “In the United States, anyone can certify a translation,” and “a translator does not need to be certified in order to provide a certified translation.” What makes it certified is a signed statement attached to it. ATA says that statement should at minimum include:
- a statement of the translator’s qualifications;
- a statement that the translation is complete and accurate;
- which document was translated, and its language;
- the translator’s name, signature and the date.
A notarized translation is something else again. ATA notes that a notary only verifies the identity of the person signing the statement, not the quality of the translation. Whether you need one depends on who asked for it.
A certified translator is a different idea: a person who holds a credential. The best-known is ATA certification, which translators earn by passing a three-hour, proctored exam, and which ATA describes as “the only widely recognized measure of competence for translation in the U.S.” It is only offered for specific language combinations, and certified translators must keep up continuing education. You can search for one in ATA’s directory, and ATA’s site lets you verify a translator’s certification and language pairs.
Immigration: what USCIS requires
For anything you file with US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the rule is in federal regulations, at 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3):
Any document containing foreign language submitted to USCIS shall be accompanied by a full English language translation which the translator has certified as complete and accurate, and by the translator’s certification that he or she is competent to translate from the foreign language into English.
Four things follow from that:
- It has to be a full translation. USCIS’s own Policy Manual says “a summary of a document prepared by a translator is unacceptable.”
- The translation goes with the foreign-language document. The rule attaches the translation to the foreign-language document itself, so you submit both together, never the translation alone. That is usually a copy of the document: under the same regulation, originals or photocopies go in as the form instructions say, and USCIS can ask to see an original.
- The certification needs contact details. The current Form I-693 instructions spell it out: the translator’s certification must include their signature, printed name, the date and their contact information.
- No particular credential is named. The regulation does not mention ATA, notarization or any license. ATA’s own guide to USCIS translations confirms that “USCIS does not require ATA certification.” It also warns that translating your own documents, or having a relative do it, is “generally a risky undertaking,” because USCIS could question the translations or consider them biased.
If a translation looks inaccurate, the Policy Manual says the translator can be asked to testify about it. An independent, careful translator is the safer choice.
The immigration medical exam
If you apply for a green card from inside the US (adjustment of status), you will usually need an immigration medical exam from a USCIS-designated doctor, called a civil surgeon, who completes Form I-693. The instructions say all adjustment of status applicants must present documents showing their vaccinations, that the civil surgeon will review your vaccination history with you, and: “Make sure you take your vaccination records with you to your appointment.”
If you cannot prove a vaccine, the instructions say the civil surgeon can give it to you. So the practical step is simple: before the appointment, ask the civil surgeon’s office whether they need your foreign vaccination records translated, and in what form. Anything you then send to USCIS itself falls under the translation rule above.
On cost: you pay the civil surgeon directly for the exam and any follow-up tests. The Form I-693 page says exam fees are set by the civil surgeon and may vary, and any USCIS filing fee is on its fee schedule.
At the doctor: you have a right to an interpreter
Many searches for “translate medical records” are really about a conversation with a doctor. For that, the right tool is an interpreter, and in many cases it is free by law.
Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability in health programs that receive federal financial assistance. Its current regulation on language access, 45 CFR 92.201, says covered health programs must take reasonable steps to give people with limited English proficiency meaningful access, and that language assistance “must be provided free of charge, be accurate and timely, and protect the privacy and the independent decision-making ability” of the patient. Specifically, a covered provider:
- must offer a qualified interpreter when interpretation is required, and use a qualified translator for written translation;
- must not require you to bring your own interpreter, or to pay for one;
- must not rely on a minor child to interpret, except briefly in an emergency while a qualified interpreter is found;
- must not rely on an adult who came with you, except in an emergency or where you ask for it in private, with a qualified interpreter present, and it is documented.
Covered providers must also tell you this. Under 45 CFR 92.11, they must provide a notice, including on their website and in their facilities, that language assistance is available free of charge, in English and at least the 15 languages most commonly spoken by people with limited English proficiency in their state.
Is this rule still in force? The 2024 Section 1557 rule has been litigated. In June 2026, HHS published a Federal Register notice that a federal court had vacated parts of the rule relating to gender identity. The language access sections were not among them, and the notice states that “the other provisions of the Section 1557 Rule remain in force.” Rules can change, so for a specific dispute, check the current regulation.
Two practical points. The rule covers health programs that receive federal financial assistance from HHS, so if you are unsure whether yours does, ask. And tell the clinic when you book that you need an interpreter, and in which language, so one is ready.
Please do not rely on a child or a relative to interpret a medical appointment, even if they offer. Consent, a new diagnosis and medicine instructions are exactly where a word missed or softened matters.
Interpreters and translators are different professions
Interpreters work with speech; translators work with written text. The certifications are separate too. For medical interpreters, the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI) offers credentials including CoreCHI, for interpreters of any language, and the CHI credential in Spanish, Arabic and Mandarin. The National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters (NBCMI) offers the Certified Medical Interpreter (CMI) credential in Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Russian, Vietnamese and Korean.
Both certify interpreting, not document translation.
A new doctor, treatment abroad and insurance
Outside immigration, there is usually no federal rule about the form a translation of your old records must take. The reader decides.
- A new US doctor. The Section 1557 rules above are about how a covered provider communicates with you. They do not say whether a clinic will translate your old foreign records. Ask what the doctor needs; often it is the key facts, which a reading translation plus the original can cover.
- Treatment abroad. The clinic overseas sets its own requirements. Ask in writing what it accepts before you pay for anything.
- Insurance. If an insurer wants foreign bills or reports translated, ask whether it means a certified translation, a notarized one, or neither. Its own instructions decide.
When reading it is enough, and where machine translation fits
Then there is the third reader: a person who just needs to understand. Your parent reading their own discharge summary. A sister in Lima helping decide about an operation. A doctor in Madrid who reads English slowly and would rather not guess at “bid prn”.
None of them needs a certificate. They need the content in their language, accurately, and some way to check it against the original. For this, a translation for reading is the right tool, and it is worth being clear about what a good one looks like:
- Numbers must survive. A dose, a date or a result changed in translation is the error that hurts people.
- Medical names should be the real names, not a literal word-for-word rendering. Medicine names also change by country: what a US pharmacy calls acetaminophen is paracetamol in much of the world.
- The original should be one tap or one page away, so anyone who doubts a line can check it.
The federal health rules agree about where machine translation stops. Section 1557’s regulation says that when a covered provider uses machine translation for text that is critical to a patient’s rights or access, where accuracy is essential, or where the material is complex or technical, the translation “must be reviewed by a qualified human translator” (45 CFR 92.201(c)(3)). Medical records are usually all three. That rule governs providers, not you, but it is a good benchmark: automated translation helps you understand, and should not stand alone when a decision rests on it.
Pasting a whole medical record into a general translation website is what most people try. It handles none of those three points reliably, and it hands your health information to a service never built to hold it.
Where exora fits, and where it does not
exora is a personal health record app, and it is for the third reader. You upload documents, such as PDFs, photos and scans, and exora reads them for you, with a reading system built for medical records. It builds one record from them, and that record reads in English, Spanish, French, Italian or Portuguese. Change the language and your conditions, medicines, allergies and operations change with it, and so do many sentences, once a translation has been checked. Visit summaries and some medicine explanations stay in English for now. Tap “Original wording” and the document’s own words are underneath. exora is free to start, with an optional membership.
Every sentence translation is checked a second time, any doubt is settled separately, and every number is compared with the original. One that changes a number is never shown; you see the document’s wording instead. A doctor you show your record to at exora.au/view can switch its names into their own language, while longer sentences stay as written for now. If you write to the chat in Spanish, it explains your record in Spanish. The documents you uploaded stay exactly as they were. The translation feature page shows how it works.
Where it does not help, honestly:
- It is not a certified translation. Nothing exora produces will satisfy USCIS, a civil surgeon who asks for one, a court, or an insurer that asks for a certified translation. For those, use a qualified human translator who will sign a certification.
- It is not an interpreter. For a conversation with your doctor, ask the clinic for a qualified interpreter.
- It can misread. The reading and translation are automated, so check anything that matters against the original. That is why the original is always one tap away.
- No connection to any patient portal. You download or photograph your records and upload them.
- Your data is stored in Sydney, Australia. exora is an Australian company, it is not a HIPAA-covered entity, and it holds no certifications. The security page explains how your data is protected.
- It is not medical advice. It organizes and presents your information. It does not diagnose and it does not tell you what to do.
If you still need to collect your US records first, this guide to your right of access explains how to ask. If you are moving countries rather than visiting, moving countries with your medical records covers what to request before you leave.
The short version
Work out who will read the translation. USCIS wants a full English translation with the translator’s signed certification of accuracy and competence, submitted with the foreign-language document. No particular credential is required, though an ATA-certified translator is a safe choice. A conversation with your doctor needs a qualified interpreter, which covered providers must offer free of charge. And for you, your family or a doctor who just needs to understand, a careful translation for reading, with the original beside it, is enough.
Claims about US law and immigration requirements are sourced to the Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR), the Federal Register and USCIS, and claims about translator and interpreter credentials to the American Translators Association, CCHI and NBCMI, all linked inline and checked on November 9, 2026. Rules change; this page will be updated as they do. This article is general information, not medical, legal or immigration advice. How exora handles your information is in our privacy policy.
