- A Ukrainian birth record may be a Soviet booklet, a bilingual 1990s form, a post-2015 Ukrainian-only certificate or an extract from the State Register; the translation must name the type correctly.
- Names follow the Ukrainian form and the 2010 official transliteration used in Ukrainian passports (Mykola, Oleksandr, Kyiv), unless your existing U.S. file already uses another spelling.
- Bilingual forms are translated with both columns accounted for, and the registry office is named consistently as RATsS or DRATsS.
- An apostille from the Ministry of Justice is not required by USCIS, but if it is on the document, it is translated with it.
- USCIS needs a certified translation under 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3); notarization is not required.
Four kinds of Ukrainian birth record
- Soviet booklet, issued before 1991 and for a few years after: a folded card with the Ukrainian SSR coat of arms, printed in Ukrainian and Russian side by side, with handwritten or typed entries and stamps on the back.
- 1990s and 2000s forms: printed forms of the Ministry of Justice, frequently bilingual Ukrainian and Russian, with the entries typed in one language, usually Ukrainian, sometimes Russian in the east and south. Issued by RATsS offices.
- Post-2015 forms: single-sheet, Ukrainian only, with the trident, a series and number, and the seal of a DRATsS office. Entries are printed from the electronic registry.
- Extract from the State Register of Civil Status Acts (витяг): a printout with the full registry entry, a registry number and the signature and seal of the issuing office. Issued when the certificate is lost, for use abroad, or when a person needs the full record rather than the summary on the certificate.
All four are birth records, and all four are translated in full. The heading in the English must match the document: Certificate of Birth for a свідоцтво, Extract from the State Register of Civil Status Acts for a витяг. Calling an extract a certificate is a small thing that becomes a question at review.
RATsS, DRATsS and what the office name tells the reader
The office that registers births in Ukraine has changed names. Older documents come from a RATsS, an office for registration of acts of civil status; documents from roughly 2011 onward come from a DRATsS, an office for state registration of acts of civil status, under the Ministry of Justice. Soviet-era and Russian-language documents call the same office ZAGS.
Your translator renders the office name in English consistently and keeps the transliterated abbreviation in brackets on first use, so the reader can match the seal on the original with the name in the translation. The town or district in the office name follows the Ukrainian spelling, which we cover next.
Ukrainian or Russian spelling of names
This is the question we hear most. A bilingual form from 1996 may give the child's name as Микола in the Ukrainian column and Николай in the Russian column, the city as Київ and Киев. Which one does the translation use?
The answer is the Ukrainian form, transliterated by the official Ukrainian rules adopted in 2010, which is the system Ukrainian passports use. Mykola, not Nikolai; Oleksandr, not Alexander; Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro. Your Ukrainian passport spells your name that way, and the translation should match the passport.
There is one important exception. If your U.S. records already carry a Russian-style spelling, because you immigrated years ago on an older passport or because a previous translator chose it, changing the spelling now creates a mismatch inside your own file. In that case your translator uses the spelling on your existing documents and adds a note: the original gives the name in Ukrainian and Russian, and the Latin form follows the applicant's passport. Send us your passport page and any earlier USCIS notices, and we match them.
The apostille from the Ministry of Justice
An apostille is a certification that a document was issued by a real authority, attached under the Hague Convention. In Ukraine, apostilles on civil status documents are issued by the Ministry of Justice, as a stamp or sticker on the back or on an attached sheet, or in recent years as a printed electronic apostille with a QR code.
USCIS does not require an apostille on a birth certificate submitted with a petition. Universities, employers, courts and some state agencies sometimes do, and if you obtained one, it is part of the document and is translated on the same page as the rest, with its ten numbered fields rendered in English. Do not detach it. If the apostille is a separate sheet, it is a page and is priced as one.
The back page and the details USCIS compares
The reverse of a Ukrainian certificate can carry a stamp about citizenship, a stamp confirming that a passport was issued, a note about paternity or adoption, or an apostille. Older booklets may carry more than one. Each is translated; a blank reverse is stated as blank.
When the file reaches an officer, the translation is read against the original and against the rest of your paperwork:
- Name, date and place of birth against your passport and the form.
- Parents' names against any petition in which a parent is the petitioner or the beneficiary, including their patronymics.
- Registry entry number and date against the original, and against the extract if both are submitted.
- The issuing office and its seal against the certificate.
- The translator's certification under 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3), stating that the translation is complete and accurate and that the translator is competent.
Certification is what USCIS asks for; notarization is not required, and an apostille is not required either.
Extract or certificate: which to send
If you have both, send both, each with its own translation. If you have only the extract, send the extract; it contains the same registry data and is issued by the same authority. If you have neither, a relative or a representative with a power of attorney can request an extract from a DRATsS office in Ukraine. The extract will be Ukrainian only, and its translation will follow the passport spelling as described above.
How to order
- 1Photograph the front and the back, and the apostille sheet if separate, with all corners visible.
- 2Upload the photos, choose Ukrainian to English, and tell us who the translation is for.
- 3Attach your passport name page or type the Latin spellings you already use.
- 4Approve the price: from $23.70 per document, certification included. A modern certificate with a blank reverse, a booklet with stamps or a certificate with an apostille are all short documents, usually the minimum; the apostille is not charged extra.
- 5Receive one PDF with the English translation, the signed certificate of accuracy and a copy of the original.
FAQ
My certificate was issued in Ukraine but is filled in entirely in Russian. Which language pair do I choose?
Choose Russian to English, because the document is translated from the language it is written in. Your translator still renders the office name and place names in their current Ukrainian form and matches your name to your passport, and notes that the original is in Russian.
Do you translate the electronic apostille with the QR code?
Yes. An electronic apostille is a printed sheet with the same ten numbered fields as a sticker apostille, plus a verification code. It is translated as a page of the document and included in the same PDF, and the certificate of accuracy covers it.
The parents' names are Russian on the certificate but Ukrainian in their passports. Which spelling goes in the translation?
The translation shows the names as the certificate gives them and transliterates them to match the passports you send us, with a short translator's note explaining the variant. That way the document is translated faithfully and the names still line up with the rest of the family's file.
If you need your documents translated, always work with a certified translator.
POVO translates Russian and Ukrainian documents into English, with a signed certificate of accuracy. Upload the document, see the price and the date, pay when you are ready.
