Arabic Asylum Document Translation to English

Certified Arabic to English translation for asylum

Arabic is one of the most requested languages in UK asylum cases. Sudan was among the top nationalities claiming asylum in the year to June 2026, and many claims from Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya also rely on Arabic papers.

A certified translation has two parts: the English translation and a signed certificate. GOV.UK's guidance on certifying a document (opens in a new tab) says the translator should confirm it is a "true and accurate translation of the original document", with the date and their full name and contact details. The Immigration Rules (paragraph 39B) add the translator's signature and, for leave to remain and settlement, the translator's or company's credentials.

Each Arabic to English certified translation UK clients get from us contains:

• a complete English translation that mirrors the original layout, including headers, tables and boxes
• a signed and dated certificate of accuracy
• our company details and translator credentials (we are members of the ITI, CIOL and ATC)
• translator notes for seals, stamps, handwritten additions and damaged parts

Sample

Certified translation

Civil status record (Ikhraj Qaid), Arabic

Arabic → English

Full name

redacted

Mother's name

redacted

Place of birth

redacted

Date of birth

redacted

Religion

redacted

Civil registry number

redacted

Issuing authority

Civil status directorate

• [Round stamp: civil status directorate, partly illegible]
• [Signature]
• [Translator's note: Hijri dates, where used, are given as written with the Gregorian date in brackets.]

Translator's statement

I confirm that this is a true and accurate translation of the original document.

Date

DD/MM/YYYY

Translator

Full name

Signature

We certify to meet the Home Office's published requirements. We cannot promise that a caseworker or judge will accept a document: they decide how much weight each piece of evidence gets.

Arabic documents we translate

We translate Arabic civil records, legal papers and personal evidence. The most common are:

• Identity cards and national numbers, including Sudanese ID cards and Iraqi INID cards. See ID card translation for asylum.
• Birth records and birth notifications, covered by birth certificate translation for asylum.
• Marriage and divorce papers, including Sharia court marriage contracts. See marriage certificate translation for family reunion and divorce certificate translation for refugees.
• Death certificates for relatives, through death certificate translation for asylum.
• Police reports and summonses, covered in police report translation for asylum.
• Army and conscription papers. Read about military service document translation.
• Medical reports from hospitals in your home country, through medical report translation for asylum.
• School and university certificates, including the Sudan School Certificate. See education certificate translation for refugees.
• Messages and recordings. WhatsApp chats and voice notes in spoken Arabic. See messaging app evidence translation for asylum and audio video translation for asylum.
• Work letters from former employers, through employment letter translation.

For a first claim with mixed papers, our asylum claim evidence translation service handles the whole set together.

Arabic dialects and date formats

Official documents across the Arab world are written in Modern Standard Arabic. The spoken language is very different from country to country. This matters for handwritten notes, text messages and recordings, where people write the way they speak.

Dialects we work with

We match the translator to the dialect. For Sudanese Arabic translation, that means a translator who knows Sudanese words, local place names and the way names are written there.

Dates and numbers

Sudanese civil documents are mainly dated in the Gregorian calendar, with Arabic text. Iraqi, Syrian and Libyan civil records are also mainly Gregorian. Religious and Gulf documents may use Hijri (Islamic lunar) dates. When a Hijri date appears, we show the original date and the Gregorian equivalent side by side.

Some documents use Eastern Arabic digits (٣, ٤, ٥) and some use Western digits (3, 4, 5). We convert both carefully and double-check every date, ID number and reference.

Names

Arabic names often run to three or four parts: your name, your father's name and your grandfather's name. We keep the order and spell names as they appear on your passport, eVisa or Home Office papers.

Sudanese and Iraqi documents in Arabic

These two countries send us the most Arabic documents. Here is a short summary. The country pages go further.

Sudanese documents

Since 2011, Sudan's General Directorate for Civil Registration (Ministry of Interior) has issued the national number and national ID card. Birth certificates, school certificates and police papers are in Arabic, mainly with Gregorian dates. Many people fled the conflict with only phone photos of their papers, and we can work from those. Full detail is on our Sudan document translation for asylum page.

Iraqi documents

Iraq's Civil Status ID (CSID) and Iraqi Nationality Certificate stopped being valid on 1 April 2024. They have been replaced by the Unified National Card (INID), according to the Home Office country bulletin on Iraq (opens in a new tab). We still translate old CSIDs, because they can show identity and the family's civil registry details, known as the Family Book volume and page reference.

For Iraqi Arabic document translation of ID cards, read Iraqi ID card translation. Wider Iraqi papers are covered on our Iraq document translation for asylum page. Kurdish-language Iraqi papers are covered on our Kurdish page.

English to Arabic: Home Office letters in your language

Understanding your own decision matters. We offer English to Arabic Home Office letter translation for refusal letters, interview records, tribunal decisions and solicitor letters. The Arabic is written in clear Modern Standard Arabic that readers from any Arab country can follow.

Our Home Office refusal letter translation page explains how this works. Appeal deadlines are short: GOV.UK gives 14 days if you are in the UK. We translate only. For advice on your case, contact a solicitor or an adviser regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA, formerly OISC).

Our Arabic translators

Our Arabic linguists are UK-based native speakers who know a range of regional dialects, so we can match your document and your dialect. Every translation is signed by a qualified translator, and we never use machine translation for certified work.

1. Regional match. Sudanese documents go to a translator who knows Sudanese terms. Iraqi documents go to someone who knows Iraqi civil records.
2. Legal terms. Our team knows court, police and civil registry language in Arabic and the correct UK English terms.
3. Second check. A second linguist checks names, numbers, dates and stamps.
4. Care with your data. Files are uploaded securely, handled under UK GDPR and deleted after delivery.

Arabic translation price and delivery time

Most Arabic documents are priced per page. A national ID card is often a single page. A court file or medical report is priced by the number of pages or words.

Prices shown are starting prices and include VAT. We confirm your exact price in a written quote before any work starts.

The Home Office does not normally ask for notarised translations. If a deadline is close, use our urgent asylum document translation service. Full price details are on the translation prices page, or ask for a fixed Arabic translation quote.

If you are preparing papers for family abroad, see our refugee family reunion document translation page. New refugee family reunion applications have been paused since 4 September 2025, and in March 2026 the Home Office said the route "remains paused". Check GOV.UK for the latest position. For employers and police checks later on, we also do police clearance certificate translation and driving licence translation for refugees.