DV Lottery Document Translation
DV lottery (green card lottery) winners need certified English translations of birth, marriage, police and education documents for the KCC and consular stage; each costs $25 per page certified ($35 notarized) and is delivered within 24 hours. Updated September 26, 2026.
Uzbekistan sends more Diversity Visa selectees to the United States than any other country. Here is exactly what the consulate needs translated — including the requirement the official DV instructions never mention.
Uzbekistan produced more Diversity Visa selectees than any other country on earth in DV-2025 — 5,564 of them. Russia was third, with 5,519. If you are one of them, every civil document you upload has to reach the consulate in English, and the official instructions do not tell you that.
What the State Department actually requires
The U.S. Embassy in Tashkent’s own post instructions state that “any documents that are submitted to CEAC and are not in English must be uploaded with certified English translation.” For the interview itself, the same instructions call for “your original birth certificate, English translation, and a photocopy.”
That is worth pausing on, because it answers a question people ask constantly and get wrong. The general rule for consular processing is that documents must be translated if they are not in English or in the official language of the country where you are applying. Applicants in Uzbekistan read that and conclude their Uzbek-language documents are exempt. They are not. The State Department’s reciprocity schedule for Uzbekistan is explicit: all documents, regardless of the language, must be translated into English. The carve-out does not apply to you.
The other thing worth knowing: we read the DV-2026 Plain Language Instructions in full. They contain no translation guidance at all. The requirement is real, it is enforced at the interview, and it is written down somewhere the selectee is not looking. That is the entire reason this page exists.
What a DV household usually has to translate
| Document | Who needs it | Typical pages |
|---|---|---|
| Birth certificate | Principal applicant and every accompanying family member, including children | 1 |
| Marriage certificate | If married | 1 |
| Divorce certificate or spravka o rastorjenii braka | If any prior marriage ended | 1 |
| Death certificate of a former spouse | If widowed | 1 |
| Police certificate | Every applicant aged 16 and over, for every country lived in 12 months or more | 1 |
| Diploma or secondary school certificate | Principal applicant, to prove the education requirement | 1–2 |
| Academic transcript / attestat supplement | Usually requested with the diploma | 1–3 |
| Military book | If you served | 2–4 |
| Court or adoption records | If applicable | varies |
A married couple with one child, no prior marriages and no military service is typically six to eight pages — $150 to $200 certified ($210 to $280 notarized), certification included. A household with a prior marriage and a military book runs closer to twelve.
The education requirement is where translations get scrutinised
DV eligibility requires either a completed secondary education or two years of qualifying work experience. The consular officer is reading your diploma and transcript to decide whether the first applies. That makes those two documents the ones where a vague or partial translation costs you the most — subject names, hours, grades and the issuing institution all have to carry across, not just the header. We translate the full score table, and we sum it and check it against the printed overall rating before the packet is signed, because a transcription slip in a grades grid is invisible until someone checks the arithmetic.
Police certificates from my.gov.uz
Uzbek police certificates now come as a plain A4 sheet with a QR barcode, issued within about two business days through the Unified Portal for State Services at my.gov.uz — the route the Tashkent post instructions themselves point to. We translate these routinely, including the QR-coded electronic versions.
One honest caveat. We could not find any official USCIS or State Department statement on whether a self-printed portal PDF is accepted in place of a physical certificate at the interview. We are not going to tell you it is. What we can tell you is that the interview instructions ask for originals, so bring whatever the portal gave you and the printout together.
What we do
Uzbek and Russian into English, $25 a page certified ($35 with notarization), with the Certificate of Accuracy included in that price. Single documents in 24 hours; larger orders get a delivery date by email after upload. Send the whole household’s documents in one upload — the page count and the total appear on screen before you pay, and we keep the name spellings consistent across every certificate in the set, which for a DV packet matters more than any single document.
Frequently asked
Do I really need to translate documents that are in Uzbek, if I am interviewing in Tashkent?
Yes. The general consular rule exempts documents in the official language of the country where you are applying, and many applicants assume that covers Uzbek. It does not — the State Department’s reciprocity schedule for Uzbekistan states that all documents, regardless of language, must be translated into English. The Tashkent post instructions say the same thing about anything uploaded to CEAC.
Which documents does a DV selectee from Uzbekistan have to translate?
Birth certificate for every family member travelling, marriage certificate if married, divorce or death certificate ending any prior marriage, a police certificate for everyone 16 and over, and the diploma or secondary certificate plus transcript that proves the education requirement. Military books and court records where they apply. Six to eight pages is typical for a couple with one child.
What does it cost to translate a whole DV packet?
$25 per page certified — so six pages is $150 and eight is $200 ($35 per page, $210 and $280, if you want them notarized), with nothing added at checkout. Upload the household’s documents together and the count and total appear on screen before you pay.
Do the DV instructions themselves explain the translation requirement?
No. We read the DV-2026 Plain Language Instructions in full and they contain no translation guidance whatsoever. The requirement lives in the post-specific instructions for the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent and in the State Department’s reciprocity schedule for Uzbekistan. That gap is why selectees arrive at the interview unprepared.
Does the translation need to be notarized for a DV interview?
The requirement is a certified translation, not a notarized one, so the $25 certified tier meets it. Consulates and foreign authorities frequently want notarization too — for a DV interview abroad we recommend the $35 notarized tier, where a separate New York notary notarizes the translator’s signature.
My birth certificate is Soviet-era and written in Russian. Is it still usable?
Yes. The State Department states that older documents, including those issued during the Soviet era, remain acceptable. They are generally in Russian rather than Uzbek, often handwritten in Cyrillic, and they carry no QR code. They must be translated in full, including seals, stamps and anything on the reverse.
Can I translate my own documents for the DV process?
Nothing in the rule forbids a competent person from translating, but a consular officer has discretion to question a translation prepared by someone with an interest in the outcome. For a case where a single interview decides everything, use a disinterested third party. It is a $25 decision against a visa.
How fast can you turn a DV packet around?
Twenty-four hours for a single document, and rush 12-hour service (single documents only) is $15 a page extra. Larger household packets get a delivery date by email after upload — tell us your interview date when you upload and we will confirm the delivery date before you pay.
Last reviewed 29 August 2026. Every rule quoted on this page links to its primary source. If a figure here is out of date, email orders@certifiedtranslationcenter.com and we will correct it.
Related guides
NVC and CEAC civil documents
The consular rule is not the USCIS rule — and the Uzbek-language exemption does not apply.
N-400 naturalization
The short list of what actually needs translating, and what the good-moral-character questions add.
Marriage green card (I-130 & I-485)
Two filings, two document sets, and what a full packet costs.
WES vs ECE
WES forbids self-translation. ECE permits it and sells an $85 waiver. Both rules, quoted.
Who you are trusting with your document
Every translation is prepared, checked and signed by a named person — not a marketplace, not a bot.
Otabek Obidov — owner and translator (Uzbek · Russian · English), Certified Translation Center / Fire Up LLC, Brooklyn, New York. Commissioned New York Notary Public, No. 01OB0050820.
- ✓Signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy on every job, worded to 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3) — the exact standard USCIS checks.
- ✓Independent notarization. New York law does not allow a notary to notarize his own signature, so notarized translations are sealed by a separate commissioned New York notary.
- ✓Acceptance guarantee. If USCIS, a court, WES/ECE or any agency rejects a translation because of our work, we fix it free — or refund in full.
- ✓Your documents stay private. Files are used only to produce your translation, never shared, and deleted on request. Payment runs through Stripe — we never see your card number.
- ✓A real office you can walk into — 2393 Coney Island Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11223, Monday–Saturday 10am–7pm. Online clients in all 50 states get the same signed PDF.
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