How to translate a document from French to English

Which version of an acte de naissance should you translate?

Service-Public, the French government's information site, lists three versions of a birth record[2]. Choose the right one before translating it, since the English version can only show what is in that record.

Copie intégrale

Reproduces everything in the register, your details and your parents' names, ages, occupations and addresses, plus the marginal notes[2].

Extrait avec filiation

A summary with your details and your parents' details, plus the marginal notes[2].

Extrait sans filiation

A summary with your own details and the marginal notes, without your parents[2].

An immigration file usually needs the parents, so ask the receiver whether a copie intégrale or an extrait avec filiation is wanted. Translate the mentions marginales too. They record later changes, such as a marriage or a divorce, and USCIS asks for a full translation of the document[1].

French details that need a second look

Accented names

Kept as written. Hélène, François and Noël keep their accents and cedillas.

Offices and schools

Registered names such as Mairie de Lyon or Université Paris Cité stay in French, because the script is the same.

Place names

Should stay in French. Check them, see below.

Numbers

1 250,00 stays 1 250,00, with the space and the decimal comma of the original.

Degrees

Words such as licence, baccalauréat and master are translated, but they are not the same as a US degree. The receiver decides what each is worth.

The example above shows an error from LoreAI's test on October 31, 2026, of a scanned copy of the specimen French death certificate, specimen-death-certificate-fr.pdf. The invented town Ville-Exemple became Sample Town in the heading but stayed Ville-Exemple elsewhere in the file. A place name that reads like an ordinary French word can get translated, so compare every town and street with the original.

Documents from Quebec, Belgium, Switzerland and Africa

French documents reach the US from many countries, and the vocabulary differs. Quebec records use état civil and have their own forms. Belgian and Swiss papers write numbers as septante and nonante. Records from Haiti, Senegal or Cameroon have different formats and stamps. LoreAI detects French in all of them. Check the terms of the issuing country in the Word file, and keep the original French in brackets yourself where an English word would hide a legal difference.

How to translate a PDF document from French to English

1. Get a clear copy. Use the PDF the mairie sent, or scan the paper copy. A straight phone photo of each page also works.
2. Open LoreAI and upload. Create a free account. Your first document is free, up to 3 pages and 3 MB.
3. Choose English. LoreAI detects French automatically.
4. Download the Word file. Headings, the body of the acte and the marginal notes stay in their original order.
5. Read it against the French. Check names, dates, place names and every number in the marginal notes.

Can a machine translation be used for USCIS?

A person has to check and certify it. The USCIS rule asks for a full English translation that the translator certifies as complete and accurate, and a statement that the translator is competent to translate from French into English[1]. The certification comes from the person who checks and signs the translation.

LoreAI is not a certified translation service and does not sign translations. Its Word file is the draft. Someone fluent in French and English reads it against the original, corrects it and signs the certification. The certificate of translation template has wording to start from.

Questions people ask