Prism Linguistics provides certified Farsi translation of Iranian civil records for IRCC and the courts, and Farsi interpreters for IRB refugee hearings, medical and legal appointments in Burnaby and across Canada, matched to the speaker's variety rather than sent as generic Persian.
Farsi interpreters work in Burnaby across refugee, hospital and family-law settings, with Iranian Farsi, Afghan Dari and Tajik distinguished and gender preference honoured where a client asks.
Farsi, or Dari? Iranian Persian, Afghan Dari and Tajik are close but not the same, and vocabulary, accent and everyday idiom diverge enough that an Afghan claimant and an Iranian claimant are better served by interpreters from their own variety. This matters most in an IRB refugee hearing, where a claim can turn on the exact wording of an answer, and we ask the country and background at intake rather than sending one Persian interpreter for every case.
Farsi interpreting is common in refugee and asylum matters, in hospitals and mental-health settings where trauma histories are discussed, and in family and immigration law. A skilled interpreter renders a hesitation or a euphemism as it is spoken, in the first person, and does not smooth a frightened answer into something more fluent. Tell us the setting and the speaker's origin and we assign in person, by phone or by video, with attention to gender preference where a client asks for it.
For an in-person assignment in Burnaby we assign a Farsi interpreter based in or near the city. Telephone and video interpreting can usually be arranged the same day. We serve courts, lawyers, hospitals, IRCC applicants and private individuals; we are a private agency, not a court-appointed vendor, and we say so up front.
Farsi interpreters in Burnaby attend IRB refugee hearings, medical and mental-health appointments, and IRCC interviews, matched to the speaker's variety rather than sent as generic Persian.
Burnaby lies immediately east of Vancouver and is British Columbia's third largest city, home to major shopping, film production and technology employers around Metrotown and the Brentwood and Lougheed town centres. It is highly multilingual: English is the mother tongue of about 41 per cent of residents, while more than half report another first language, and the Chinese community, including Mandarin and Cantonese speakers, is the single largest group, alongside Korean, Tagalog and Punjabi speakers.
Simon Fraser University sits atop Burnaby Mountain and the British Columbia Institute of Technology is also based here, drawing international students and faculty. Burnaby Hospital operates under the Fraser Health authority, and the Provincial Court of British Columbia and the Supreme Court of British Columbia serve the area. Together these institutions, along with settlement agencies and local businesses, generate ongoing demand for translation and interpreting in the community's many languages.
The same network supplies Farsi interpreters in and around Burnaby, on site where a speaker is close or by phone and video for outlying hearings and clinics.
For in-person work in Burnaby we assign a Farsi interpreter who is based in or near the city, and the same Farsi linguists cover the surrounding area:
Prism also serves Farsi speakers in nearby communities such as New Westminster, Port Moody, Port Coquitlam and North Vancouver — on site across the Burnaby area and by telephone or video anywhere in Canada.
We produce certified Farsi to English translation of the shenasnameh identity booklet, national identity cards, marriage and divorce certificates and educational records, with stamps and handwritten entries rendered in full.
Farsi is written in the Perso-Arabic script and runs right to left, which is the first thing that trips up a scanner or a form built for Latin text. The Iranian document that appears most often is the shenasnameh, the booklet-style birth and identity certificate that is updated through life with marriage, children and sometimes a death entry on the back pages, so a translator has to render the added stamps and handwriting, not only the front. National identity cards, marriage and divorce certificates and educational records make up much of the rest.
Iranian records use the Solar Hijri calendar, and a date such as 1360 is not a typo but a year that has to be converted to its Gregorian equivalent and shown clearly, because an unconverted date of birth on a permanent residence file invites a question. Names are a second recurring issue: Persian has sounds that transliterate several ways into English, so the same applicant can appear as Mohammad, Mohammed or Muhammad across a passport and a certificate. A certified translation should spell to match the passport and flag the variants against the original.
For IRCC and provincial bodies a translation should come from a certified translator, or carry a sworn affidavit before a commissioner of oaths where the translator is not certified. Prism Linguistics is a private agency, not an accredited government office, and acceptance ultimately depends on the receiving institution.
Every certified Farsi translation is a complete, word-for-word rendering with a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy, prepared to meet IRCC requirements. It is done from a clear scan, so a client in Burnaby gets the same translator, the same price and the same turnaround as one anywhere else in Canada. See certified Farsi translation for the document service in full.
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Farsi - also called Persian - has around 110 million speakers across Iran, parts of Afghanistan (where the variant is called Dari), and Tajikistan (where it is called Tajik). In Canada the largest Iranian communities are in the Toronto area - particularly North York and Richmond Hill - and in Vancouver, where the North Shore has a well-established Persian community. We translate a steady mix of Iranian civil documents - shenasnameh (the Iranian ID booklet), birth and marriage certificates, university degrees - alongside IRCC permanent-residence and refugee paperwork and IRB hearing documents, some of the most frequent reasons Farsi translation is requested in Canada. The script is Perso-Arabic and written right-to-left.
They are closely related Persian varieties but not identical in vocabulary and accent. For an Iranian speaker we assign a Farsi interpreter and for an Afghan speaker a Dari interpreter wherever possible, because in an IRB hearing or a medical history the precise wording matters. We ask about country and background at intake.
Yes. Iranian records use the Solar Hijri calendar, so we convert each date to its Gregorian equivalent and show it plainly in the translation, which avoids a query on an IRCC or court file. The original wording is preserved alongside the converted date.
We provide translation by a certified translator where available, or a translation with a sworn affidavit before a commissioner of oaths where it is not. Prism Linguistics is a private agency, not a government office, and the receiving institution makes the final call on acceptance.
Farsi translation is done remotely from a scan, so location makes no difference to the document work. For in-person interpreting in Burnaby we assign a Farsi interpreter who is based in or near the city, and phone or video interpreting is available anywhere in Canada.
Every assignment follows our TEP workflow for written work – translation, editing, proofreading – with a free revision policy, and every interpreting booking is managed by a dedicated coordinator to meet regulatory and client requirements.
Our Farsi interpreters are vetted for fluency, subject-matter expertise and professional ethics, and certified translation work is handled by certified translators who are members of provincial bodies under CTTIC.
We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year – including Canadian statutory holidays. Confidentiality is protected in line with PIPEDA on every assignment.