No. Machine translations — Google Translate, ChatGPT, DeepL, or any AI translation — fail USCIS requirements because no human translator can sign the Certificate of Accuracy. Submitting a machine translation is treated as submitting no translation at all.
Why machine translation fails the regulation
8 CFR §103.2(b)(3) requires the translator to certify that they 'are competent to translate from the foreign language into English.' Google Translate is not a person. It cannot certify anything. There is no signature, no penalty of perjury, no accountability.
Even if you print a Google Translate output and sign your own name on the bottom, you've turned a machine translation into a self-translation — which USCIS also rejects (see our self-translation article).
What 'competent' means in practice
USCIS interprets 'competent' to mean a human translator who can be held accountable for the accuracy of the translation. The translator's signed statement is what USCIS officers look for at intake.
Some filers try to use AI for a 'first draft' and then have a human review it. That's fine internally — but the human translator who signs the Certificate of Accuracy must take full responsibility for the accuracy, not just spot-check the AI output.
Key takeaways
- Google Translate, ChatGPT, and DeepL outputs are not USCIS-acceptable.
- The regulation requires a human translator who can sign a Certificate of Accuracy under penalty of perjury.
- Machine + self-signature is still self-translation, which is also rejected.