My wife and I are Esperantists, and right now we are getting ready for me to sponsor her to come to Canada from Finland. Part of the story of us meeting was Esperanto and has continued to be part of our relationship. The Canadian government wants us to have certified translations of our messages, and I would like to include our Esperanto messages as well.
Is there even such a thing as a certified translation for Esperanto? Has any other Esperantists here had to deal with immigration?
Authorisation is for each language pair at a time, so I assume you mean for the pair Esperanto – English (or Esperanto – French?), and not the other way around.
Having said that I can come up with a couple of instances where to search for a translator for that pair, although I suspect that there are authorised translators (which instance could do the authorisation?).
I am certain that there exists a national translators' association in Canada. Perhaps they run a contact service.
The world wide organisation for translators is Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs (FIT), but I doubt that they run a contact service.
Other instances to contact are Internacia Ligo de Esperantistaj Instruistoj (ILEI) and Edukado.net, which may help you to get in touch with an eo-en translator.
According to this page, you have two options:
Using the services of a certified translator who is in good standing with their provincial or territorial organization and certified to translate documents. (Canada)
Using the services of a translator who is accredited (officially recognized or authorized [emphasis mine]) in the country where the translation is being completed. (outside of Canada)
You can start by contacting the CTTIC or OTTIAQ to inquire if there are any certfied translators in Canada. There may also be other provincial orders to contact.
The next step would be to locate any country in the world that officially recognizes Esperanto translators. Logically, if such persons exist, they are likely to be able to translate to English at least.
Note that since the immigration agent has a high degree of discretionary power when evaluating evidence, it may be a good idea to seriously consider whether submitting these messages is 100% necessary in the first place as they might not be receptive to the idea. Less is more when it comes to immigration to Canada: as a rule of thumb, you want to avoid supplying documents that raise additional questions unless you have no other choice.
