How do you translate a foreign document that uses both the Hijri and Gregorian calendars?
An Egyptian Industrial Technical Secondary Diploma carried its issuance date in both the Hijri calendar (Safar 1408 AH) and the Gregorian calendar (October 1987), with all numerals in Eastern Arabic script (١٤٠٨, ١٩٨٧). For the USCIS filing we preserved both calendar systems in parallel, transcribed every Eastern Arabic numeral into Latin script, and added a Translator's Note explaining the convention. The translation was delivered with both date references intact and legible to an English-only adjudicator.
What We Received
A client submitted a one-page Egyptian Diploma of Industrial Technical Secondary Schools (Three-Year System), Decoration and Design specialization, issued by the Ministry of Education and Instruction on watermarked security paper printed by the Central Bank of Egypt's Banknote Printing Press. The issuance line above the Minister's signature gave the date in two parallel calendar systems — 'Cairo, in Safar 1408 AH (Hijri year) corresponding to October of the year 1987 (Gregorian)' — with both years rendered in Eastern Arabic numerals (١٤٠٨, ١٩٨٧).
Every other number on the document followed the same convention: the marks obtained (٣٧٦), the grand total (٥٦٠), the registration number (٢٨٩), and the registrar's handwritten delivery date (١٩٩٢/١/١٩). The certified Arabic diploma translation was needed for a US adjustment-of-status filing.
Why This Required Special Handling
Many translators encountering an Egyptian, Saudi, or other Arabic-language credential drop the Hijri date in the translation and keep only the Gregorian, on the assumption that an English-only adjudicator cannot use 'Safar 1408 AH'. That approach silently removes content the original carried — and USCIS translation requirements expect a complete English translation of every text element, not a curated subset.
Leaving the Hijri date untranslated as 'صفر ١٤٠٨ هـ' would defeat the purpose of certification: the adjudicator cannot read it, and it adds no information to the file. Eastern Arabic numerals add a third layer — the digits in '١٤٠٨' look unfamiliar to a Western reader and are commonly misread by OCR-based credential evaluators that scan documents into databases.
The cross-cluster reality is that USCIS reads the date as part of the document's identity (when it was issued, how old it is, whether it matches the applicant's other filings), while a credential evaluator like WES reads it to confirm the candidate completed the credential within the program's stated duration. Both audiences need a Gregorian date they can read; USCIS additionally needs the original Hijri reference preserved alongside it.
How We Handled It
We rendered both calendar references explicitly in the translation, on the same line where they appeared in the original: <em>'Cairo, in Safar 1408 AH (Hijri year) corresponding to October of the year 1987 (Gregorian)'</em>. Neither calendar was dropped, neither was demoted to a footnote — both sit in parallel exactly as in the source, and the parenthetical labels '(Hijri year)' and '(Gregorian)' make the calendar attribution unambiguous to an English-only reader.
Every Eastern Arabic numeral on the document was transcribed in Latin script: ١٤٠٨ → 1408, ١٩٦٩ → 1969 (the holder's year of birth), ٣٧٦ → 376 (marks obtained), ٥٦٠ → 560 (grand total), ٢٨٩ → 289 (registration number), and ١٩٩٢/١/١٩ → 19/1/1992 (delivery date). The marks obtained and the grand total were also written out in Arabic words in calligraphic script with stylistic letter-elongation (kashida) — 'ثلاثمائة وستة وسبعين' and 'خمسمائة وستون'. We transcribed both the digit form and the spelled-out word form in parallel — 'three hundred and seventy-six (376) marks', 'five hundred and sixty (560) marks' — preserving the original's redundancy and giving the adjudicator a built-in cross-check between the digit and the word.
We also kept the registration line at the foot of the document intact: 'Registered under No. 289 at Al-Sanaye' Al-Zaytoun School, and delivered on the date 19/1/1992.' The five-year gap between the diploma's issuance (October 1987) and the registrar's delivery to the holder (January 1992) is preserved by keeping both dates in the translation, in their original positions on the page.
The Outcome
The certified translation was delivered in DOCX format for inclusion in the USCIS packet. Both calendar systems and every Eastern Arabic numeral are legible in English in the translation; no portion of the original date or numeric content was removed. The Hijri reference, the Gregorian reference, the digit form of every number, and the spelled-out Arabic-word form of the marks all appear in the translation, in the positions they occupied on the original.
What This Means for You
A certified English translation of an Egyptian, Saudi, or other Arabic-language credential should preserve every calendar system that appears in the original — both the Hijri date and the Gregorian date — with each numeral converted from Eastern Arabic to Latin script. Dropping the Hijri date for clarity makes the translation incomplete by USCIS's own standard; leaving it untranslated makes it unreadable to an English-only adjudicator. Both forms in parallel, with a Translator's Note explaining the dual-calendar convention, gives the receiving authority the full information the original carried. Run any Arabic-pair certified translation against a document translation checklist before filing — every Eastern Arabic numeral on the page should appear in Latin script in the translation.
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- Meet Translation Requirements
USCIS · Verified
- Required Documents — Egypt
World Education Services · Verified
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