When a Peruvian Medical Degree Carries Its Registration on the Back

What We Received

A client submitted a Peruvian Diploma de Título Profesional in medicine (Médico Cirujano). It was issued by Universidad Peruana Los Andes in Huancayo. The certified [Spanish medical degree translation](/translate/spanish-diploma) was needed for the client's USCIS filing.

The front is the formal degree face. It carries a coat of arms, the holder's photo, an embossed university seal, and three faculty seals over the signature lines.

The reverse is where the registration lives. It carries the university registration entry, the General Secretary's authentication block, and a separate registration stamp from the Regional Health Directorate of Junín. A national registry barcode and a printed control number also appear on the back.

How We Handled It

We produced a two-page certified translation that mirrors both sides of the original. Page one is the front; page two is the reverse, with all three authentication layers in full.

Every seal and stamp was translated into English and placed where it appears, in brackets. A circular university seal became "[SEAL: UNIVERSIDAD PERUANA LOS ANDES — GENERAL SECRETARIAT — HUANCAYO]." The blue registration stamp became a labeled block with its registration number and date carried verbatim.

We did not guess at anything we could not read. Illegible handwritten signatures were marked "[Illegible signature]" rather than given invented names. Faint pre-printed stamp labels and the largely-illegible Health Directorate signatory were flagged in Translator's Notes.

Expert Note

"The reverse of this diploma bears the university registration entry, the General Secretary's authentication, and a Regional Health Directorate of Junín registration stamp (in blue ink). Several seals and signatures are illegible and are marked accordingly; on the Health Directorate stamp the signatory's name is largely illegible. The professional degree 'Médico Cirujano' is rendered as 'Physician and Surgeon,' with the original Spanish term retained in parentheses; in Peru this is the qualifying medical degree, broadly comparable to a U.S. Doctor of Medicine (M.D.)."

Natalia VegaSenior Certified Translation Reviewer

Smaller decisions kept the two sides consistent. Each DD/MM/YYYY date was rendered as Month DD, YYYY to remove the DD/MM versus MM/DD ambiguity a U.S. reader would otherwise face. The holder's name, the registration numbers, and the officer's DNI were treated as content to reproduce on the certified copy, and were redacted in the case image. The embossed dry seal, the holder photo, and the national registry barcode were each described in brackets at their positions, so the reverse reads as a faithful map of the original.

The Outcome

The complete two-page certified translation was delivered for the client's USCIS filing. Both the formal degree and the reverse-side registration were translated, with every seal and stamp in English.

A foreign professional degree often travels onward to a licensing board or a credential evaluator after the immigration step. A translation that already carries the reverse-side registration meets [USCIS translation acceptance criteria](/accepted-by/uscis) and needs no rework for those later readers.