Заочна on a Ukrainian Diploma: Part-Time, Not Correspondence

The Form-of-Study Line on a Ukrainian Diploma Supplement

A client ordered a Ukrainian bachelor’s diploma and supplement translation. The packet holds a bachelor’s diploma (диплом бакалавра) and its diploma supplement (додаток до диплома), the sheet that lists the program details and every discipline. On the supplement, the form of study (форма навчання) reads «заочна».

The diploma was issued by a Ukrainian state pedagogical institute. The scans cover four pages: both sides of the diploma card and both sides of the supplement sheet. The supplement’s data column puts the form of study right under the program type and a four-year duration.

No receiving body was named in the order, so we certified the packet to the USCIS certification standard in 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3). As the redacted image below shows, «заочна» fills the form-of-study field on its own, with no further detail.

How We Rendered Заочна and Documented the Choice

Our first delivery rendered «заочна» as “correspondence,” a common dictionary equivalent. The holder reviewed the packet against her original and asked for “part-time” instead. We agreed and treated it as a choice of English term, since the Ukrainian word itself was never in doubt.

We replaced “correspondence” with “part-time” in the body’s form-of-study line. Then we added a Translator’s Note to the certificate page, so the source term and the other common rendering stay attached to the translation.

Expert Note

"Translator’s Note: The form of study is designated in the original as «заочна» — the Ukrainian category of higher education in which the student attends the institution for periodic on-site sessions to take courses, sit examinations and defend the qualification work, rather than attending daily. It is rendered here as “part-time”; the same term is also translated elsewhere as “extramural”."

Sarah JenkinsAcademic Credential Translation Specialist

The note does what one word cannot. An evaluator who files the term under “extramural” can still match it, and the Cyrillic stays on record for anyone checking the original.

The holder’s surname needed the same care: her order asked that the translation match her passport. We used the passport spelling with a note tying it to the Cyrillic, the same passport-first rule we applied to a Ukrainian marriage certificate translated for an N-400 filing.

The curriculum side of the supplement works like a transcript. We handled it the way we handle a certified Ukrainian transcript translation: every discipline on its own row, with its hours and grade. The hours for all 46 disciplines add up to the total printed on the supplement, which cross-checks every figure we read.

Two discipline names needed notes. Valeology (валеологія) is a post-Soviet academic subject on the theory and practice of maintaining personal health. It has no established English equivalent, so we transliterated the name and glossed it in a note.

The second name carries a misprint: a stray space splits the word for “technologies” in two. We translated the intended word and recorded the misprint in a note. Series letters printed in Cyrillic were transliterated letter by letter, and a note lists each conversion.

The Outcome

We delivered the certified diploma-and-supplement packet in August 2026, then corrected it at the holder’s request after she reviewed it. The corrected body reads “part-time,” and the certificate page carries the new note on «заочна».

Her review also settled a code we had marked partially legible: the printer’s order code on the diploma blank. She read it off the physical card, and a closer look at the scan confirmed her reading. She raised no other points.

The certification date stayed the same, because a correction to the same order is not a new certification.