Of course, our language services aren’t just for immigrants and refugees—we are a full-service translation agency well equipped to provide a full range of services to businesses. We work with clients in the medical and pharmaceutical industries, technology, marketing and advertising, education, the legal system, government agencies, and nonprofits, to name a few.

The best translators and interpreters in the field believe in us and want to be a part of what we do, so our quality is excellent. And because our main mission as an organization is to help immigrants and refugees, our rates are very affordable.

When you work with NSC, you’ll get the satisfaction of knowing that not only are you getting the best work at the best price, you’re helping to improve the lives of refugees from such diverse places as Sudan and Cambodia who live right here in your own community.

Today, one decade after the events of September 11th, 2001, our mission is more crucial than ever. The social and political climate in the United States has turned against immigration, and some US states have passed laws aimed at creating a hostile climate and deterring new immigrants. The number of refugees admitted dropped sharply in the post–9/11 period: the US admitted over 120,000 refugees in 1990, but just over 20,000 in 2002. In 2010 the US admitted around 73,000 refugees.* These refugees, from countries as diverse as Iraq, Burma, Bhutan, and Haiti, face difficult conditions in an unfamiliar land.

With services ranging from translation and interpretation to senior centers, social workers, and legal services, NSC is here to welcome—like the statue says—the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

The mission of Nationalities Service Center is helping immigrants and refugees participate fully in American society, focusing on four main objectives:

• Protecting legal rights,

• Strengthening families and promoting self-sufficiency,

• Eliminating barriers created by language and cultural differences,

• Promoting public awareness of the benefits of diversity in US society.

Language services are crucial to achieving this mission. By providing translation, interpretation, and English language services, we help to connect jobs, social services, legal assistance, and housing with those who most need them.

Nationalities Service Center is a full-service translation agency. We translate more than 150 languages, both into English and from English into other languages. We work with dozens of industries on a wide range of materials, including government documents, instruction manuals, training materials, academic research, marketing research, medical records, signs, surveys, menus, and legal documents—and our network of professional translators means that we’ll match you with the right translator for the job, no matter what the language or subject matter.

Whether it’s a courtroom, an emergency room, or a boardroom, some of the most stressful and most important places are where our interpreters are needed the most. A qualified interpreter from Nationalities Service Center can help you avoid costly or even life-threatening mistakes. Our interpreters are native speakers and consummate professionals with strong qualifications in their fields. In a medical emergency, we’ll send an interpreter who speaks the right dialect and knows medical jargon, so that the patient, the family, and the medical staff can all make informed decisions. We work with professional associations of specialized interpreters in fields like law and medicine to find the most accomplished professionals in each field.

We’re comfortable working with interpreting situations of different sizes, and we’ll do it on your schedule. Do you need to line up specialized interpreters in six languages a year ahead of time for an academic conference? We’ll have them ready for you. Do you need a medical interpreter who speaks Wu to get there ASAP? We’re on it. How about a sign language interpreter for your political rally or a Japanese interpreter who knows all of the appropriate etiquette for an international business meeting? From press conferences to domestic violence shelters, our interpreters will bridge the gap between languages and cultures whenever and wherever you need them. Call us at 215-609-1547 or request a quote online and we’ll get in touch with you right away.

Sign Language Interpretation

Nationalities Service Center is committed to working with the Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities to ensure equal access for all. We regularly provide American Sign Language interpretation services for public events, schools, and hospitals. We also work with local suppliers to provide assistive listening devices and other equipment. Please contact us to learn more.

We work with federal, state, local, and international government documents on a regular basis.

Whether we’re translating forms for a city government, massive training manuals for the military, or international adoption papers for a family who needs help navigating the system, we can help.

We’re also familiar with federal RFP and bidding procedures.

Since we at NSC are a nonprofit ourselves, we’re very familiar with the specialized needs of nonprofits large and small.

We handle everything from large-donor fundraising to street-level social work and can provide the interpreters and translators you need to handle any situation. Our affordable prices make us a great option for nonprofits with tight budgets.

We work with the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT) and other professional groups to find the most qualified specialists in legal translation.

We translate lengthy legal contracts, arbitration agreements, and other documents; provide certified courtroom interpreters; and work with the courts, police, immigration agencies, and governments to bring accurate, professional legal translation and interpretation to the people who need it most.

Of the many fields in which we work, medicine is one of the most important.

In medical situations, a life may very well depend on whether a certain word is understood correctly. Our medical translators and interpreters take their jobs very seriously and devote themselves to complete accuracy, whether they are translating technical pharmaceutical research or making sure an emergency room doctor fully understands a patient’s medical history.

A sales pitch is a delicate thing.

What works in one language or culture might be completely inappropriate in another—so it’s important to have culturally proficient native speakers translating all of your marketing, advertising, and marketing research materials. Our interpreters understand how focus groups work, and our translators are experienced with marketing research and surveys. Let us help you make sure your target audience gets the message.

We’re not afraid to get technical.

At NSC we’ve got the specialists to handle your technical documents, whether they involve computer science, engineering, chemistry, physics, or complex machinery. We work with CADD and other technical software. Let us know what your technical needs are and we’ll get the job done.

In our ninety years of working with immigrants and refugees, we at NSC have developed a deep understanding of the importance of language services in education.

We are committed to helping students of all nationalities succeed, and we work with educators to provide learning materials, classroom interpretation, ASL interpretation, and other services inside and outside the classroom.

Over the past three years NSC has partnered with Health Federation to support our interpreter training initiatives, which focus on building capacity in healthcare and human service systems that serve Philadelphia’s most vulnerable residents.

The quality of services provided by NSC has been excellent across the board. The interpreters you have provided to serve as testers and language coaches have been extremely well qualified and enthusiastic professionals, open to direction, patient in working with trainees (who are professionals in their own fields), and eager to share their experiences.

Your office staff have been more than accommodating, in particular to inevitable last minute requests and changes. We continue to look forward to deepening our relationship with NSC, especially through our latest joint initiative, Community Interpreter Training.

Claire C. Jones, M.Ed., Trainer & Program Manager,
The Health Federation of Philadelphia

As a non-profit immigration legal service provider, we often need interpretation and translation services. We have been very pleased with the level of service and professionalism that both the coordinators and interpreters from Nationalities Service Center provide.

Our requests are responded to promptly and our needs are always met. The interpreters are well qualified and extremely professional. NSC offers a wide range of languages and the staff really go the extra mile to ensure that last minute requests for interpretation are met.

NSC also makes a special effort to ensure that the victims of domestic violence and sexual assault that we work with are connected with a trained, sensitive and culturally competent interpreter.

We appreciate the opportunity to work with another non-profit organization and look forward to utilizing NSC for our future interpretation and translation needs.

Sarah Martin-Torres, Central Pennsylvania Immigration Project Coordinator, Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center

Since 2005, Nationalities Service Center has provided exceptional customer service to our EARN System participants in the languages of Arabic, Albanian, Cambodian, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese, Urdu, and much more. Requesting services can take up to three business days depending on the language, and I am always impressed at how they are able to provide an interpreter within 24 hours or less.

The interpreters are very professional and care just as much about translating correct information as we care about placing them into the workforce, and that means a lot. Thanks for the six years of exceptional service you have provided to our participants.

Marlene E. Dobson, Senior Project Monitor, Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation

ChildLink has a long, well-established relationship with Nationalities Service Center’s Translation & Interpretation services. In my six years as ChildLink’s Interpreting & Translation Coordinator, I have worked closely with the Nationalities Service Center office staff. I have found them to be extraordinarily prompt in their replies to our requests, questions, and concerns. I have also been impressed with NSC’s capacity to respond to urgent, short-notice requests for interpreters. As for NSC’s interpreters, from what our frontline staff report, they are punctual, professional, adequately trained, and effective.

Many of NSC’s interpreters develop a good working rapport with ChildLink staff and the families we serve; often they will request specific interpreters by name. Over the years, NSC staff and interpreters have accumulated substantial experience in working with ChildLink. They understand our work, our personnel, the families and children we serve, the types of appointments we have with those families, and the specific language and terms used therein.

Moreover, as a fellow non-profit organization doing socially valuable work in Philadelphia, NSC’s vision and goals coincide well with ChildLink’s. Knowing that our compensation for their services contributes to their ability to further that vision and those goals gives ChildLink an added altruistic incentive.

I do, and would, consistently recommend NSC’s interpreting services without hesitation to providers of therapies for children in Philadelphia County, or any other organizations working within the County’s early intervention services system.

Jorge Navarrete, Senior Coordinator, ChildLink

I am an attorney in Philadelphia that has been using the services of Nationalities Service Center since 2005. My office has had translations done in numerous languages through NSC and have always received excellent service with fast turnaround time. The staff is extremely professional and very helpful. I would highly recommend NSC for anyone’s translation needs.

Zhen H. Jin, Esq., Law Office of Zhen H. Jin, LLC