Visa Doc Translate

You are helping translate visa application documents for visa applications.

What this produces — and what it does not

This skill produces an uncertified draft translation for the applicant's own use or for a qualified translator to review. It is not a certified translation and must never claim to be one.

"Certified translation" is a term of art, and each authority sets its own bar. Roughly:

• US / USCIS — a full translation (summaries not accepted) with the translator's certification that it is complete and accurate AND that they are competent to translate. No credential, no notarisation (8 CFR 103.2(b)(3)).
• Canada / IRCC — either a Canadian certified translator (member in good standing of a provincial or territorial body — certification from elsewhere does not waive this), or any person fluent in both languages who swears an affidavit. The affidavit must be sworn before a notary public, commissioner of oaths, or commissioner for taking affidavits if inside Canada — but a notary public if outside Canada (so an applicant in China goes to a 公证处, not a "commissioner of oaths"). Never the applicant, a family member, or their representative.
• UK — the translation must carry confirmation that it is accurate, the date, and the translator's (or translation company official's) full name, signature, and contact details. Leave-to-remain and ILR routes additionally require a qualified translator plus their credentials (Appendix FM-SE 1(j)).
• Australia — every translation must carry the translator's full name, address, telephone number, and qualifications/experience in the language, written in English. That is not the offshore alternative to NAATI: it applies to NAATI translations too. On top of it, translations done in Australia must use a NAATI-credentialled translator (include the practitioner number); translators outside Australia need no NAATI credential.

Verify the current rule for the specific route rather than trusting this list — it changes. What does not change: every one of them attaches to a named human who attests and is accountable. That is the part a model cannot supply. None of these authorities addresses machine translation either way, so do not tell the user a reviewed machine draft is definitely acceptable — say it is untested for their route and they should confirm. What is certain is that an unreviewed draft satisfies none of them.

If the user's stated purpose is an actual submission, say up front that a person has to certify it before filing. Produce the draft anyway — it saves that person time — but label it honestly.

Instructions

When the user provides an image file path, AUTOMATICALLY execute the following steps WITHOUT asking for confirmation:

1. Image Conversion: If the file is HEIC, convert it to PNG using sips -s format png <input> --out <output>

2. Image Rotation:

   • Check EXIF orientation data
   • Automatically rotate the image based on EXIF data
   • If EXIF orientation is 6, rotate 90 degrees counterclockwise
   • View the image (Read tool) to verify it is upright; apply additional rotation if the document still appears sideways or upside down

3. Read the Document Directly (no OCR tools needed):

   • Open the image with the Read tool — Claude reads images natively, so do NOT install or invoke any OCR library
   • Extract all text information from the document, including seals/stamps, headers, tables, and handwritten fields where legible
   • Identify document type (deposit certificate, employment certificate, retirement certificate, etc.)
   • If any text is genuinely illegible, mark it as [illegible] in the translation rather than guessing

4. Translation:

   • Translate all text content to English professionally
   • Maintain the original document structure and format
   • Use professional terminology appropriate for visa applications
   • Keep proper names in original language with English in parentheses
   • For Chinese names, use pinyin format (e.g., ZHANG San)
   • Preserve all numbers, dates, and amounts accurately

5. Verification pass (do not skip — a transposed digit on a deposit certificate is far more damaging than an awkward phrasing):

   • Re-read the image a second time and check only the numbers, dates, account/ID numbers, and names against what you wrote
   • Confirm the amount's currency, magnitude and any grouping separators — Chinese documents may write 人民币壹拾万元整 alongside ¥100,000.00; both must agree
   • Confirm date order (YYYY年MM月DD日 → do not silently reorder to MM/DD)
   • List anything you could not fully verify in the Uncertain items block below

6. PDF Generation:

   • Create a Python script using PIL and reportlab libraries

   • Page 1: Display the rotated original image, centered and scaled to fit A4 page

   • Page 2: Display the English translation with proper formatting:

     • Title centered and bold
     • Content left-aligned with appropriate spacing
     • Professional layout suitable for official documents

   • Add this footer as plain text (it goes through reportlab, not a markdown renderer — do not emit literal > or **). Reproduce the wording verbatim and never substitute anything that asserts certification, accreditation, or attestation:

     UNCERTIFIED DRAFT TRANSLATION
     Machine-assisted translation of the attached original, prepared for review.
     This is not a certified translation: no translator has verified it, and it
     carries no signature, seal, credentials, or affidavit. Check the receiving
     authority's certification requirements before submitting.
     

   • If the verification pass left anything unresolved, add an "Uncertain items" list under the footer naming each field and why (illegible stamp, ambiguous handwriting, cropped edge). An empty list is fine; a silent omission is not.

   • Execute the script to generate the PDF

7. Output: Create a PDF file named <original_filename>_Draft_Translation.pdf in the same directory. The filename carries the disclaimer even when the PDF is forwarded without its cover note — do not shorten it to _Translated.

Supported Documents

• Bank deposit certificates (存款证明)
• Income certificates (收入证明)
• Employment certificates (在职证明)
• Retirement certificates (退休证明)
• Property certificates (房产证明)
• Business licenses (营业执照)
• ID cards and passports
• Other official documents

Technical Implementation

Required Python Libraries

pillow and reportlab only. Check availability first:

python3 -c "import PIL, reportlab; print('ok')"

If missing, install them into a virtual environment (project directory or scratchpad). NEVER use --break-system-packages:

python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate && pip install pillow reportlab

Text extraction requires no libraries at all — the model reads the image directly via the Read tool.

Important Guidelines

• DO NOT ask for user confirmation at each step
• Automatically determine the best rotation angle
• Run the verification pass on numbers, dates and names — never skip it
• Always emit the uncertified-draft footer verbatim, plus the Uncertain items list if anything could not be verified. Never write any wording that asserts certification, accreditation, or attestation
• Name the output _Draft_Translation.pdf, not _Translated.pdf
• Use clean, professional formatting
• Complete the entire process and report the final PDF location, and say plainly that a human still has to certify it before filing

Example Usage

/document:visa-doc-translate RetirementCertificate.PNG
/document:visa-doc-translate BankStatement.HEIC
/document:visa-doc-translate EmploymentLetter.jpg

Output Example

The skill will:

1. Read the document image directly and extract its text
2. Translate to professional English
3. Re-verify every number, date, and name against the image
4. Generate <filename>_Draft_Translation.pdf with:
   • Page 1: Original document image
   • Page 2: English translation, the uncertified-draft footer, and any uncertain items

Gives the applicant and their translator an accurate starting point for submissions to Australia, USA, Canada, the UK and elsewhere. A person still has to review and certify it under the receiving authority's rule — see the top of this file. This output does not meet the requirement on its own.