State-by-state court interpreter certification: a U.S. reference guide

There is no national court interpreter certification in the United States. The federal courts run one program, each state runs its own, and the words they use do not line up: a credential called certified in one state can be called licensed, registered or approved in the next, and can mean a different examination behind it. This guide sets out the federal program and five state programs in detail, explains the shared testing framework most states use, and shows how to verify a credential in any state.

Every program below was checked against the administering body in August 2026. Where a program is not covered here in detail, this guide points to the authoritative source rather than paraphrasing it, because interpreter program details change without notice and a stale summary is worse than none.

The federal program

The Court Interpreters Act, 28 U.S.C. 1827, enacted in 1978 and amended in 1988, requires the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts to set certification standards. The Federal Court Interpreter Certification Examination followed in 1980.

The single most misreported fact in this area is the scope of that examination. The Administrative Office states that it "is currently offered only in Spanish." Certification programs were developed for Navajo and Haitian Creole, but they are no longer offered, and the Administrative Office describes interpreters in those languages as having been certified only during the early nineties. More than 900 Spanish interpreters have been federally certified, and Spanish is about 96 percent of federal interpreter usage.

In every other language, federal courts appoint interpreters in one of two other categories. Professionally qualified is for interpreters meeting the standards in section 320.20 of Volume 5 of the Guide to Judiciary Policy. Language skilled, sometimes called ad hoc, is for interpreters a court finds competent case by case. Certified and professionally qualified interpreters are paid at a higher rate than language skilled interpreters.

Source: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Federal Court Interpreter Orientation Manual and Glossary, revised December 2024; Administrative Office interpreter categories page.

The shared testing framework

Most states do not build their own oral examinations. They draw on a shared bank developed through the Council of Language Access Coordinators, a body established by the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators and supported by the National Center for State Courts. It was founded in 1995 as the Consortium for State Court Interpreter Certification, and older state materials still use the Consortium name.

What this means in practice is that the oral examination behind a certified credential is often the same instrument in different states, which is why reciprocity between states is common. What it does not mean is that the credentials are interchangeable. Each state sets its own passing standard, its own continuing education and ethics requirements, and its own rules about which tier may be appointed to which proceeding. An interpreter certified in one state is not certified in another until that state says so.

Five programs in detail

These five cover the jurisdictions AMS is asked about most often. The tier names are quoted from each administering body.

California

The Judicial Council certifies in American Sign Language plus twelve spoken languages: Arabic, Cantonese, Eastern Armenian, Farsi (Persian), Filipino (Tagalog), Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, Punjabi (India), Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese. Certification requires the written examination and the Bilingual Interpreting Examination. Every other spoken language falls into the registered category; the Judicial Council states the rule as all non-certified languages being considered registered languages. Where neither is available, a court may appoint a provisionally qualified interpreter with the qualification established on the record. As of July 2024 the Master List held 1,820 certified and registered interpreters.

Note for anyone working from older sources: Filipino (Tagalog) is a certified language in California. Khmer and Western Armenian are not on the current certified list.

New York

New York does not use a certified tier for spoken languages. The Office of Language Access screens candidates through a written test of English proficiency and legal terminology, with a separate Spanish and English written test for Spanish candidates, followed by an Oral Performance Language Assessment. That oral assessment is currently offered in Albanian, Arabic, Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian, Bengali, Cantonese, French, Greek, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Eastern Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Urdu, Vietnamese and Wolof. For a language without an oral assessment, a candidate submits at least three professional references attesting to interpreting skill.

Successful candidates are fingerprinted, undergo a criminal history investigation, and are added to the NYS Registry of Per Diem Court Interpreters. Per diem interpreters are paid $300 for a half day of up to four hours and $500 for a full day. Interpreters holding an out-of-state court interpreter certification may apply for reciprocity. Interpreting is governed by Part 217 of the Uniform Rules for New York State Trial Courts, and sign language interpreting by Judiciary Law section 390; the court system does not test American Sign Language and instead recognizes the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf as the credentialing authority.

Texas

Texas licenses rather than certifies. The Judicial Branch Certification Commission administers the Licensed Court Interpreter program under Government Code Chapter 157 and JBCC Rules Chapter 57, which also carry the code of ethics for licensed interpreters. License status is checked through the Commission online system.

Florida

Florida runs three designations under the Florida Rules for Certification and Regulation of Spoken Language Court Interpreters, all issued by the Office of the State Courts Administrator. Certified is for interpreters who have completed every requirement in a language with a state certifying examination. Language skilled is for interpreters in a language that has no state certifying examination. Provisionally approved is for interpreters in a language that does have an examination, who have passed the oral performance exam at a lower prescribed level but are not yet certified. The rules group all three under the term duly qualified interpreter, and direct that a certified or language skilled interpreter be preferred over a provisionally approved one.

Nevada

Nevada uses certified, registered and conditionally approved. Certified requires passing both the written and oral examinations. Registered is the route for languages with no oral examination developed, assessed instead through an oral proficiency interview. Conditionally approved interpreters are called only when no credentialed interpreter is available. The oral examinations Nevada uses are developed through the Council of Language Access Coordinators.

States not covered here

The remaining states each run their own program, most of them drawing on the shared examination bank described above, and most using some combination of certified, registered, approved and qualified as tier names. This guide does not list them individually, because a per-state summary that is not maintained becomes wrong quietly and a reader has no way to tell. The National Center for State Courts maintains a language access programs by state directory, which links each state program and names its language access coordinator. That directory, or the state court administrative office itself, is the authoritative source for any state not covered above.

How to verify a credential

• Ask for the issuing jurisdiction, the exact tier name, the language pair and the credential or license number. An interpreter who holds a credential can supply all four without hesitating.
• Check it against the issuing body, not against a directory or a resume. Most states publish a public roster or a lookup tool.
• Match the tier to the proceeding. Certified is not always available in the language you need, and a registered or language skilled interpreter may be the correct and only appointment.
• For federal matters, ask specifically whether the interpreter is federally certified, which in practice means Spanish, or professionally qualified, or language skilled.
• Confirm the credential is current. Most programs require continuing education and periodic renewal, so a credential earned years ago is not proof of a credential held today.
• For American Sign Language, ask which credential and which body. RID currently awards the National Interpreter Certification and the Certified Deaf Interpreter credential; the Specialist Certificate: Legal has not been awarded since it went under moratorium on 1 January 2016, though interpreters who hold it keep it.

Which tier to engage

For most depositions, examinations under oath and routine hearings, a state-certified interpreter in the language pair is the right appointment where one exists. For a language with no certification examination, the registered or language skilled tier is not a lesser choice, it is the only correct one, and treating it as a compromise leads counsel to book an uncredentialed bilingual instead. For federal proceedings, federal certification where it exists and the professionally qualified category otherwise. For capital cases, complex commercial trials and psychological evaluations, engage the highest credential available in the language and raise teaming at scheduling.

Sources

Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Federal Court Interpreter Orientation Manual and Glossary, revised December 2024, and interpreter categories page. Judicial Council of California, Language Access Services, certified and registered spoken language interpreter pages. New York State Unified Court System, Office of Language Access, exam information. Texas Judicial Branch Certification Commission, Licensed Court Interpreters. Florida Rules for Certification and Regulation of Spoken Language Court Interpreters, Office of the State Courts Administrator. Nevada Administrative Office of the Courts. National Center for State Courts, language access resources. Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, available certifications and certifications under moratorium. Verified August 2026.