Farsi – Persian Language

Farsi or Persian is the official language of Iran (where it is called Farsi), Afghanistan (where it is called Dari) and Tajikistan (where it is called Tajiki). It is also spoken in the Western and Central Asian countries of Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Bahrain and Iraq. Farsi belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. Iranian and Afghan Persian is written in a Perso-Arabic script, whereas Tajik Persian is written in a version of Cyrillic alphabets. Farsi has strongly influenced the languages of Turkic, Arabic, Armenian, Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi and Hindi.

It is estimated that Persian (Farsi) is the native language of 60 to 70 million people worldwide. There are over 300,000 Farsi speakers in the USA.

Shenasnameh – Iran’s National Identification Document and Birth Certificate

The Shenasnameh is Iran’s national identification document/book or family registry which also acts as the Birth Certificate. The Shenasnameh contains the following information about an individual:
- General explanations
- Information about the person. This is the equivalent of the Birth Certificate and is covered in more detail in the next paragraph
- Marriage Information
- Information related to divorce or death of spouse
- Information about children including information about their Shenasnameh
- Education, Health, Family and Occupation information
- Death
- Military service information

Content of Farsi (Persian) Birth Certificate

The Birth Certificate page of the Shenasnameh contains the following information:
- Photograph of the person. This should be added after the person reaches the age of 16 and is especially required when applying for official documents like passport
- Place for official emblem of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Stamp of the Ministry of Interior – State Vital Statistics organization
- Birth certificate number of the holder
- First name and surname of the person
- Date of birth of the person
- Place of birth of the person
- First names of the person’s father and mother
- Birth Certificate number of both the parents
- Place and date of issuance of the birth certificate
- Name of issuing officer and his/her designation

Iranian Birth Registration Law

Iran first enacted a birth registration law in 1918 and formed the National Organization for Civil Registration (NOCR). The NOCR is responsible for registering all births, marriages, divorces and deaths. According to the Registry act, all new births must be registered in 15 days. For children of Iranian parents residing outside Iran, births should be reported to their local Iranian consulate. The implementation of the registration law is the responsibility of the Ministries of Interior, Foreign Affairs and Justice.

As per the Registry act, a new born child’s father or paternal grandfather or paternal great grandfather can inform the registration authorities about the birth of the child. In the father’s absence, the mother can register the birth of her child. Legal guardian can also register birth of the child. At the time of registration, both the parent’s Shenasnameh, birth certificate issued by the delivering doctor/hospital and receipt of registration fees need to be presented. In addition to creating a Shenasnameh for the new born child, officials also update the parent’s Shenasnameh with details of their new born child (name, birth certificate number, date of birth).

Certified Translation of Farsi (Persian) Birth Certificate

Since the Farsi script is non-Latin (Perso-Arabic), transliteration of places and names is a common challenge. It is advisable to avail the services of professional and experienced translators at The Certified Translation for translating documents from Farsi to English, such as Farsi (Persian) Birth Certificate.

Iranians wishing to immigrate to the USA or study in the USA or marry an American citizen, have to apply to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The USCIS requires that that the applicant should submit a certified translation of all foreign language documents like the Farsi (Persian) Birth Certificate. The person translating the document must certify that he/she is fluent in both English and Farsi/Persian. He/she must also certify that the translation is an accurate and complete translation of the original document. USCIS also requires the translator’s name, signature, address, and date of certification should be included in the certification document.

USCIS requirements related to translation certification are documented in Federal Regulation “8 CFR 103.2(b)(3)” of “U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Immigration regulations/Powers and duties; availability of records”.

To ensure that documents translated from Farsi to English are USCIS and other USA public and private organization compliant, use the expert services of “TheCertifiedTranslation.com”.