Immigration and asylum appeals

Who books the hearing interpreter

For the appeal hearing itself, the interpreter is arranged through HMCTS’s language services contract. From 5 October 2026, thebigword is the primary spoken-language supplier and Translate UK the additional secondary supplier. I am registered with Translate UK for Ministry of Justice work, and I take remote bookings.

Everything that happens before the hearing — the conferences, the statement and the checking of the record — is arranged by the instructing solicitor. That is the work you can instruct me on directly.

What you can instruct me for

• Client conferences with solicitors and counsel ahead of the appeal, by Teams, telephone or Prison Video Link.
• Witness statements — taking the account in Arabic and reading the statement back to the client before it is signed.
• Arabic Interview Record Review — checking the English record of the Home Office interview against the recording before the appeal. £100 per hour of time spent, with a written estimate agreed first.
• Cultural briefing notes — for example, where dates were given in the Hijri calendar or by season. See when a “contradictory” date isn’t a contradiction.

Why the same interpreter matters on appeal

An appeal often turns on whether the account at screening, at the substantive interview and in the witness statement is consistent. I hold a place on the Home Office ILSU remote interpreting panel, with 138 hours of asylum interpreting across screening, credibility and substantive interviews, so I know how those records are produced — and where dialect and register can make an accurate rendering read as an inconsistency.

In 2026 I completed UNHCR training in Country of Origin Information, Statelessness and Immigration Detention, which informs how I handle place names, nationality questions and the accounts of detained clients.

Dialect coverage

• Yemeni Arabic — specialist
• Gulf Arabic
• Sudanese Arabic — rare
• All seven varieties in active practice