Interpreters for Government Agencies and Public Services in Pashto, Dari and 22 More Afghan Languages

Often, yes. Executive Order 14224 revoked Executive Order 13166 in 2025, but it does not require agencies to stop language services. Title VI still bars national-origin discrimination in federally funded programs; SNAP, WIOA and Section 1557 rules and state and local laws, including the D.C. Language Access Act, still require language help in many settings; and the Stafford Act bars discrimination in disaster relief on the basis of English proficiency.

Pashto and Dari are Afghanistan’s two main languages, and speakers of one do not automatically understand the other. Pashto is an Eastern Iranian language with southern and northern varieties. Dari is the Afghan form of Persian and the country’s most widely shared language. Interview residents in the language they are most comfortable in.

No. Afghan Dari and Iranian Persian (Farsi) are closely related, but they differ in pronunciation and in everyday public-service words such as municipality, district, province and ID card. Many Afghans write “Farsi” on forms. We confirm the variety at booking and do not send an Iranian Persian interpreter for an Afghan Dari assignment without your written consent.

Yes. Tell us when you book. We match the interpreter’s gender for child protective services, domestic violence and victim interviews, and for any assignment where the resident asks. If a match is not possible in time, we tell you before the assignment, not at the door.

Pashto and Dari, including the Hazaragi dialect of Dari, are available on demand by video and phone, and on site with 24 hours’ notice. Uzbeki, Turkmeni, Balochi, Pashayi and Aimaq are available by video and phone the same or next business day, and on site with 48 hours’ notice. For the smallest Afghan languages, we confirm availability before you book, usually within two business days.

Yes. We arrange on-site interpreters across the United States, with travel billed where it applies. Our headquarters is at 1717 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and interpreters on U.S. assignments are located in the United States.

They should not. Family members and children are not trained, are not impartial and may be part of the matter being discussed. Federal rules for HHS-funded health programs bar relying on a minor child to interpret except in an emergency, and many agency language access policies draw the same line.

No U.S. interpreter certification exam tests Pashto or Dari. The federal court interpreter exam is offered only for Spanish, and no national medical interpreter exam covers either language. Every Ariana Nexus interpreter holds a college degree, passes our two-way assessment in the variety they interpret, and completes structured training and supervised assignments.

Assignments are not recorded by default. Interpreters sign confidentiality agreements, work from the United States on U.S. assignments, and complete your agency’s fingerprint-based background check where criminal justice information is involved. We never route documents or data through the de facto authorities in Afghanistan.

On-site interpreting is billed by the hour with a minimum; video and phone interpreting by the minute. The price depends on the language’s service level, the notice you give, the channel, after-hours timing, travel and whether a public meeting needs a simultaneous team of two. We quote before every engagement.

Ariana Nexus is registered in SAM.gov (UEI M2UDMUDFXGL9, CAGE 1Z3A3), with NAICS 541930, Translation and Interpretation Services, among its codes, and holds state vendor registrations in California, Maryland and Virginia. Agencies buy by purchase order, by blanket purchase agreement, or through us as a subcontractor under a prime contract.

Yes, by video and phone. We work with councils, ministries, job centers and settlement programs in Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union, between Afghan languages and English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese or Turkish, under GDPR, UK GDPR or Canadian privacy terms.

Not where rights, benefits or safety are decided. Machine translation is weakest in lower-resource languages such as Pashto and Dari, and its errors are hard for staff to catch. Federal rules for HHS-funded health programs already require review by a qualified human translator when machine translation is used for critical content.

Yes. Hazaragi is a dialect of Dari, and we send dialect-matched Dari interpreters for Hazaragi-speaking residents on request. The dialect is noted on the assignment record, so your agency can report it.

Afghanistan’s 2004 constitution recognized Pashto and Dari as official languages, and Uzbeki, Turkmeni, Pashayi, Nuristani, Balochi and the Pamir languages as third official languages where most people speak them. Ariana Nexus interprets Pashto, Dari and 22 more Afghan languages across five language families.