How long does it take to get certified as a medical interpreter?

How do I get certified to be an interpreter in Austin,TX?

• I am from China and my first language is Mandarin Chinese. I also speak excellent English. My SO is an American. I just moved to Austin,TX, USA. I am trying to become an interpreter for Mandarin/English. I have a bachelor's degree in English language from my university in China and I worked as a full time interpreter in a UN wetland protection project in china in 2014. Could you please help me find more info (websites, books etc.) about how to get certified as an interpreter and a translator between Chinese and English in Austin? How and where can I find work? Thanks

• Answer:

  You don't need to be certified as an interpreter to do interpreting work. I think that the http://atanet.org offers interpreter certification, but I'm not sure. I know they offer translation certification. I do know that their tests are hard (few people pass them on the first try), expensive, and not widely offered. Going to an ATA conference is probably the best place to take it. Court interpreting is an exception: you do need to be certified by the courts for that. There is no federal certification exam for Chinese (only Spanish), but there is a state-level certification exam for Chinese that seems to be common to many states (if not all). Here's http://www.txcourts.gov/jbcc/licensed-court-interpreters.aspx. Finally, there's a translator's group here in Austin: the http://aatia.org/. I haven't been to one of their meetings in a long time, but someone there might have more information.