Interpreter & Translator Services Inc.

INTERPRETER TRANSLATOR SERVICES, INC. was founded in 2000 by accredited interpreter, notary, and EFL teacher Barie Shaqiri.
Interpreter Translator Services, Inc. (ITS, Inc.) was created to assist and provide relief to the growing influx of refugees and political asylum seekers that started immigrating to the United States in the 1990’s from the Balkans as a result of the Yugoslav Wars.

The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars fought in Yugoslavia in the 1990s between the republics that sought sovereignty on one side and the government in Belgrade on the other side that wanted to either prevent their independence or keep large parts of that territory under its control. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs (and to a lesser extent, Montenegrin's) on one side and Croats and Bosnians (and to a lesser degree, Slovenes) on the other; but also between Bosnians and Croats in Bosnia (in addition to a separate conflict fought between rival Bosnian factions in Bosnia).

It is estimated that some 300,000 people were displaced by the Balkan conflicts of the 1990's.
These displaced people were allowed asylum by the U.S. government as refugees. These refuges were uprooted from the life they knew and forced to relocated to a new country in which few spoke the language.

ITS, Inc. was created for the sole purpose of providing assistance and much needed help to these displaced refugees and asylum seekers in order to help them adjust to a fresh start and new way of life in the United States.

All asylum-seekers requesting political asylum had to follow steps and procedures that ensured a smooth transition into the United States; a great deal of paperwork and formal meetings with federal personnel were necessary to properly go about the the asylum claims process.

This is where the crucial services provided by ITS, Inc. were needed: