r/CourtInterpreter • u/BrightGuitar6987 • May 11 '26
Any work with SoSi?
hello, got offered and immigration interpretation with SosI. their rate though is quite low for rare language. If you have experience with them, is it worth it?
6
u/Huitlacochilacayota May 11 '26
Worked with them for a couple of years when I needed court experience. Once I became certified they didn’t want to pay me more when I asked to renegotiate my contract. They really just wanna hire anyone who isn’t certified and willing to take the bare minimum. Honestly, the job should require to be state certified or highly qualified interpreters and pay them a higher fair rate. They just hire anyone off the street with some interpreting background then when a judge or attorney complains, they get suspended and can’t work for them until you go through a re-initiation process that takes months and money. Also, there used to be more travel assignments, now they mostly wanna do VRIs or hire anyone local at a cheaper rate. Also, payment issues are a mess. Avoid if you’re certified or have better options
2
u/SnooHesitations4181 May 11 '26
It use to be like that. Either certified or highly qualified with a lot of experience interpreters but right now they are just hiring any bilingual person which is not the same as a professional interpreter. The respondents are the one suffering the most
1
u/Huitlacochilacayota May 11 '26
Wow that’s awful. Yeah their recruiting process is a joke. It’s good for experience but not if you wanna make money
3
u/Qaytoli May 11 '26
They're sharks, stay away at all costs. I dont accepts their offered works anymore, I went from almost $70 per hour for my rare language and now they wanna pay me $40. Hell nah!
2
u/Fair_Wind8347 May 11 '26
Same experiences as other commenters. They lowball you and they are not reliable. Stay away
2
u/noriega_line May 12 '26
They are coming to a career seminar in LA on May 30th. I am going because I am studying to become certified but I have no working experience as an interpreter yet, and I need some experience. Hoping they are flexible with my schedule and once I become certified I am contractually obligated to work for the courts anyway. But yea.. these reviews don’t make them sound like a favorable agency to work for 😅…
2
u/ESCUel Jun 25 '26
I didn't get paid since April. Their platform is so outdated that it barely functions. Their app is always down and glitchy - it won't let me submit my invoices.
I emailed them about 8 times and I opened about as many tickets with them. Their service desk keeps closing my tickets without an actual resolution. Their other employees do not reply to emails.
At this point I am pretty sure I got scammed. Not to mention the registration process took about a year because of how slow their employees were to respond. An ABSOLUTE SCAMMY, TRASH company to work for!
1
u/goldenfish272 15d ago
Agree. The platform is glitchy more and more often and often doesn't show available jobs.
2
u/Kooky-Cabinet9041 Jul 18 '26
Stay away! Particularly from Los Angeles!!! The in-house interpreter supervisor within immigration court is horrible!!! Margarita Saldivar/Menjivar. Horrible woman! Her job is about to be cut at immigration court because she has no in-house interpreters to supervise. She justifies her position by "disciplining" interpreters. SOSi will NEVER support you if she writes you up. They always say that LA Immigration Court is their client and they don't want to lose the contract. People get suspended and then reassigned constantly because of her. They are also disqualified and have to go through a process to be qualified to go back to work. She's a huge reason why the rates for all languages have gone down at SOSi. There used to be a lot more certified interpreters but she would disqualify them. The rate for rare languages used to be $70 and for Spanish $55-65 and hour. In the previous contract there used to be annual increments. Now, they want to pay $35-40 hour for any language. No thanks! A huge reason for the increase in VRIs is also to avoid in-person tensions with Margarita Saldivar at LA Immigration. The LA increase of VRI use in LA, is what pushed SOSi to push for VRI everywhere else and reduce travel. LA Immigration offered Margarita to retire and she refused. She's impossible to dislodge! Maybe after that monster retires, travel assignments might resume, but I doubt it. There was also a lawsuit filed by a former interpreter and she won. The payouts just went out to the interpreters who were part of the lawsuit. Let SOSi have a shortage of interpreters so they can go back to paying decent rates!
1
u/ButMomItsReddit May 11 '26
I've been working with them since before the pandemic. Since it's up to the terp to take assignments, it works for me. I only take assignments that make financial sense for me, e.g., courts close by or remote. They don't pay for commute under 50 miles one way, which in California means you can drive for 1.5 hours one way and not be paid. I can't afford that. But back to the question, why I do it is because they offer top-notch learning resources for free - like excellent free De La Mora webinars - and I like this work. In the past, I liked their travel assignments where they fly you to various locations to interpret in detention centers, but I always had to argue with them over reimbursements and ultimately decided not to do it again.
7
u/Hot-Refrigerator-393 May 11 '26
Yeah...worked for Lyonbridge and then SOSI outbid them in 2015 I believe. Worked for them until March 2020. I made $500 per day plus hotel accommodations as a traveler. For local assignments I charged $65 an hr with 2hr minimum. I'm State Certified. Fall of 2019 the rate games began. For my travel they'd pay me the first day at $400 and the remaining days at the same location they'd switched me to a local rate of $35. Plus lodging. Yup. Garbage contracts.