In the present paper, we evaluate the Spanish reformulations of the terms «derivative spouse or child», «labor certification», «lockbox», «means-tested benefits», «public charge» and «sponsor», extracted from the website of Unites States Citizenship and Immigration Services, with the aim of determining their adequacy to the communicative situation in which they are framed. To accomplish this goal, we examine the genre conventions of public service translation and its ties with the functionalist theories, and we review United States legislation on language accessibility in federal agencies. Furthermore, we compile the texts that make up the aforementioned website into a comparable bilingual corpus, drawing from which we individually analyze the reformulations of the referred terms and establish their degree of adequacy, through a comparison of the U.S. legal system and the legal systems of four Spanish-speaking countries. Thus, we suggest more adequate reformulations for the six terms, supported by the results of this comparative exercise.