Contact

Different paths for different requests. Pick the one that fits.

Translation work

Pashto (پښتو), Dari (دری, the Afghan variety), English. USCIS forms, asylum affidavits, medical, legal, academic. Sworn certs available. Live interpretation on the East Coast. I do not market as “Persian/Farsi” — if your client is Afghan, the language is Dari; if your client is Iranian, I’ll refer you to a colleague.

Email: translate@zafarkhil.com

What to include in your first email: source language, target language, document type, page count or word count, deadline, and whether you need a sworn cert. I’ll quote and confirm timeline within a business day. Most jobs ship in 48 to 72 hours; rush available.

AI engineering / consulting

Building or advising on AI-leveraged systems for small operators, immigrant-owned businesses, refugee-resettlement nonprofits, diaspora-facing startups. I’ll either build it or teach you to build it. Project work and retainer-based.

Email: consult@zafarkhil.com

What to include: what you’re trying to do, what’s blocking you now, what you’ve already tried, what your budget shape looks like (one-time / monthly / equity / pro bono — all valid). I respond to genuine inquiries within two business days. I don’t take every project; I take the ones I’m actually useful for.

Speaking, podcasts, panels

Refugee experience, philosophy of exile, AI-for-the-underrepresented, immigrant English as a dialect, learning to code while learning a second language. I do these for free for nonprofits and refugee-adjacent orgs, and for fee for everyone else.

Email: press@zafarkhil.com

Include: format (podcast, panel, op-ed, lecture), audience, date, honorarium, and a link to your show or org. I prefer guests-with-substance to reach-clout. If you’ve never had a refugee on your show before and want me to be the first one to tokenize, no thanks. If you actually want to think with me about something hard, yes.

Press and media

Same address as speaking — press@zafarkhil.com — but say “press” in the subject line so I can sort it. I’ll respond to legit press inquiries within a business day. Background-only conversations welcome. I don’t do “refugee success story” features, but I’ll happily talk about the actual work.

Advisory

Small advisory practice for founders working on diaspora-facing products, immigration tech, refugee services, AI translation, or related domains. Limited slots. Mix of monthly retainer and equity for early-stage.

Email: advise@zafarkhil.com

Include: stage, what you’re building, what you’d want from me, any conflict-of-interest concerns. I’ll tell you honestly if I think I can help.

Casual hello

If you read something on the site and want to say hello, ask a question, push back, share a related piece of work — the door is open. I read every email. I don’t always reply to every email, but I read them.

Email: hello@zafarkhil.com

If you’re a fellow refugee or immigrant in the US figuring out the same things I’m figuring out — code, translation, school, work, citizenship, language — I especially want to hear from you. That’s the community I’m trying to build with this site.

Where I am

Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. About two hours north of NYC. Available remote globally. Available in person on the East Coast. Tailscale and Telegram are how I actually live; email is how I do business.

I do not use signal apps for work intake. If you reach me on Telegram or LinkedIn DM with a real project, I’ll redirect you to email — not because I’m being formal, but because client work needs an audit trail.

— Sulim