 <p>Look at this post <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5498033/how-to-write-utf-8-characters-using-bulk-insert-in-sql-server">How to write UTF-8 characters using bulk insert in SQL Server?</a></p> <blockquote> <p>Quote: You can't. You should first use a N type data field, convert your file to UTF-16 and then import it. The database does not support UTF-8.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Original answers</strong></p> <p>look at the encoding of youre text file. Should be utf8. If not this could cause problems.</p> <p>Open with notepad, file-> save as and choose encoding</p> <p>After this try to import as a bulk</p> <p>secondly, make sure the column datatype is nvarchar and not varchar. Also see <a href="http://sqlhints.com/2011/12/23/difference-between-varchar-and-nvarchar/" rel="nofollow">here</a></p>