The mechanism of a non-polarizing beam splitter (NPBS) with asymmetrical transfer coefficients causing the rotation of polarization direction is explained in principle, and the measurement nonlinear error caused by NPBS is analyzed based on Jones matrix theory. Theoretical calculations show that the nonlinear error changes periodically, and the error period and peak values increase with the deviation between transmissivities of p-polarization and s-polarization states. When the transmissivity of p-polarization is 53% and that of s-polarization is 48%, the maximum error reaches 2.7 nm. The imperfection of NPBS is one of the main error sources in simultaneous phase-shifting polarization interferometer, and its influence can not be neglected in the nanoscale ultra-precision measurement.The polarization interferometry is superior to heterodyne interferometry in the nonlinear performance [1][2][3] . In addition, in the laboratory circumstance, the measurement precision of laser polarization interferometry is higher than that of laser heterodyne interferometry, and therefore the former has a wide prospect for applications in the high precision measurement. Investigations on the main error sources as well as their mechanisms in the laser polarization interferometer, which help to reduce the measurement nonlinearity and hence improve the measurement precision, are of high necessity.The simultaneous phase-shifting interferometer (SPSI) uses a four-channel simultaneous phase-shifting technique to avoid the direct current (DC) drift influence, which further widens its application range [4,5] . The nonlinear error caused by the imperfect properties of optical elements in SPSI is the key factor that restricts the improvement of measurement precision. In-depth discussions have been carried out by previous researches [6] , but the measurement nonlinearity caused by asymmetrical transfer coefficients of NPBS has not yet been discussed.In this paper, the mechanism of a NPBS with asymmetrical transfer coefficients causing the rotation of polarization direction is analyzed and calculated, and its influence on the nonlinear error of SPSI is also discussed.