To obtain a residence permit in Spain, for the opening and running of a business, for the purchase of a property, to study and live in the country, you will have to present to the various local government authorities different documents translated into Spanish (or in case of another autonomous region, to the co-official language, for example, to Catalan). In addition, all submitted documents must have legal validity according to the legislation in force in the territory of the Kingdom of Spain.

Our company offers high quality services both for the translation of official documents from Russian to Spanish and vice versa, as well as for its legalization and, therefore, for its later use in Spain.

The legalization of a foreign document is an administrative act, which certifies the authenticity of the signature and seal of the official institution that issued this document. By means of this procedure, a foreign document is given the legal validity in the case of needing it in the different country than the one where the document was issued.

If local legislation does not establish another option, all foreign public documents must be legalized in order to be valid in Spain and all Spanish public documents must be legalized to be valid abroad, respectively.

There are several forms of legalization of documents, the most common of which is to affix an apostille according to the Hague Convention, signed in 1961, by the participating states of the Conference of Private International Law held in The Hague. Today, a total of 112 countries have signed this International Convention. In view of the increasing exchanges in all fields between countries, many countries have signed this agreement to regulate and facilitate various administrative matters for citizens who want to live and do business in a foreign country, for example for buying a property or for opening a business in Spain.

Many countries have acceded to the Hague Convention which states that official documents of member countries do not require legalization for mutual recognition, in case that they contain the special seal established between the states – the so-called apostille.

There are also other agreements that establish which documents are exempt from the need of legalization, but in all other cases, it is necessary to proceed with the official legalization of your documents. You may need different documents, legalized and translated into Spanish or into another co-official language, depending on your goals.

Spanish translation may be official or unofficial. In the first case, a translator accredited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain, the so-called sworn translator, which validates his translation with a special stamp, does it. Some local administrative authorities only accept this type of translation. In other cases, it is possible to hire an unofficial translator, who will also do his job professionally, but the costs will be lower.

During the consultation with our lawyer in Barcelona, he will explain you what documents you need to present to the Spanish authorities according to your objectives, and in each case, how to legalize and translate them in the best possible way.