• Have you ever wondered what a certified translation is?
• Would you like to know some valuable tips before you hire an official translator?
• Will your official translations be confidential and private?
• Are we talking about professional and legal translations or just those typical odd ridiculous translations you get from Google Translate?

The answer for these questions and much more is underneath.

Welcome to the Internet’s biggest guide on official translations in Spain.

Please, read on

1. What is an official translation?

It is a legal translation produced and stamped by a certified official translator.

In other words, a certified official translation is NOT a text you can get on Google Translate, but an accurate and legal document translated by an experienced professional official translator.

(A heading example of an official translation)

2. What is an official translator?

In Spanish, the official translator figure is called “traductor jurado” (in English, it would be translated as “sworn translator”, although “official translator” might be more meaningful).

An official translator is a professional translator fully certified by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who has the legal capacity to translate from one foreign language into another foreign language, as well as to certify that the translation is accurate.

That said, my official translators are not amateur people translating things on Google Translate to make a few Euros here and there.

Nope.

My official translators are the elite of the translating industry, the best professional translators in their first and second languages; true professionals, not only experienced to do perfect translations, but to stamp them and certify them as legal documents. I’m not bragging (well, I am, just a little bit 😉 ).

Would you like to make sure that your English Spanish official translations have been done by a real certified translator?

Check out the official list of official translators certified in Spain by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Needless to say that each member of my official translation team is on that list.

(Logo of my website OfficialTranslators.Net)

3. How can I use an official translation?

The certified translation we will product at Torrevieja Translation can be presented at any institution as a legal translation of the original document.

Official translations have a legal nature, so these types of translations will be requested usually for legal purposes (I’ll detail some of them a few paragraphs down).

There is something very important that I would like you to take into consideration. When we produce an English into Spanish or Spanish into English official translation, it only states what the original document says in the other language, but it does not prove the authenticity of the original document.

Let me give you an example.

Imagine you have a medical report in English. Our official translation will show in Spanish the contents of the medical report on official paper; stamped and signed.

Now, if the medical report you gave us is not valid for whatever reason (it is for example out of date or from a non-qualified consultant or clinic, etc), the official translation will not magically convert the original into a valid and official document.

Do you see what I mean?

In addition, certain documents must have an apostille (I’ll tell you about this further down) or other security elements, like special stamps, ribbons, etc.

Do you want to avoid wasting your time and money?

My recommendation is that you first enquire at the office or legal institution where you need to deliver your official translation. They will let you know if there are any additional requirements like those I specified in the last paragraph.

Send me an email if you have any questions here.

4. What type of documents can be officially translated?

Anything, such as emails, simple notes, official one-page certificates, 500-page technical documents, and the list goes on.

Here is a list of the most common translations we do:

• Birth certificates
• Marriage certificates
• Death certificates
• Wills
• Probates
• Affidavits
• Criminal records
• Police reports
• Academic records
• University certificates
• Medical records
• Government documentation

And here is a list of some of the heavyweight translations we’ve done to date:

• Title deeds
• Court sentences
• Business and Organization statutes
• Full document package for visa application
• Full medical history
• Business technical documentation
• Confidential and strategic corporation documentation
• Annual reports and balance sheets of Companies
• University syllabus
• Research papers
• Commercial contracts

Click here and send me an email to discuss your document.

(Your information is totally confidential. We don’t share it with anybody at all)

5. How long does it take to translate a document?

This question is kind of difficult to answer.

Basically, the time scale will depend on several aspects:

1. The amount of pages your document contains.
2. The amount of work required on our end.

On average, small translations like the ones in the first list from the last section can take around 2-4 working days.

For other types of larger documents we must evaluate them first to calculate the time required for delivery.

We can work on ‘urgent mode’. This means: putting your translation at the front of the queue, postponing other jobs, and working nights or weekends if necessary.

The urgent mode has an additional cost, but your translations will be ready whenever you need them.

6. How much will an official translation cost me?

It depends on the type of document and length.

Some translators calculate the price by the word, regardless of the type of translation (legal, medical, technical, business, etc).

We don’t do it that way.

We prepare an estimation based on the word count and project complexity.

So, without seeing the document it’s almost impossible to determine how much it would be.

If you send me a scanned copy of your document I’ll be able to give you a quotation within a few hours.

But we have to see the document first. Telling me on the phone or via email how many pages there are in your document is not enough.

In the past, I have had queries from people who said it was only a few pages, and it ended up being more than twice as much as they said.

Consequently, it´s not fair for you or me to work with incorrect quotations.

(Your official translations are crafted in a similar accurate way)

7. What is your coverage area?

So far we’ve produced official translations for quite a lot of people all over the world, but here are the main three groups:

1. In-person/Shipping

Alicante Province

Costa Blanca: These are my usual in-person coverage areas in Costa Blanca Spain,  Altea,  Calpe, Orihuela Costa,  Benissa, Guadalest,  Guardamar, Javea, Moraira, Alicante, La Marina, Denia, Villajoyosa, Pilar de la Horadada, Benidorm, El Campello, Santa Pola, and, of course, Torrevieja; as well as other towns near Alicante.

Inland Alicante province: Orihuela, Elche, Pinoso, Almoradi, Alcoy, Orba, Rojales, Biar, Crevillente, Los Montesinos, San Miguel de Salinas, Benijofar, Algorfa.

Murcia Province

Costa Cálida: including Costa Calida Spain: San Pedro del Pinatar, Los Alcazares, Santiago de la  Rivera, Mar Menor , San Javier, Mazarron, Aguilas.

Cities and towns in Murcia province: 

Cartagena, Yecla, Sucina, Totana, Alhama, Molina de Segura, Fortuna, Murcia city.

2. Shipping within Spain

We’ve got clients everywhere all over Spain. Basically, we’ve shipped our official translations to every single province and city of Spain, such as: Zaragoza, Vitoria, Bilbao, Albacete, Almería, Logroño, Ávila, Badajoz, Cáceres, Majorca, Zamora, Barcelona, Burgos, Cáceres, Oviedo, Cádiz, Santander, Castellón, Pontevedra, Ciudad Real, Córdoba, Cuenca, Gerona, Granada, Guadalajara, Guipúzcoa, Huelva, Huesca, Jaén, Navarra, Las Palmas, Gijón, León, Lleida, Lugo, Madrid, Málaga, Orense, Palencia, Salamanca, Segovia, Sevilla, Soria, Tarragona, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Teruel, Toledo, Valencia, Valladolid .

3. Shipping all over the world

Just to name a few of the countries we’ve shipped our English Spanish official translations (some of them we do more often than others): United States of America, United Kingdom, Italy, Portugal. Philippines, India, Australia, South Africa, Pakistan, New Zealand, Germany, France, China, Holland, Russia, Canada, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece, Kenia.

Send me an email and let me know where you are based and what sort of documents need translation in the official format.

8. What is an apostille?

An important element your document may have is called an “Apostille”.

An apostille is a special stamp that certifies the validity of a document within countries that participate in the Hague Convention of 1961.

Another reason for using an apostille is to authenticate the document that needs official translation. Therefore, the authorities in the destination country will be 100% sure it is a legal document.

The apostille has to be produced in the origin country or embassies. The entities which produce apostilles are normally those dealing with the type of document.

For instance, if you have a court sentence that needs an apostille, you should query the court building where the sentence comes from.

Official translators cannot issue apostilles for foreign documents.

Before you send me your document, please find out from the relevant authorities whether it needs an apostille or not. Certain countries must provide other authentication methods like special stamps, security ribbons, watermarked papers, etc.

Please, make sure you have looked into these authentication methods before we go ahead with the official certified translations. Otherwise, there will be additional costs if we have to reprint an official translation to include missing authentication parts.

Send me an email if you have any questions here.

(Don’t forget to get your documents must be fully stamped and, perhaps, authenticated)

9. Can I get an extra copy of my certified translation for free?

In general, copies are not free.

You may think it is just a copy, an extra document that comes out from the printer.

Well, it is like that; only in part.

The main significant difference is that the official translation is printed out on official paper that has a serial number, which is stamped and signed by an official translator afterwards.

That’s the value we give to the official translation, as each individual print out acts as an individual legal document, even if they are identical copies.

10. Your documents are private and confidential

Under no circumstances are the original documents our clients send us or give to us in person shared with anybody, including any stamped official translations we produce for them.

Even if you send us a document for a quotation whose price finally does not suit you: we will never ever share or divulge your documents to anybody.

Furthermore, it’s not only about not sharing documents, but also about not revealing the contents of the documents, your name, address, email address or any other private and confidential piece of information.

Our personal and professional ethics will always be in favour of protecting our clients.

(Sorry, I did not know how to write these last paragraphs without using a bit of both corporate language and business writing style ;-)).

Do you have documents that would need to be officially translated into Spanish?

Please enter below your name, email and let me know the type of documents you would need us to translate. I will get back to you shortly!

 

 

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About David Ruiz

I'm a legal and registered professional relocation adviser fully devoted to solve your problems in Spain.