Translation of documents

Article 15.1 of Act 39/2015 of October 1 on the common administrative procedure of public administrations establishes that all procedures processed by the central Spanish administration must be processed in Spanish.  The relevant regulations therefore stipulate that documents issued abroad in languages other than Spanish that are to be taken into account in such procedures must be accompanied by an official translation into Spanish.

Official translations may be produced:

• by a sworn translator duly authorised or registered in Spain.
• by any consular or other diplomatic representative of Spain abroad.
• by a consular or other diplomatic representative in Spain of the country of which the requesting party is a national, or of the country of origin of the document, as the case may be.

In so far as possible, should the original document be written in non-Western alphabet, it is recommended that the translation should indicate the name of the qualification in the original language transcribed into the Western alphabet rather than translating that name.