A relative dies in Canada leaving an apartment in Alicante, a Spanish bank account or a share in the family home. The heirs live in Toronto, Vancouver or Montréal, and the Spanish notary asks for documents they have never heard of. The situation is entirely manageable, but it means connecting two legal worlds that do not speak the same language: Canadian estate administration (common law in nine provinces, civil law in Quebec) and Spanish notarial succession (continental law).
This guide explains how a Canadian executor proves their authority, which documents the Spanish notary needs, and why the apostille and the sworn translation are two separate, non-negotiable steps.
Proving who is entitled to act: the grant of probate
In the common-law provinces, when someone dies owning assets in their name the estate typically goes through probate before the provincial superior court. The court validates the will (or applies the intestacy rules) and issues a grant that confirms the executor's authority to gather the estate, sell property and deal with banks. The name of that document changes from province to province:
- In Ontario it is the Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee (with or without a will), issued by the Superior Court of Justice.
- In British Columbia, Alberta and most other provinces it is the Grant of Probate (or Grant of Administration where there is no will), sometimes historically called letters probate.
Whatever the label, this is the piece the Spanish notary relies on: it is the official proof that the executor is legally entitled to act, the equivalent role to the Spanish heredero accepting and adjudicating the estate. The will alone is not enough — Spain wants to see that a Canadian court has confirmed the executor's powers.
The Quebec exception: civil law, no probate for a notarial will
Quebec is not a common-law jurisdiction. It follows civil law, closer in structure to the Spanish system, and the executor is called the liquidator of the succession. The key difference for our purposes: a notarial will is an authentic act and does not need to be probated — it takes legal effect at the moment of death. Only a holograph will or a will made before witnesses has to be probated, by a Quebec notary or by the Superior Court.
There is a practical bonus for a Québécois estate: because the will, the death certificate from the Directeur de l'état civil and the notarial acts are issued in French, they are translated directly from French into Spanish by a MAEC-authorised sworn translator — no detour through English, one intermediary and one source of error removed.
The Canadian documents the Spanish notary will ask for
For an estate that touches Spain, the notarial file usually needs:
- The will (or the confirmation of intestacy).
- The grant of probate / letters probate / Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee that proves the executor's or liquidator's authority.
- The death certificate issued by the provincial vital statistics office (in Quebec, the Directeur de l'état civil).
- Where relevant, any court order or inventory affecting the Spanish assets.
Each of these is a public document, and since 11 January 2024 Canada is part of the Hague Apostille Convention, so each one is legalised with a single apostille rather than the old consular chain.
Apostille and sworn translation: two separate requirements
The apostille certifies that the Canadian document is authentic; the sworn translation makes it usable before the Spanish notary and registry. They are cumulative — an apostilled document that is not translated is rejected, and vice versa — and the order matters: apostille first, translation second, because the apostille itself has to be translated.
Who issues the apostille depends on the document, not on your preference:
- Court-issued probate documents (the grant, the Certificate of Appointment) and civil-status certificates from Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan or Quebec are apostilled by that province's competent authority (Official Document Services in Ontario, the Ministère de la Justice in Quebec).
- Documents from the other provinces and territories, and federal documents, are apostilled by Global Affairs Canada.
We cover the full split in Canada now issues apostilles: what changes for Spain.
And it must be a sworn translation signed by a translator authorised by the MAEC (the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs). A certified translation done in Canada — even by an ATIO or OTTIAQ member — has no standing before the Spanish administration.
What does not apply: the European Certificate of Succession
Heirs coming from an EU country can sometimes use the European Certificate of Succession (Regulation (EU) 650/2012) to prove their status across member states. This is not available for a Canadian estate: Canada is not an EU member, and the certificate is a purely intra-EU instrument. The Canadian grant of probate is what does the equivalent job here.
That said, which law actually governs the succession, and how it is taxed in Spain, is a substantive question — the answer turns on the deceased's habitual residence, any choice of law and where the assets sit. That belongs with a Spanish notary or lawyer; treat this guide as a map of the paperwork, not as legal or tax advice.
The same logic applies to estates from other common-law countries — see our companion guides on US estates with Spanish assets and UK estates with Spanish assets, and the overview of the international inheritance procedure.
At Textualia we translate the Canadian estate file — will, grant of probate or Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee, death certificate — from English and from French into Spanish, signed by a MAEC-authorised sworn translator. We review the file before starting: if a document arrives without an apostille or with the apostille from the wrong authority, we tell you before the clock starts.