Every week someone writes to us with a version of the same question: "I need my French birth certificate apostilled and translated to get married in Spain — how long will it take?". And sometimes the honest answer is that you may not need the apostille or the translation at all. That loses us a job, but we would rather you know exactly when that is the case — and when it isn't, because the fine print matters.
What Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 does
It is an EU regulation on public documents, applicable since 16 February 2019 across the Union. The core idea: when a public document is issued by one Member State and presented to the authorities of another Member State, much of the traditional paperwork disappears. Specifically:
- It abolishes the apostille. Documents covered by the Regulation are exempt from legalisation and any similar formality between EU countries (Article 4). A French birth certificate needs no apostille to take effect in Spain. Full stop.
- It reduces the need for translation through multilingual standard forms, which we cover below.
Which documents it covers (and only these)
The Regulation does not cover "all European documents". It applies to public documents establishing the facts listed in Article 2: birth, a person being alive, death, name, marriage (including capacity to marry and marital status), divorce, legal separation or marriage annulment, registered partnership (including its dissolution), parenthood, adoption, domicile and/or residence, nationality and absence of a criminal record.
If your document is on that list and comes from an EU country, relax: the apostille is no longer your problem. If it is a university degree, a contract, a notarial deed or a court judgment, the Regulation does not help you and the classic route still applies — apostille first, sworn translation second.
The multilingual standard form: the translation that isn't one
This is the part that saves the most money. For several of those documents — birth, being alive, death, marriage, capacity to marry and marital status, registered partnership, domicile and/or residence, and absence of a criminal record (Article 7) — you can ask the issuing authority to attach a multilingual standard form: an official template with the certificate's fields rendered in the language of the destination country.
With that form attached, the receiving authority cannot require a translation (Article 6). Note the nuance: the exemption works "provided that the authority considers that the information included in the multilingual standard form is sufficient for processing the document". In exceptional cases — handwritten marginal notes, entries the form does not capture — a translation can still be requested. In practice, for a standard birth or marriage certificate, the form is usually enough.
One caveat: the form is requested at source, from the same authority that issues the certificate. If the document is already in your hands without the form, you either request it again or translate it.
These forms also have an older cousin: the multilingual extract under the 1976 Vienna Convention (ICCS), which many European civil registries have issued for decades. It deserves — and will get — its own post in August.
And if a translation is needed: one made in any Member State counts
Another provision almost nobody knows and worth keeping handy: Article 6(2). When a sworn translation of a document covered by the Regulation is required after all, a certified translation carried out by a person qualified to do so under the law of any Member State must be accepted in all of them. A sworn translation done by a MAEC-accredited translator in Spain is valid before the French administration, and vice versa. No more "this translation is from another country, we can't take it".
The limits, plainly stated
So nobody leaves this page with inflated expectations:
- Only documents FROM EU countries. France, Portugal, Italy, Germany: yes. The United Kingdom, post-Brexit, no — a British certificate needs an apostille and a sworn translation like any third-country document. The United States and Canada, likewise: the Regulation expressly excludes documents issued by third States, even when they arrive already apostilled.
- Only the listed document types. Academic qualifications, powers of attorney, judgments, contracts: outside the Regulation, classic route.
- Only between public authorities. If the recipient is a bank or a private company, the Regulation does not bind it.
- The multilingual form is not a stand-alone document: it travels attached to the original certificate; it does not replace it.
And a cross-cutting reminder: not needing an apostille does not mean the document never expires. Many civil status certificates have limited validity depending on the destination procedure — we explain this in does a sworn translation expire?.
In short: when you do NOT need us (and when you do)
If you are presenting a birth, marriage or criminal record certificate from an EU country to a Spanish authority — for a marriage file in Spain or an EU citizen registration certificate, for example — ask the issuing authority for the multilingual standard form. With luck, you spend nothing on either apostille or translation. That is what the Regulation says, and we are not going to tell you otherwise.
Where do we come in? When your document falls outside it: it comes from the UK, the US or any third country; it is a degree, a judgment or a deed; the receiving authority finds the form insufficient; or the country of origin simply cannot issue it in time. Then yes — a sworn translation by a MAEC-accredited translator, delivered as an electronically signed PDF with a fixed turnaround. Asking first costs nothing — and if you don't need us, we will tell you as plainly as we did here.