You receive your sworn translation by email, as a PDF, with no ink stamp and no pen signature, and a fair question comes up: does this count without printing it? How do I know the signature is genuine? The short answer is yes, it counts, and checking it takes less than two minutes. The longer answer is below, because it helps to know exactly what you are looking at when you open that file.
Since 2025 the electronic signature has its own rules
Until recently, a sworn translator certified with a handwritten signature and a physical seal, full stop. That changed with Order AUC/213/2025, of 26 February, published in the Spanish Official Gazette in March 2025, which regulates for the first time the use of the electronic signature to certify the work of the sworn translators and interpreters appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The order is clear on a point that often causes confusion: the electronic signature may replace the handwritten one and the seal, but it does not exclude or invalidate them. In other words, both routes are equally official. A PDF signed electronically by a MAEC-accredited translator carries the same weight as the paper translation of old. And you do not have to print it for it to be valid: it is fully effective in digital form from the outset.
How to recognise a digitally signed sworn translation
Not just any PDF with a small signature counts. The rules require a qualified electronic signature, made with a qualified electronic certificate of a natural person under the European eIDAS Regulation (Regulation EU 910/2014). For text documents the format is PAdES, which is simply the signature embedded inside the PDF file itself.
The translation must also include a certification box with three minimum details:
- Full name of the sworn translator or interpreter.
- Language or languages they are accredited for by the Ministry.
- Sworn translator number.
That box replaces the round ink stamp. If you open the PDF and see those three details next to the statement of fidelity, you are on the right track. But the box is only the visible part: what actually gives it authority is the cryptographic signature underneath. Let's look at it.
How to check the signature in two minutes
You have two ways, both free.
Option 1: a PDF reader that validates signatures. Open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader (not the quick browser viewer or the phone preview, which usually ignore the signature). At the top you will see a notice along the lines of "Signed and all signatures are valid", and in the signature panel you can expand the detail: who signed, with which certificate and on what date. If the certificate has expired or the document has been altered after signing, the reader itself will flag it with a warning.
Option 2: the official government validator. This is VALIDe, the Spanish public-sector service at valide.redsara.es. Go to "Validar firma", upload the PDF, and the system returns a report: whether the signature is valid, which qualified certificate it was made with, who the signatory is and the date. VALIDe recognises the PAdES format of PDFs and runs on the same platform used by public electronic offices. It is the most robust route if you need to leave a record of the check for a third party.
What the certificate and the timestamp tell you
When the validator shows you the signer's certificate, you are seeing the translator's verified identity, issued by a trust service provider recognised across the EU. That is what ties the translation to a specific person rather than to a name typed in a box.
Many qualified signatures also carry a timestamp. Its purpose is simple and valuable: it certifies, through a trusted third party, the exact date and time the document was signed, so nobody can backdate it or claim it was signed at another moment. If the VALIDe report or the Adobe panel shows that time mark, you have objective proof of when the translation was issued.
Electronic signature, seal and handwritten signature: all three valid
It helps not to mix up the concepts. The qualified electronic signature identifies the translator and guarantees the PDF has not been touched. The electronic seal is a similar mechanism but tied to an entity, not a natural person; in a sworn translation what governs is the translator's signature. And the handwritten signature plus physical seal remains perfectly valid for anyone who prefers paper. There is no hierarchy: Order AUC/213/2025 puts both routes on the same level.
And if the office still asks for paper
Let's be honest, as with the question of whether a sworn translation expires: the rules say one thing and some counters do another. Most bodies now accept the signed PDF without trouble, but the odd office still asks, out of habit, for the printed translation. If you run into one of them, the answer is to also have the paper version, which can be delivered on official State security paper, numbered and bearing the coat of arms of Spain. Same content, same signature, different medium.
At Textualia we deliver every translation as an electronically signed PDF ready to validate in Adobe or VALIDe, and when the procedure calls for it, on paper too. If you are unsure which format they will ask for, start with our document centre and we will guide you based on the receiving authority.