When you need a sworn translation of a foreign birth certificate
The birth certificate is one of the documents most often submitted before Spanish authorities. We receive it for nearly every variant of the following:
- Spanish nationality by residency. The file before the Ministry of Justice requires the applicant's long-form birth certificate, sworn-translated and properly apostilled or legalised. This is the first document rejected if the original is the short-form, or if the apostille is in the wrong order.
- Spanish nationality by option / origin (children of Spanish nationals, grandchildren of exiles under the Ley de Memoria Democrática, Sephardic Jewish applicants under previous legislation). The applicant's certificate, and usually the parent's or grandparent's Spanish certificate too.
- Registration with the Central Civil Registry in Madrid of births to Spanish citizens that occurred abroad. While the application can run through the consulate, the foreign certificate must be sworn-translated into Spanish.
- NIE / TIE applications and residency renewals where filiation or civil status must be evidenced.
- Civil marriage registration in Spain where one or both spouses were born abroad. The Civil Registry requires the long-form birth certificate of each spouse.
- International adoption procedures before Spanish Civil Registries.
- Inheritance and succession matters before Spanish notaries, where the filiation of heirs is established.
- Dual nationality procedures (Ibero-America, the Philippines, Andorra, Portugal, Equatorial Guinea) where ancestry is evidenced.
- Academic and professional procedures that require proof of date and place of birth from an original document.
The exact format Spanish authorities expect
The detail rarely spelled out clearly: Spanish authorities want the long-form certificate, not the short. Each country calls it differently:
- United Kingdom: the long-form birth certificate (the A4-size document showing both parents' details). The short certificate — the wallet-sized one without parents' data — is not accepted in Spain.
- United States: a certified copy (not an informational copy) of the long-form birth certificate issued by the Office of Vital Records of the state where the person was born. Each state issues its own; check that yours is the full version with parents' names.
- Canada: the long-form birth certificate from the provincial Vital Statistics Office. The Canadian short-form is usually rejected.
- Ireland: the full standard certificate of birth from the General Register Office in Roscommon.
- Australia: the full birth certificate from the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registry of the issuing state or territory.
- New Zealand: the certificate from the Department of Internal Affairs, long form with parents' details.
If your certificate is the short version and you need the long form, request the full version from the issuing body before starting the apostille and translation process. Doing the opposite — translating the short form first — wastes the translation because Spain will reject the original.
Apostille, EU Regulation 2016/1191 and consular legalisation
Three different paths depending on the issuing country:
1. Hague Convention country, NOT in the EU → Apostille
Typical cases: United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Chile.
The certificate must carry the Hague Apostille from the issuing country's competent authority before the sworn translation:
- UK: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) Legalisation Office in Milton Keynes. Online service available.
- US, state-issued certificate (e.g., a state Office of Vital Records): apostille from the relevant state's Secretary of State. Crucially, U.S. birth certificates are state-level documents, so the state apostille applies — NOT the federal Department of State.
- US, certificate of birth abroad (issued by the State Department, FS-240/CRBA): federal apostille from the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C.
- Canada: Global Affairs Canada (since Canada joined the Hague Convention in January 2024) or the provincial Authentication Services Section for provincial documents.
- Australia: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
- Ireland: Department of Foreign Affairs.
2. EU country → EU Regulation 2016/1191 (no apostille route)
Since 16 February 2019, birth, marriage and other civil-status certificates issued by any EU country travel without apostille when accompanied by the multilingual standard form issued alongside them by the registering authority (the mairie, the Standesamt, the comune, etc.). For these countries, you only need the sworn translation; the apostille is replaced by that form.
Typical cases: France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic, Greece, etc.
3. Non-signatory country → Consular legalisation
Typical cases: certain African and Asian countries not party to the Hague Convention. The certificate is legalised through diplomatic channels via the Spanish consulate in the issuing country (or the issuing country's consulate in Spain, depending on the case). The process is longer, but the result is fully valid in Spain. Once legalised, the sworn translation is produced on the legalised document.
Our sworn translation
For any birth certificate, our sworn translation:
- Reproduces the full content of the original: the child's name in the exact order and spelling of the registry, date and time of birth, place (hospital, town, administrative division, country), full names of both parents with their identification details, registrar's name, registration number, date of issue, and any marginal annotations (marriage, death, name changes, court rulings).
- Translates the apostille or EU multilingual form in full, as Spanish authorities expect both the certificate and the accompanying authentication to be readable in Spanish.
- Includes the official sworn translator's certification: signed declaration, MAEC accreditation number and qualified digital signature compliant with the MAEC Resolution of 26 July 2020.
- Renders country-specific terminology (registration district, informant, given names, attendant at birth, officier de l'état civil) with a translator's note where the Spanish administrative reader would otherwise lack context.
Delivery format and timing
We deliver the translation as a PDF signed electronically with the sworn translator's qualified digital signature, accepted by the Ministry of Justice, Civil Registries, Sub-delegations of the Government, consulates, courts, notaries, universities and regional administrations. If your specific procedure requires a paper copy with handwritten signature and stamp (some rural Juzgados de Paz, certain traditional notaries), we send it by registered mail after the digital delivery.
Standard turnaround for a single birth certificate — typically one page, two if there are marginal annotations — is calculated from the moment of payment and shown exactly in the quoter before payment, using the Spanish working calendar. Urgent options with a specific tariff are available.
Common pitfalls to avoid
- Ordering the short instead of the long form. A subtle difference but Spain rejects the short version. Check before ordering that it is the long-form with both parents' data.
- Apostilling the wrong document. Some countries issue a provisional certificate first and the definitive one later — the apostille is only valid on the definitive document.
- Letting the certificate expire mid-procedure. Spanish nationality files require the certificate issued within the past six months. If your apostille plus our translation plus the administrative appointment add up to more than six months from the original's issue, the appointment will reject it.
- Wrong order: translating before apostilling. If you translate before apostilling, you'll need to retranslate when the apostille arrives, because the apostille is itself translated.
- Name discrepancies. We cover these with a translator's note — but if your passport and Spanish documents use different spellings (with or without accents, with or without middle names), tell us when you upload the document so we add the correct note.
Spanish bodies that accept our translation
- Ministry of Justice (nationality by residency, by option, Sephardic procedures, dual nationality)
- Central Civil Registry in Madrid — registration of births abroad to Spanish citizens
- Municipal and consular Civil Registries
- Sub-delegation of the Government and Immigration Offices (NIE, TIE, residency)
- Notaries (inheritances, wills, deeds where filiation is established)
- Universities and professional bodies (recognition, homologación)
- Courts (family proceedings, adoption)
Related pages
- Sworn translation of a marriage certificate — companion document for nationality and civil-registry procedures.
- Sworn translation of a criminal record certificate — another standard piece of nationality-by-residency files.
- Sworn translation of a university degree — for academic and professional recognition.