Sworn translation for Canadians in Spain

Canada changed the rules on 11 January 2024. Until then, a Canadian document bound for Spain had to go through consular legalisation: several counters, unpredictable timescales and a cost that kept adding up. Since that date Canada is party to the Hague Convention and its public documents travel with an apostille — one stamp, one procedure.

If your document carries a consular legalisation from before 2024, it is still valid. Nothing needs redoing.

Who issues the apostille in Canada

This is where files get stuck, because Canada has no single counter. It depends on where the document was issued:

• Federal documents and those issued in Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are apostilled by Global Affairs Canada.
• Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan have their own provincial authority, and that is where the document must go.

It is worth confirming before you send anything: an Ontario document mailed to the federal counter comes back without an apostille, and that costs weeks.

Quebec, and why we are different here

Quebec issues its documents in French: birth and marriage certificates from the civil register, notarial acts, academic qualifications. The rest of Canada issues them in English.

For a Canadian file that usually means two languages in the same folder: the RCMP criminal record check in English and the Quebec birth certificate in French.

We cover both. Carolina López García signs sworn translations from English (MAEC no. 3664) and Eva Moreno Ortiz signs those from French (MAEC no. 1916). No splitting the file between two providers, no waiting on two separate deadlines, and no risk of each one rendering the same names differently.

Which Canadian documents we translate

• RCMP criminal record check, the fingerprint-based one, which is the version the immigration office and the Ministry of Justice expect.
• Birth and marriage certificates from the provincial registry, including those from the Quebec civil register.
• Degrees and academic transcripts, for recognition or equivalence.
• Employer letters, payslips and bank statements, to evidence financial means for a visa.
• Deeds, powers of attorney and wills, for property purchases and estates with assets on both sides of the Atlantic.

The driving licence: better to know early

Spain and Canada have no driving licence exchange agreement. Not federally and not province by province, Quebec included. A Canadian settling in Spain does not swap the licence for a Spanish one: you have to obtain the Spanish licence by sitting the tests here.

We do translate the licence for other purposes — car hire, insurance paperwork, evidencing years of driving experience — but we will not sell you a translation for an exchange that does not exist.

How it works, without crossing the Atlantic

Entirely online. The time difference is irrelevant because there is no appointment to coordinate:

1. Upload the document, already apostilled, as a PDF or a clear photo.
2. See the firm price and the delivery date before paying. No quotes that take days.
3. Receive the sworn translation as a PDF with a qualified electronic signature, valid for electronic filing with the Spanish authorities.
4. If your procedure demands paper, we post the official stamped-paper copy to your address in Spain.

One point about scope, because it matters: a sworn translation signed by a translator accredited by the MAEC has full validity in Spain. To file Spanish documents in Canada the route runs the other way, and it is set by the Canadian authority receiving them.