Sworn translation in Cartagena

Cartagena makes most sense seen from the harbour. The same basin holds the Navy's Arsenal and the submarines Navantia fits out a few metres away, the cruise ships that gave the port its best year on record in 2025 with over 250,000 passengers, and a Roman Theatre that surfaced in 1988 beneath the old town. Add a public university, the Polytechnic (UPCT), housed in former military buildings such as the old Naval Hospital, and a municipality that stretches all the way to Cabo de Palos and half of La Manga del Mar Menor. That map explains the paperwork that moves through here: students having degrees recognised, foreign engineers joining the naval and port industries and, all along the Mar Menor shore —from Los Urrutias up to Los Alcázares and San Javier—, thousands of British residents buying homes, renewing residence or drawing their pension from Spain. Sooner or later they all hit the same requirement: a certificate, a deed or a criminal record check in English or French counts for nothing before the Spanish authorities without a sworn translation into Spanish.

Textualia handles that step entirely online. There is no need to hunt for an office in the old town or drive up to Murcia: you upload the document, see the final price on the spot and, once you pay, you receive the sworn translation as a PDF electronically signed by a translator accredited by Spain's MAEC, fully valid before notaries, registries, courts and the regional administration of Murcia. And if the body insists on paper, we send the translation on official stamped paper by courier anywhere in the municipality or around the Mar Menor.

A sworn translation signed by a translator accredited by Spain's MAEC is valid throughout the country, which covers the procedures that come up most often in and around Cartagena:

• Residence and immigration: paperwork for the NIE, TIE and renewals processed at the National Police station in Cartagena.
• Buying a home: foreign deeds, powers of attorney and certificates before a notary and the Land Registry, especially common in La Manga and along the Mar Menor.
• Civil status and municipal registration: birth, marriage or death certificates for the Civil Registry and Cartagena town hall.
• Education: degrees and transcripts for recognition or enrolment, starting with the Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (UPCT).
• Pensions and work history: foreign pension and proof-of-life certificates for those retiring by the Mar Menor.
• Inheritance and probate: wills and grants of representation executed abroad.

One point worth being clear about: the MAEC sworn translation takes effect before the Spanish authorities; if the document is headed outside Spain, always check the requirements of the destination country first.

This is what reaches us most often from Cartagena and the Mar Menor:

• Apostilled criminal record checks for residence and visas: ACRO (UK), FBI (USA) or bulletin no. 3 (France), translated into Spanish.
• Birth, marriage and death certificates for the Civil Registry, municipal registration and civil partnerships.
• Deeds, powers of attorney and deposit contracts for buying a home in La Manga, Cabo de Palos or Los Alcázares.
• Pension and proof-of-life certificates to draw a British or French pension from Spain.
• Degrees, diplomas and academic transcripts for recognition or to enrol at the UPCT.
• Wills and inheritance papers executed abroad.

Cartagena holds a distinction that tends to surprise people from outside the Region: it is Murcia's legislative capital, because the Regional Assembly sits here, a short walk from the harbour, rather than in the regional capital. That same harbour closed 2025 with its best cruise year ever, and the Roman Theatre Museum was once again the most visited museum space in the Region, with more than half its public arriving from abroad. The real paperwork, though, does not come from cruise passengers, who sail off by evening — it comes from the people who stay: the UPCT's international students, the professionals of the naval industry and, above all, the neighbourhoods along the Mar Menor. In Los Alcázares, nearly four in ten residents were born outside Spain, with the British among the largest communities, and the picture is similar in San Javier and La Manga. Every purchase, residence renewal, retirement or university enrolment among them drags along documents in English or French that the Spanish authorities will only accept with a sworn translation.

That is the part we take care of. We translate birth and marriage certificates, criminal record checks, deeds, powers of attorney, degrees and pension paperwork from English and French into Spanish, signed by a translator accredited by the MAEC, without you leaving home. You upload the files, confirm the fixed price and receive the electronically signed PDF, ready for the police station, the notary or the Civil Registry. And when the procedure calls for paper, we send it on official stamped paper to your address in Cartagena, Cabo de Palos, La Manga or Los Alcázares.