Sworn translation in Mijas

In most Andalusian towns a foreign resident draws a second glance. In Mijas they blend in. Spread between the whitewashed old town of Mijas Pueblo, Las Lagunas and the urbanisations running down to La Cala lives one of the most deeply rooted foreign communities on the Costa del Sol —chiefly British and Nordic, settled here for decades— so much so that the town hall keeps a Foreign Residents Department, among the first of its kind in Spain, for those who don't get by in Spanish. These are people who buy and sell homes, register their children on the padrón, inherit property and draw pensions from abroad. And every one of them eventually hits the same paper wall: a deed, a power of attorney, a birth certificate or a criminal record check is worth nothing to the Spanish authorities while it stays in English, French, Swedish or Norwegian. For a notary, the Land Registry or the Immigration Office in Málaga to accept it, you need a sworn translation into Spanish.

Textualia clears that step entirely online —no trips, no appointments. You upload the document, see the final price at once and, once you pay, you receive the sworn translation as an electronically signed PDF, fully valid in Spain before notaries, registries, courts and the Andalusian regional administration. When a procedure calls for a paper original, we courier the copy on official stamped paper anywhere along the Costa del Sol. We work mainly from English and French into Spanish, the two languages that turn up most often in Mijas files.

A sworn translation by a translator accredited by Spain's MAEC is fully valid throughout Spain, which covers the procedures Mijas residents meet most often:

• Valid in Spain: a MAEC sworn translation takes effect before the Spanish authorities; if you need to file it in your home country, it is that country's authorities who set their own requirements.
• Property purchases: foreign deeds, powers of attorney and certificates before a notary and the Mijas Land Registry.
• Residence and immigration: paperwork for the Immigration Office in Málaga and padrón registration at Mijas town hall.
• Civil status: birth, marriage or death certificates for the Civil Registry.
• Inheritance and probate: foreign wills, death certificates and grants of representation executed abroad.
• Pensions and income: foreign pension, bank and tax certificates to prove income before Social Security or the tax office.

These are the documents we are most often asked to translate in Mijas:

• Deeds, powers of attorney and title certificates for buying and selling property.
• Apostilled criminal record checks for visas and residence: FBI (USA), ACRO (UK) or bulletin no. 3 (France), translated into Spanish.
• Birth, marriage and death certificates and foreign family record books.
• Wills and inheritance papers executed abroad.
• Pension certificates, bank statements and tax returns to evidence income.
• Degrees and academic transcripts for recognition or school enrolment for children.

Mijas stopped being a mere second-home destination long ago. There are foreigners here who arrived thirty or forty years back, raised their children between La Cala and Las Lagunas and have no plans to leave. That permanence reshapes the paperwork. Whoever bought a house in the 1990s now faces the other side of the story: the will drawn up back home, the estate, the division among children who sometimes don't even live in Spain. And alongside probate, the everyday deals carry on —sales between neighbours of different nationalities, powers of attorney signed abroad to save the trip, pension certificates to evidence income before Social Security. All of it arrives in English, French or Nordic languages, and none of it reaches a notary or the registry without first becoming a sworn translation into Spanish.

Our job is to take the friction out of that step. We lead with English and French, the two languages we see most in Mijas files, with a fixed price from the outset and an electronically signed PDF ready to file before a notary, the Land Registry or the Immigration Office in Málaga. When a procedure calls for the paper original, we send it on official stamped paper to the address you give us along the Costa del Sol. One thing worth keeping in mind: a MAEC sworn translation is valid in Spain; if a document has to take effect abroad, it is that country's authorities who set the terms.