Sworn translation in Moraira

Any Friday morning, Moraira's street market tells the story better than any statistic: the haggling happens in English, the greetings in German, and you almost have to go looking for Spanish. It is no exaggeration —on Teulada-Moraira's municipal register, nearly six out of ten residents were born outside Spain, with the British the largest community, ahead of Germans and Dutch. And unlike other spots along the coast, the typical profile here is not the two-week tourist but the villa owner who bought in El Portet or Benimeit twenty years ago and has been stringing procedures together ever since: the NIE on arrival, residence later, perhaps a second purchase and, sooner or later, a will or an inheritance. At every one of those steps the Spanish authorities repeat the same demand: documents in English, German or French carry no weight before notaries, registries or the immigration office until they come with a sworn translation into Spanish.

That step is exactly what Textualia takes care of without you leaving the Marina Alta. Our office is in El Campello, under an hour down the AP-7, though you will rarely need to come: you upload the document, see the fixed price on the spot and, once you pay, receive the sworn translation as an electronically signed PDF, fully valid before notaries, registries, courts and the Valencian regional administration. If the procedure calls for paper, we send the translation on official stamped paper by courier to your address in Moraira or Teulada.

A sworn translation signed by a translator accredited by Spain's MAEC is valid throughout the country, which covers what Moraira residents deal with most:

• Buying and selling villas and apartments: foreign deeds, powers of attorney and bank paperwork before a notary and the Land Registry.
• Inheritance and probate: wills, grants of probate and declarations of heirs executed outside Spain.
• Residence and immigration: NIE, TIE —including the post-Brexit card exchange for British residents— and visas before the Immigration Office in Alicante and the national police station in Dénia.
• Civil status and municipal registration: birth, marriage or death certificates for the Civil Registry and Teulada town hall.
• Pensions: pension and proof-of-life certificates to draw a British, German or Dutch pension from Spain.
• Vehicles: foreign import papers and technical sheets to register your car with the DGT.

One thing worth being clear about: the MAEC sworn translation carries its validity before the Spanish authorities; if the document is to take effect outside Spain, check the destination country's requirements first.

In Moraira, most of what crosses our desk has to do with property and with what comes after it:

• British wills and grants of probate to inherit or sell a villa in the Marina Alta.
• Deeds, powers of attorney and purchase or deposit contracts signed abroad.
• Apostilled criminal record checks —ACRO (UK), FBI (USA), Führungszeugnis (Germany)— for visas and residence.
• Birth, marriage and death certificates for the Civil Registry and municipal registration.
• Pension and proof-of-life certificates to draw a foreign pension from Spain.
• Bank and mortgage paperwork the lender or the notary wants translated before signing.

Moraira was Teulada's fishing quarter until, from the 1970s onwards, Britons and Germans began building villas on its hillsides. Today the town keeps two traits that set it apart from its neighbours: it grew on detached houses rather than tower blocks, and its foreign community is not a floating one but deeply rooted —people registered here for decades, with the 620-berth yacht club as their meeting point and the castle of 1742, the Bourbon fort that once defended l'Ampolla beach from Barbary pirates, presiding over the bay. That first generation of residents is getting older, and it shows in the paperwork that reaches us: more and more villa inheritances, wills executed in the UK or Germany, and powers of attorney so that children living abroad can sign the sale.

That is the work we do. We translate wills, grants of probate, deeds, powers of attorney, criminal record checks and pension documents from English, German and French into Spanish, signed by a translator accredited by the MAEC, with the whole process online: you upload the files, confirm the fixed price and receive the electronically signed PDF, ready for the notary or the registry. And when the authority asks for paper, the translation goes out on official stamped paper by courier to Moraira, Teulada or El Portet.