Sworn translation in Sitges

Few towns its size are as international as Sitges. It sits half an hour from Barcelona, yet it is very much its own place. A settled expat community that goes back decades, an LGBTQ+ landmark known across Europe, and a steady stream of professionals who choose to live by the sea and commute into the city all share the same streets. Cinema leaves its mark every October, when the Sitges Fantastic Film Festival takes over the town, and the sailing crowd around the Aiguadolç marina rounds out the picture. So many people arriving from abroad has one very practical consequence: sooner or later, someone needs a foreign document translated officially. A property purchase. A town-hall registration. A residence permit. A marriage.

That is our part of the job, and the fact that you live in the Garraf while we are based in another province changes nothing, because we work entirely online. You upload the document to the quote tool, get a fixed price on the spot and, once you have paid, receive the sworn translation as a digitally signed PDF, valid for the vast majority of procedures. Does your gestoría, notary or registry insist on a copy on official State-stamped paper (papel timbrado)? We print it, stamp it and send it to Sitges by certified courier within a few business days. We translate from English and French into Spanish under MAEC accreditation.

Thanks to the MAEC accreditation, our translations carry full legal effect in Spain, and in Sitges and the Garraf they are accepted before:

• Sitges Town Hall (Ajuntament de Sitges) and the services of the Government of Catalonia (Generalitat): health, education, regional justice.
• The Barcelona Immigration Office (Oficina de Extranjería), which covers the Garraf for residence, NIE and citizenship.
• Notaries of the Notarial College of Catalonia and the Sitges Land Registry, central to any property purchase.
• The Civil Registry for marriages, births and civil partnerships that took place abroad.
• The courts of Vilanova i la Geltrú (the Garraf judicial district) and other Catalan judicial bodies.
• Important: a MAEC sworn translation certifies validity in Spain; if your document is bound for an administration in another country, always confirm the requirement with the receiving body.

The procedures our Sitges clients ask for most:

• Property purchase: deeds, powers of attorney, bank and proof-of-funds certificates for the notary and the Land Registry, a constant in a town with so much international second-home ownership.
• Immigration and residence (NIE, non-lucrative residence, arraigo, citizenship) before the Barcelona Immigration Office.
• Digital Nomad Visa with apostilled criminal records: FBI (USA), ACRO (UK) or B3 (France), translated for the consulate or already from within Spain.
• Registration in the Civil Registry of marriages, civil partnerships and births that took place abroad, common in such a mixed community.
• Recognition of foreign degrees (homologación) and academic transcripts to study or practise in Catalonia.
• Corporate and yachting documents: contracts, powers of attorney and vessel paperwork tied to the Aiguadolç marina and to companies with foreign partners.

For decades Sitges has drawn people who want to put down roots near Barcelona without giving up the beach. That appeal has a very concrete, decidedly unglamorous side. The day a British, American or French buyer sits down at the notary's to sign for a home, almost everything they bring from their own country has to go through a sworn translation. The bank certificate proving the source of funds. The power of attorney signed abroad because they couldn't travel. The statement the lender requires before granting the mortgage. If it is in English or French, the notary and the Land Registry will want it in Spanish, with a sworn translator's seal.

We take care of that part without letting it become a bottleneck. Delivery is usually a digitally signed PDF, which most notaries and gestorías now accept without question; when a particular case calls for State-stamped paper, we print it and send it in time for signing. And one reminder matters in such an international community: our MAEC accreditation guarantees validity in Spain. If what you need is to present a Spanish document before an administration in your home country, that is a different kind of legalisation, and the sensible move is to confirm the exact requirement there first.