Translation of Commercial and Company Documents for Spain

The rule that decides most when you send commercial documents to Spain concerns who is allowed to make the translation. This page sets out the documents a company established in Türkiye will submit to the Spanish trade register, to its buyer or to a tendering authority. A Spanish company opening a branch in Türkiye is a separate process, in which the documents run the other way and are translated into Turkish.

The Turkish registry set against the Registro Mercantil

Companies in Spain are entered in trade registers organised by province, and the extract taken from such a register is the identity document your counterpart is used to. Your Spanish counterpart expects from you the document that serves the same purpose: a currently dated certificate of activity from the trade registry directorate and the notice in the Turkish Trade Registry Gazette. The articles of association, because they show the shareholding structure and the objects of the company, are asked for in addition in incorporations, joint ventures and credit files. A foreign company that is to carry out a transaction in Spain, and its directors, must obtain a tax identification number; that application, too, brings translated and apostilled copies of the company documents into play.

Traductor jurado: the ministry-appointed translator requirement

This is Spain’s strictest rule. A translation put before an official body must carry the stamp and the statement of accuracy of a sworn translator appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; translations from outside that list may count for nothing in official procedures. A free translation, or one bearing only an agency stamp, is not accepted in registration and public procedures. In a translation produced in Türkiye the route followed is the sworn translator’s signature, notarisation and the apostille. Commercial counterparts generally accept it, but in registry and public procedures the appointed translator route is the safer one. Find out which of the two holds good by obtaining written confirmation from the authority that will carry out the transaction.

Transaction	Translation route expected	Flexibility
Entry in the trade register	Ministry-appointed sworn translator	Low
Tax identification number application	Sworn translation + apostille	Low
Public tender	The level stated in the specification	Medium
Distributorship / supply	A stamped translation is usually enough	High

The languages of the autonomous communities: do they bear on the file?

In autonomous communities such as Catalonia, the Basque Country, Galicia and Valencia, the regional language holds official status alongside Spanish. In transactions that run through central institutions and the trade registers, a Spanish translation is as a rule enough; in the incentive schemes, grants and some tender procedures run by the regional administrations, on the other hand, documents in the regional language may be called for, or forms drawn up in it may have to be answered. This does not mean the translation has to be made in two languages at once, but it does mean asking at the outset which administration you are dealing with and in what language the correspondence runs. Commercial correspondence with a buyer in Barcelona or Bilbao runs in Spanish in practice.

Shipping paperwork travels a road of its own

The certificates of origin and movement certificates drawn up when goods are sent to Spain are the business of the chambers and of the customs administration; because their forms are printed in more than one language they are not separately translated, and they are not the subject of an apostille. The invoice and the packing list, too, are drawn up in a foreign language from the outset. The chain of translation and certification is there for texts that impose an obligation on the parties or prove a right. The health and phytosanitary certificates that come into play in exports of fresh fruit and vegetables and of foodstuffs form a third line: these are multilingual documents issued by the agriculture administration, and they take effect on the signature of that administration rather than through sworn translation.

The power of attorney: a narrowly drafted text is accepted faster

If a registration, a tax matter or a banking transaction in Spain is to be handled by your local representative, keep the scope of the power of attorney narrow: on behalf of which company, for which transaction, for how long. Broad and vague texts prompt the other side to ask further questions; in banking and tax matters especially, the limit of the authority is expected to be plain on its face. Where several transactions are to be carried out under the same power of attorney, listing each one separately is safer than a single line of general authority. The grantor’s authority to represent the company is proved by a currently dated registry record and the signature circular. The order is this: signature before a notary, then the apostille, and the translation last. Spain is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention; verify the current list of parties through the HCCH. You can compare the regimes of different markets in our country guide.

The commonest ground of refusal, and the form of delivery

The ground that most often sends commercial files bound for Spain back is that the translation does not carry the stamp of an appointed sworn translator. Second comes the date of the document: specifications ask for a currently dated registry record. Third is the apostille being missing or untranslated; the apostille certificate is part of the document too. As to delivery, Spanish institutions go on expecting a stamped, wet-signed set – keep the physical set to hand even where you upload to an electronic portal. You can send us your file through the quotation form, and see what difference the level of approval makes on the pricing page.

The information on this page gives the general framework; the authority you apply to may ask for further documents or for a different form. Settling the form the institution wants at the outset saves doing the work twice.