Translation of Residence and Family Documents for Spain

How an Extranjería file is put together

A family reunification application in Spain is made by the party lawfully resident in the country, to the foreigners’ office of the province concerned. The office examines whether the dwelling is adequate and what economic resources the applicant has; once a favourable decision is given, the visa is obtained from the Spanish mission in Türkiye. After entry, an appointment is taken for the fingerprints for the foreigner’s identity card. What sets Spain apart from other countries is that the adequacy of the dwelling is proved by a separate report drawn up by the municipality or by the competent unit; without that report the file does not count as complete, and obtaining it can take several weeks.

Where the application is made as the spouse of an EU citizen the route changes altogether: a separate card regime applies, one that moves faster, and income is examined against different criteria. Establishing at the outset which regime you fall under also settles the set of documents.

Marrying in Spain: the file opened at the civil register

Couples marrying in Spain submit a file to the civil register before the ceremony. It contains the foreign party’s birth certificate, their civil status record and a certificate of no impediment to marriage; an interview is also held at which the parties are heard separately. The certificate of capacity to marry obtained in Türkiye is the basic paper in this file. The register is attentive to how current the documents are: extracts obtained a few months earlier may have to be renewed, and the translation is then renewed with them.

Document	At which stage	Who issues it
Report on the adequacy of the dwelling	Reunification application	The competent unit in Spain
Income documents	Reunification application	The employer and the bank in Spain
Certificate of capacity to marry	Marriage file	Civil registry directorate in Türkiye
Birth certificate and civil registry record	At every stage	Civil registry directorate in Türkiye

The commonest ground of refusal: the translator’s authority

The technical reason that most often sends residence files in Spain back is that the translation was not made by a sworn translator appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The list of authorised translators in this country is official and translations from outside it count as invalid; a certified translation made in another country is not always accepted either. The second frequent ground is that the economic resources are not found sufficient; income is judged not merely as an amount but by its continuity and in proportion to the number of people in the household. The third is that the housing report is out of date, or does not agree with the address actually lived in.

Translation, the apostille and the multilingual copy

The order is this: the document is obtained with a current date, the apostille is completed in Türkiye, and the text is then translated into Spanish, the certificate included. Spain is among the countries that recognise multilingual international copies; obtaining birth and marriage records in that form can reduce the need for translation at the civil register stage. For court judgments, the criminal record certificate and income documents coming from Türkiye, on the other hand, sworn translation is required. You will find the detail document by document on our document page, and the differences between countries in our country guide.

Children, school and birth registrations

Where children are brought to Spain, the birth certificate and the custody position are examined together. A parent coming alone is asked for the written consent of the other parent or for the court judgment settling custody, and these documents have to be submitted in a sworn translator’s translation. With divorce decrees the endorsement of finality is expected to go into the translation too, because the authority wants to see the date on which the decree became final.

School enrolment is a chain of its own. To decide which year group the child will be placed in, the education administration asks for the previous school papers and the birth certificate; without a Spanish translation of these no placement is made. Since enrolment periods open on fixed dates, a term can be lost if the documents are not ready in time.

Nor should notifying the Turkish civil register of children born in Spain be forgotten. That notification requires the Spanish birth certificate to be translated into Turkish; the direction of the translation is reversed, and the certification the document carries is judged against what the Turkish authority expects. Where the notification is late, the child’s Turkish identity card and passport formalities are late with it.

The identity card and municipal registration

Once you are in Spain, registering your residence with the municipality is usually a precondition for an appointment for the foreigner’s identity card. That registration is at the same time the door to health care. Because finding an appointment takes time in busy provinces, it is important to open the application while the visa still runs.

At renewal it has to be shown again that life together continues; the municipal registration, a joint tenancy agreement and social security records, all issued in Spain, come to the fore at this stage. Documents brought from Türkiye, it is fair to say, are rarely asked for again after the first application, but at the citizenship stage they all come up once more, and currently dated fresh copies are needed then. To settle the scope of the sworn translation you can upload your documents and request a quotation, and see the cost per page on our pricing page.

This content is for information; a country’s practice on apostilles or consular legalisation may change. The final requirement is settled by the authority you apply to, so confirm it in advance.