What you need for Spain
Why people send Canadian documents to Spain
Each situation has its own requirements. Here are the ones we see most often, with the detail that avoids a refusal.
Non-lucrative residence visa (retiring to Spain)
This is the file we see most: living in Spain on your own income without working there. The consulate requires the fingerprint-based RCMP criminal record check, apostilled and translated into Spanish, plus a medical certificate using the wording set out under the 2005 International Health Regulations. Accompanying family members prove the relationship with birth or marriage records, apostilled and translated.
Buying property, getting an NIE, signing a poder
Buying an apartment or opening a bank account in Spain requires an NIE, the foreigner identification number, which Spain's consulates in Canada can process. If someone will sign for you, they need a power of attorney (poder notarial). You can sign it in person before the Spanish consul, who acts as a Spanish notary, or before a Canadian notary, then have it apostilled and translated.
Registering a birth or marriage with the Spanish Civil Registry
A child born in Canada to a Spanish parent is registered in the Registro Civil through the Spanish consulate for your area. For a child born in Québec, the Montréal consulate asks for the copy of act of birth from the Directeur de l'état civil, not the short certificate. The Spanish parent provides a full Spanish birth certificate (certificado literal) issued within the last 6 months.
Getting a Canadian degree recognized
To practise a regulated profession in Spain, for example in health care or teaching, you need homologation of your degree by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. Other degrees go through a declaration of equivalence. The ministry asks for apostilled documents with an official Spanish translation.
Which Canadian authority apostilles your document
The authority depends on where in Canada the document was issued or notarized, never on where you live now or where the document is going. We confirm it at the free pre-check, before you send anything.
| Document | Canadian authority | Notary first? |
|---|---|---|
| Birth, marriage or death certificate | The province that issued it (Québec, Ontario, BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan), or Global Affairs Canada for all others | No |
| RCMP criminal record check | Global Affairs Canada | No |
| Degree, diploma, transcript | The province of the institution | Often, depending on the province |
| Power of attorney, statutory declaration, affidavit | The province of the notary or lawyer | Yes, the notarial act is what gets apostilled |
| Corporate documents | The province of the registry, or Global Affairs Canada for Corporations Canada | Sometimes, depending on the document |
Do you need a translation for Spain?
In Spain, the translation that works everywhere is the traducción jurada: a translation signed and sealed by a sworn translator-interpreter appointed by Spain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Civil registries, notaries, courts and the universities ministry accept it as it stands. A Canadian certified translation does not automatically carry the same weight in an office in Spain.
For visas, the rule can be looser. The Spanish Embassy in Ottawa accepts an official translation by a sworn or certified translator and points applicants to the Association of Translators and Interpreters of Ontario; it also says the apostille itself does not need translating. Other offices want the whole file in Spanish, apostille included. Our advice: translate after the apostille, in one sworn Spanish translation that covers both the document and the apostille. The same file then works at the consulate and in Spain.
Three mistakes that delay a file for Spain
Avoid this
A local police or name-based check
For visas, Spain's consulates in Canada accept only the RCMP check that contains your fingerprints. A municipal police certificate or a name-only search is refused. Order the right product from the start.
Avoid this
An apostille on a notary's signature
The Embassy in Ottawa states that the apostille must certify the signature on the RCMP check itself, not the signature of a notary who stamped it. A notarized copy that was then apostilled does not replace the apostilled original.
Avoid this
A document that expires before you file
Windows run from the issue date to the application date: the Embassy in Ottawa wants an RCMP check under 6 months old, the Montréal consulate a medical certificate under 3 months old. Each post sets its own rules, so check yours before ordering.
Useful guides: RCMP fingerprints from abroad · Sworn Spanish translation · RCMP criminal record check · Medical certificates · Powers of attorney
Does Spain accept Canadian apostilles?
Which Spanish consulate handles my application?
Is a Canadian certified translation accepted in Spain?
Does the apostille itself need to be translated?
Can I sign a power of attorney for Spain without going to the consulate?
Can grandchildren still apply for Spanish citizenship?
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