Certified Spanish Translation Services
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Certified Spanish to English translation of civil records, academic documents and court judgments from Spain and Latin America, issued with a certificate of accuracy.
We provide certified Spanish to English and English to Spanish translation for documents that must be accepted by US government agencies, courts, universities and licensing boards. Every translation carries a signed certificate of accuracy from a State Court Certified Translator.
Spanish is not one document system. It is more than twenty countries, each with its own civil registry, its own forms and its own conventions — and the two issues below account for most of the avoidable rejections we see.
Two surnames, and what US forms do to them
Across most of the Spanish-speaking world a person carries two surnames: the father's first, then the mother's. María González Herrera is Ms. González, not Ms. Herrera. US forms, which expect a single last name, routinely capture only one of them — and often the wrong one, or both merged into a hyphenated surname that appears on no original document.
Once that happens, the name on the immigration form no longer matches the name on the birth certificate, and a reviewer has a discrepancy to resolve. We translate names exactly as they appear on the source document and do not silently normalise them to US convention. If your US documents already carry a different form of your name, tell us — it is far better to handle the mismatch deliberately than to have it surface during adjudication.
The same document is not the same document in every country
An acta de nacimiento from Mexico's Registro Civil, issued with a CURP and a verification code, is a different artifact from a Spanish libro de familia entry, which records a whole family unit rather than one birth. Colombian, Dominican, Guatemalan, Salvadoran and Honduran records differ again in layout, in which authority issues them, and in how reissues and marginal annotations are recorded.
Those marginal annotations matter more than most people expect. In many Latin American registries a later event — a legitimation, a name correction, a divorce — is recorded as a note in the margin of the original entry rather than as a new document. Translate only the main body and you have omitted the very fact the reviewer is looking for. We translate the annotations too, and we tell you which country's format we are working from so nothing is quietly assumed.
Documents We Translate from Spanish
- Actas de nacimiento (birth records), including reissued copies and any marginal annotations.
- Actas de matrimonio and actas de divorcio, plus the court judgments behind them where a filing requires the judgment itself.
- Libro de familia entries from Spain, which cover several family members in a single booklet.
- Diplomas, títulos and certificados de estudios for credential evaluation, graduate admission and professional licensing.
- Antecedentes penales (police and criminal record certificates).
- Court documents and powers of attorney, including notarial instruments (escrituras).
- Passports, national identity documents and consular records.
Tell us which country each document comes from. It is the fastest way to avoid questions later, because it determines the format we are reading and the conventions we apply.
Certification & Authentication
For USCIS, a signed certificate of accuracy is required and notarization is not — see USCIS translation. This is the single most common unnecessary expense for family-based petitions filed with Spanish-language documents.
Apostilles are issued by the country that produced the document, not the country receiving it. Spain and most Latin American countries are parties to the Hague Apostille Convention, so a birth record issued in Mexico is apostilled in Mexico — we cannot apostille a foreign-issued document from here. What we can do is apostille US-issued documents for use abroad, and produce the certified translation on either side. See apostille services.
If a consulate has asked for a traducción jurada performed by a translator sworn in that country, that is a requirement of their jurisdiction and a US certificate of accuracy does not substitute for it. Send us the request and we will tell you honestly whether we can meet it.
Срок выполнения
24 hours standard, 1-3 hours available
Цены
$49 for the first page (up to 250 words), then $0.12 per additional word. The certificate of accuracy is included.
See full pricing detailsЧасто задаваемые вопросы
Which Spanish-speaking countries do you handle documents from?
All of them. What we ask is that you tell us which country each document comes from, because registry formats, issuing authorities and annotation conventions differ significantly between Spain, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and South America.
How do you handle my two surnames?
We translate your name exactly as it appears on the source document, without collapsing it to US single-surname convention. If your US paperwork already shows a different form of your name, tell us so we can handle the mismatch deliberately rather than leaving a reviewer to discover it.
Can you apostille my Mexican birth certificate?
No, and neither can any US provider. An apostille must be issued by the country where the document originated, so a Mexican record is apostilled in Mexico. We can produce the certified translation, and we can apostille US-issued documents for use abroad.
Do you translate the notes written in the margin?
Yes, and it matters. Many Latin American registries record later events such as name corrections, legitimations or divorces as marginal annotations on the original entry rather than as separate documents. Omitting them frequently omits the exact fact the reviewer needs.
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