Short answer

No. But… maybe yes?

Long answer

Background on apostilles

“Apostilles” were created by the Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, which entered into force on 24 January 1965 and has since been adopted by 126 countries, and, notably, most recently by Canada and Rwanda (12 May 2023 and 6 October 2023, respectively).

The stated goal of the convention and its signatories is to abolish the requirement of diplomatic or consular legalization for foreign public documents, facilitating the use of public documents around the world.

In reaching this goal, the convention states that “Each Contracting State shall exempt from legalisation documents to which the present Convention applies and which have to be produced in its territory” (art. 2). Moreover, “The only formality that may be required in order to certify the authenticity of the signature, the capacity in which the person signing the document has acted and, where appropriate, the identity of the seal or stamp which it bears, is the addition of the certificate described in Article 4, issued by the competent authority of the State from which the document emanates,” which may be placed on the document itself (such as with a sticker) or as an “allonge” (an appended document).

Although the convention allows, and the Hague Conference on Private International Law encourages, States to issue apostilles in multilingual certificates, the convention allows member states to issue apostilles “drawn up in the official language of the authority which issues it,” which may lead to confusion abroad —for example, a Russian apostille received in Spain might be illegible to Spanish authorities both because of the language employed (Russian) and because of the script used (Cyrillic). (This should be seen as foreshadowing regarding “But… maybe”).

In order to mitigate this confusion, the contents and structure of apostilles are strictly determined by the convention. “The certificate referred to in the first paragraph of Article 3 shall be placed on the document itself or on an ‘allonge’; it shall be in the form of the model annexed to the present Convention.” States may issue apostilles in their official languages, but:

1. All apostilles must be titled “APOSTILLE (Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961)” and
2. All apostilles must contain the same numbered items, 1-10, in the order shown in the figure.

The effect of this regulation is that any contracting party should be able to recognize the elements of an apostille. Whether an apostille is issued by Slovakia or by Kyrgyzstan, items 1 through 10 are always items 1 through 10.

Possible problems

If all apostilles are the same, what’s the problem?

Well, as we’ve already covered, while the convention allows and the HCCH encourages contracting States to use multilingual certificates containing commonly used languages (e.g., English and French):

1. Permission and encouragement don’t amount to obligation and
2. Even if the structural elements of the apostille are in a legible language, the contents of each element may not be.

For example, while an apostille issued by Hong Kong may indicate “1. Country,” “2. has been signed by,” which are —or should be— perfectly legible to a Spanish court or civil servant, the contents of each section may not be legible because it’s written in a script other than the Roman script, such as Cyrllic or Hanzi. Essentially, the legibility of an apostille you submit depends on the script or alphabet used by the issuing state, which may be identical to our Roman script, but may also be so foreign to us that we couldn’t begin to make heads or tails.

In cases like these, where the contents of each section are illegible to a court or civil servant, the court or the public administration might require you to provide a translation of the Apostille.

Is it legal? Can I actually be required to translate an apostille?

Strictly speaking, no.

First, with regard to dealing with Spanish administrative organs —like immigration offices or consulates— Spanish law states that “interested parties in an administrative procedure have the right not to submit data and documents not required by the norms applicable to the procedure in question” (art. 53.1.d) Law 39/2015, of 1 October).

Not only does general administrative law not require a translation —let alone an official translation— of an apostille, but neither do immigration laws, citizenship regulations, etc. This is important: current law with regard to immigration and citizenship doesn’t expressly or implicitly require translations for apostilles.

More importantly, even if these or other laws or regulations do require simple or sworn translations, these laws or regulations would be contrary to the convention and, therefore, devoid of legal value (arts. 9.3 and 96.1 of the Spanish Constitution). That’s because the convention, which is a valid international treaty ratified by Spain, supersedes national law and regulations, and article 3 of the convention states that “The only formality that may be required (…) is the addition of the certificate described in Article 4”.

The HCCH’s “Apostille Handbook,” although non-binding, supports this interpretation in its 304th point: “The Convention also provides that no further formality may be required, which includes translation.”

You’re perfectly within your rights to translate only the underlying document.

However…

If you’re asked by a civil servant to translate an apostille, on top of translating the underlying document, you may want to kowtow and obtain a translation if:

• Your main objective is to complete your case as soon as possible, without needing to lodge time-consuming and costly appeals;
• Translation, especially sworn translation, isn’t impossible, impracticable, or outside your means; and
• You aren’t particularly concerned about making a point.

Just be aware that, in caving, you’re not only renouncing the exercise of a legal right —which is also your right— you’re also contributing to public administrations’ perception that they may require the translation in spite of the lack of legal foundation, meaning they’ll continue to require translations of people, some of whom may not have the means to provide them.

On the other hand, of course, by translating the apostille, you’re supporting freelance translators in Spain.

As with so many questions in life, the answer depends on your priorities.