Before applying for a visa and/or work and residence permit, it is necessary to consider the requirements and formalities that the destination country imposes regarding the documentation required by the applicant.

Given the new professional and personal challenge that a new move or assignment to a new destination country represents for an expatriate, another concern is preparing all the necessary documentation for processing a visa and/or work and residence permit.

Throughout our experience, we have found that many immigration processes requiring visa and/or work permit applications require not only the Hague Apostille (a procedure that grants validity and effectiveness to a document, provided that the issuing country is a signatory to the Twelfth Hague Convention of October 1961, and so is the destination country) or legalization of a document (a longer procedure than the Hague Apostille, which involves the authentication or legitimization of signatures by various public authorities depending on the nature of the document, whose final destination will be the Consulate of the country where we want the document in question to be valid), but also the translation of the documents into the official language of the destination country.

Specifically, in most cases, the requested translation of these documents will be sworn, that is, by a sworn translator recognized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (MAEC). Their role is to certify the translation of any document into another language through their signature and seal, authenticating its content. Thus, any document sworn translated by a sworn translator will be valid and fully recognized in the destination country.

On the other hand, another requirement for documents to be valid and admissible in immigration processes for applying for a specific visa and/or work and residence permit is the validity period. Generally, this is usually three months from the date of issue of the document.

For all these reasons, before applying for a visa and/or work and residence permit, it will be necessary to take into account the requirements and formalities that the destination country imposes regarding the documentation required by the applicant, in order for it to be recognized and valid for the purpose for which the application is being processed.