Q1231. How to handle Latin American Spanish versus European Spanish translation rules?

Answered by the NYC Visa & Translation certified translation team

Latin American and European Spanish diverge in ways that matter for official documents, and the variety is chosen by destination. The divergences: vocabulary (administrative, legal, and everyday terms differ by country — and Latin America is not uniform, with Mexican, Argentine, Colombian, and Chilean usages differing from each other as much as from Spain's), the second-person forms (Spain's vosotros versus Latin America's ustedes, and the voseo in Argentina and elsewhere — rarely decisive in formal documents but a marker), and the legal terminology (each country's legal system has its own vocabulary — a Spanish contract's terms differ from a Mexican one's). The country-specific practice matters more than the continental division: a document for Mexican authorities uses Mexican legal and administrative terminology; one for Argentina uses Argentine. The certification systems: Spain uses the traductor jurado (sworn translator appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) — official use in Spain requires theirs; Argentina uses the traductor público (registered with the professional college, with the college's certification); Mexico uses the perito traductor (authorised by the state judiciary); other countries have their own systems — so a translation produced in Thailand may not be accepted for official use in the destination, and this is confirmed before commissioning. The legalisation chain for Thai use: the foreign document is legalised in its country and by the Thai embassy accredited there, then translated into Thai and certified by the Thai MFA (200/quoted on request per stamp). Points that matter: specify the destination country, not just 'Spanish'; and the names must match the passport. Practice points: confirm the destination's sworn translator requirement first.