Provide a Power of Attorney in Spain while you are abroad.

Method 1: through a local notary in your current country.

Indeed, it is possible to provide a power of attorney in Spain through a foreign authority. However, for this, such a foreign authority need to perform some equivalent functions to Spanish notaries. According to the RDGRN of April 17, since this equivalence of functions can be accredited in different ways, and it is not necessary that it expressly result from the terms of the documents, it is not strictly necessary for the authorising notary in the foreign document to expressly indicate that, according to its regulations, its functions are equivalent to a Spanish notary (in essence, it is not limited to giving certainty of the date, but also makes a judgment of capacity) and that in the case he has carried out such controls, but it is, of course, recommended that he do so. In this sense, it is advisable that in cases in which the foreign system may be unknown for structuring the public faith, it is provided, by any means admitted in Law, proof of the foreign ordinance.

In other words, if you want a foreign power of attorney to be valid in Spain, it must include the following statements, according to the Spanish legal system:

1. it has duly identified the natural person who provides such a representative power, also stating that such a natural person is fully qualified to grant such a power of attorney;
2. that as a notary he performs equivalent functions as the Spanish notary and that, consequently, he has intervened in the preparation of the power of attorney;
3. that the effects of his intervention in such a power are similar to those taking place with the intervention of a Spanish notary for this type of documents in Spain and
4. that the power meets the solemnities required by national legislation where such a power would have granted and that it does not require any registration in any local registry for its effectiveness.

Method 2: through a Spanish Consulate or Embassy

In the cases in which the foreign notary is not empowered by its legislation to issue a judgment of capacity, the power of attorney may be granted through  your nearest Spanish Consulate. This is, from a practical point of view, a doubtfully equivalent alternative, since it is more expensive, because it is less flexible (among other things, for example, it requires you to travel to the location where the consulate is located), but it is the only possible way if you want to avoid traveling to Spain in order to do so.

At any event, it is not superfluous to recall that the consuls of Spain abroad may, in accordance with Article 5, f of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations [21], “act as a notary public, in that of an official of civil registry, and in similar functions and exercise other of an administrative nature, provided that the laws and regulations of the receiving State are not opposed ”; so that, except in cases in which the receiving State does not authorise it, the power of attorney may be granted through them.

We have attached a ggeneral request of a power of attorney in Spain that you will need to send by email to your nearest Spanish Consulate in order to provide a power of attorney in Spain, in case the option 1 is not possible in your country.

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