Signing from abroad: powers of attorney, apostilles and video notaries

The question behind this page is the one every family abroad asks first: do we have to fly out? The answer is no — and the machinery that makes “no” possible is the power of attorney. Done properly it is boring and smooth. Done casually it is the single most common cause of months of delay. Here is how it is done properly.

One power per country — never one power for everything

Portugal, Spain, Italy and France each have their own legal language for the same idea — procuração, poder, procuration, procura — and their notaries and registrars each expect their own formulas. A single “covers-everything” document drafted for four countries reads as native to none of them and invites rejection. So we prepare a country-specific, bilingual power for each country involved: the local-language text the notary needs, side by side with English so you know exactly what you are signing.

What the power actually says

A succession power is special, not general: it lists, expressly, the acts it covers — accepting the inheritance, obtaining tax numbers, signing the heirship and partition deeds, filing and paying the inheritance tax, dealing with the banks, registering the property. Anything dispositive that is not expressly listed, a careful notary will refuse to act on — which is why the drafting is legal work rather than a form-filling exercise, and why ours are agreed with the receiving notary before you sign. You sign once, correctly.

How you sign it at home

Before a notary where you live, in the usual way. The document then needs an apostille — the international certificate that makes your home notary’s signature trusted abroad. One trap we insist on: paper apostilles. Several countries now issue elegant electronic apostilles, but registrars in Spain and conservators in Italy still routinely reject digital versions on property files — so we use paper, every time, and the question never arises. For civil-status papers issued in another EU country — a death or birth certificate, for example — an EU regulation removes the apostille; it does not cover powers of attorney, which still need one.

Can it be done by video?

Increasingly, yes. France leads: since 2020 a French notarial power can be executed fully remotely by video, with the notaire verifying identity on screen and a qualified electronic signature completing the act — we have had French notaires confirm this route for succession powers directly. Italy has an electronic public-deed framework, and Spain and Portugal offer consular signing at their consulates in the UK and Ireland. Where video is available it can save weeks; where it is not, the home-notary-plus-apostille route remains dependable and quick when it is started — as it should be — in week one.

The Spanish speciality worth knowing about

Spain adds one refinement: a foreign-signed Spanish power should carry the notary’s confirmation that the signing formalities are equivalent to Spanish ones (the juicio de equivalencia). Powers without it risk suspension at the land registry. Ours carry it as standard — one of those details that costs nothing when known and months when discovered late.

Two honest caveats

First, an ordinary power lapses if the person who gave it later loses capacity. Where an elderly heir is involved we say so plainly at the start and, where appropriate, structure a durable form or adjust the sequence — quietly, in advance, rather than urgently, after. Second, a power of attorney is revocable at any time: you remain in control throughout, and every act done under it is reported to you.

What still genuinely needs a person on the ground

Very little — and none of it you. Certificates, tax numbers, tax filings, notarial deeds (signed under your power) and land-registry filings all run remotely. The rare physical acts — a bank counter that insists on a visit, a vehicle transfer — are handled by our people locally, under our direction, and never touch your diary. The result: the estate proceeds at the speed of the paperwork, not the speed of anyone’s travel plans — and the powers signed in week one set the pace for everything.