What this covers
- Apostille under the Hague Convention of 1961, in force for Morocco since 14 August 2016
- Consular legalisation for documents from non-Convention states
- Sworn translation by a traducteur assermenté registered with the Moroccan courts
- Special power of attorney (procuration spéciale) drafted to be accepted by banks, the ANCFCC and the courts
- Litigation mandate (mandat ad litem) to a Moroccan lawyer
- Exequatur of foreign judgments and foreign notarial acts
- Civil-status documents — birth, marriage, death, extrait d'acte de naissance, family record book
- Extrait de casier judiciaire — criminal record extracts, Moroccan and foreign
- Certificat de capacité matrimoniale from your consulate
- Certificat de propriété and land-register extracts from the ANCFCC
- Legalisation of signature (légalisation de signature) at the commune
- Replacing lost or never-issued Moroccan civil-status records
The chain, in order
1. Get the document issued in its own country, recently. Many Moroccan authorities want a recent extract rather than the original certificate from decades ago — ask before paying for the wrong one.
2. Apostille or legalise it.
- From a Hague Convention country: one apostille from that country's designated authority. No Moroccan consulate visit. Morocco acceded and the Convention has been in force for it since 14 August 2016.
- From a non-Convention country: the older chain — certification in the issuing country, then legalisation by the Moroccan consulate there.
3. Translate it into Arabic by a traducteur assermenté — a translator sworn before the Moroccan courts.
Powers of attorney
If you want work done without travelling, the power of attorney is the document that decides whether that is possible — and the commonest reason it fails is that it was drawn too broadly.
- Use a special power of attorney that enumerates each act. A general mandate for "my affairs" or "the succession" is liable to be refused by banks and by the land agency.
- Where registered property is being partitioned or sold, authentic form is required.
- For a sale, name the property and state a floor price.
- Litigation needs its own mandate. A power of attorney for administrative steps does not let a lawyer run a court case for you.
- Sign before a notary, then apostille and translate.
- A power of attorney ends on the death of the person who gave it. A relative holding the deceased's old mandate cannot use it to operate their accounts.
What to gather, for any matter
This list serves every page on this site, which is why it lives here rather than being repeated on each of them:
- Your passport, and residence documents if you hold them.
- The civil-status documents that prove the relationship your case depends on — birth, marriage, death certificates — apostilled.
- Anything identifying property: a title number, an old deed, a tax notice, a utility bill, an address, photographs.
- Any existing judgment or proceedings, anywhere, with dates and the court.
- A short chronology with dates. Not an account of how it felt — the dates.
- The other side's full name, address and, if a company, its registration details.
Send that and most matters can be assessed in a day.
Why we put this first
In the enquiries this site receives, the legal question is usually straightforward and the document position is usually the problem. People wait to instruct a lawyer before starting on their papers, when the papers are the thing with a six-week lead time and the legal step is the thing that takes an afternoon. If you do nothing else today, order the certificates.
This page states the law as we checked it on 25 October 2026. Moroccan family and procedural law is under active reform, so check anything here against the position on the day it matters to you. Any figures are typical ranges, not a quote.