Documents from abroad: apostilles, sworn translations and criminal record certificates

Why Spain will not simply accept your certificate

A Spanish official looking at a birth certificate from Ohio or a police certificate from Lagos has no way of knowing whether the signature and stamp on it are real. Legalisation is the answer international law invented: a chain of officials, ending with a consul, each certifying the signature of the one before. It is slow, and between most countries it has been replaced by something simpler.

The apostille

The Hague Convention of 5 October 1961, in force for Spain since 25 September 1978, abolishes legalisation between the countries that have joined it. In its place, the only formality that may be required is an apostille: a certificate issued by the competent authority of the country where the document was issued, placed on the document itself or on a sheet attached to it.

The apostille certifies the authenticity of the signature on the document, the capacity in which the person who signed it acted, and, where there is one, the identity of the seal or stamp. It does not certify what the document says. A valid apostille on a certificate that is out of date is still an out-of-date certificate.

Three practical consequences. The apostille must come from the issuing country: a Spanish office cannot apostille a foreign document. It is issued at the request of the person who signed the document or anyone holding it, so you ask for it yourself. And the Convention covers public documents: court documents, administrative documents such as civil-status and criminal record certificates, notarial acts and official certifications on private documents. It does not cover documents issued by diplomatic or consular agents, or administrative documents dealing directly with commercial or customs operations.

If the country that issued the document has not joined the Convention, the old route applies: legalisation through that country's foreign ministry and the Spanish consulate there. Check before you start, because the two routes take very different amounts of time.

Sworn translation

A document not in Spanish normally has to be translated. What Spanish procedures mean by an official translation is spelled out, for example, in the Drivers Regulation: one made by a sworn interpreter, by a Spanish consul abroad, by the consul in Spain of the country that issued the document, or by an authorised body. In practice most people use a sworn translator, traductor-intérprete jurado, appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Ministry publishes the official list of sworn translators and interpreters it has appointed, and a search tool to find one by language. A translation by a bilingual friend, a certified translator from another country or an agency whose translator is not on that list is not a sworn translation, however good it is.

Translate after you apostille, not before. The apostille is part of what has to be translated, and a translation of the document alone leaves the apostille unexplained.

The Spanish criminal record certificate

The Spanish certificate of criminal records, certificado de antecedentes penales, shows whether the Central Register of Convicted Persons holds any convictions against you on the date it is issued. You request it from the Ministry of Justice electronic office with Cl@ve and pay the fee online through the Tax Agency's payment gateway.

As a rule it is issued immediately. When it cannot be, you download a receipt with a request number and the certificate is normally available within 24 hours, occasionally up to three working days. The legal limit is ten working days. If you are a national of an EU member state, the certificate must include your records in your country of nationality too, and that can take up to 30 calendar days.

If the certificate is going to be used outside Spain, select the apostille option when you request it. The Ministry says so on the request page.

The ordinary certificate does not qualify you to work with children in Spain. That needs a different document, the certificate of sexual offences, certificado de delitos de naturaleza sexual.

Criminal record certificates from your own country

Most residence procedures, and the nationality application, ask for a criminal record certificate from your country of origin or from the countries where you have lived. Each procedure sets which countries and how many years back — read that on the procedure's own page. What is common to all of them is that the certificate must be apostilled or legalised, and translated.

The nationality regulation adds one useful shortcut. A national of an EU member state can replace the foreign certificate with the Spanish one, provided the Spanish certificate states expressly that the records of the country of origin were consulted — which is exactly what the 30-day version for EU nationals does.

Criminal record certificates go out of date. Many procedures accept them only if issued within a set number of months before you file. Order them last, after everything else is ready, or you may find yourself paying for a second one.