A criminal record check for Spain is a mandatory document for almost every Spanish long-stay visa, including the Non-Lucrative Visa, Digital Nomad Visa, student visa, and work visa. US citizens need an FBI Background Check; UK citizens need an ACRO Police Certificate. Both must be apostilled and accompanied by a sworn Spanish translation before submission to the Spanish consulate.
If there’s one document that catches many Spanish visa applicants off guard, it’s the criminal record check. It’s not something most of us deal with every day, so when it appears on a visa checklist, it can feel a little overwhelming.
The good news? Once you understand the process, it’s entirely manageable. It just requires planning, because getting this document properly prepared takes time. Spanish immigration law requires a criminal record check as standard for any long-stay visa — broadly, any stay exceeding 90 days. This covers the Non-Lucrative Visa, the Digital Nomad Visa, work visas, student visas, and family reunification visas. The purpose is straightforward: Spain wants to confirm that people settling in the country don’t have a criminal history that would pose a risk to public safety.
There are actually two separate types of criminal record checks that can come up in the context of Spain:
The Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs requires a criminal record check from every country where you have resided for at least 6 months in the past 5 years (2 years for the Digital Nomad Visa). If you’ve only lived in one country, you’ll need one certificate. If you’ve lived in multiple countries, you’ll need one from each. Regardless of which country issued it, every criminal record check submitted with a Spanish visa application must meet three conditions:
