Let us start with the good news, because it shapes everything that follows: most of the official documents a Filipino needs to settle in Spain are already issued in English. Your PSA birth certificate, your NBI clearance, your marriage certificate, your university transcript — the Philippine authorities print them in English, not in Filipino. That single fact turns what looks like a bureaucratic maze into a clean, predictable route: English → Spanish sworn translation by a translator accredited by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAEC). And English → Spanish is exactly what we do.
There is a second piece of good news. Since 14 May 2019 the Philippines has been a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is the competent authority that apostilles Philippine public documents. The old "red ribbon" is gone. For Spain — also a Convention member — this means one apostille from the DFA replaces consular legalisation. So the full chain for almost every document is short: original in English → DFA apostille → sworn translation into Spanish.
Below is what you actually need, grouped by the situation that brings you to Spain.
Criminal record: the NBI Clearance
Almost every residence route in Spain asks for a criminal record certificate covering the countries you have lived in over the last five years. For Filipinos that is the NBI Clearance, issued by the National Bureau of Investigation with a dry seal and issued in English. It gets apostilled at the DFA and then translated.
The NBI Clearance has its own quirks — validity window, the apostille order, the difference between a "hit" and a clean result — so we cover it in a dedicated piece: NBI Clearance: apostille and sworn translation for Spain. Read that one before you request the certificate; the order in which you do things matters.
Civil status: PSA certificates
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is the single source for civil-registry documents, printed on security paper (SECPA) and issued in English:
- PSA Birth Certificate — needed for family reunification, Spanish nationality, and registering children.
- PSA Marriage Certificate — needed to prove an existing marriage for reunification or a spouse's residence card.
- CENOMAR (Certificate of No Marriage Record) — the PSA certificate stating you have no marriage on file. Spain asks for it when you plan to marry here, as proof you are free to do so.
All three are apostilled at the DFA and then require sworn translation into Spanish. A practical note we repeat to every client: request the PSA copy close to the date you will submit it, because Spanish registries treat civil documents as valid only for a few months from issue.
Work and income: the paperwork Spain wants to see
If you are coming to work — whether relocated by an employer or arriving on the work visa — expect to be asked for documents that prove your professional and financial standing:
- Employment contracts and certificates of employment from Philippine employers.
- SSS (Social Security System) records, when you need to evidence contributions or coverage.
- ITR / BIR documents (income tax return, Bureau of Internal Revenue) as proof of income.
These are typically in English, apostilled where the receiving office requires it, and translated. For the digital nomad visa route — increasingly popular with Filipino remote workers and freelancers hired by companies outside Spain — the same logic applies to your employment or service contracts and your proof of income.
Academic and regulated professions
For studying, homologating a degree, or working in a regulated profession, Spain wants your academic record:
- Diplomas and degree certificates.
- Transcript of Records (TOR) from your university.
- PRC licence (Professional Regulation Commission) — decisive for healthcare professionals. A Filipino nurse or doctor who wants to practise in Spain will need the PRC licence translated as part of the recognition file.
Again: issued in English, apostilled at the DFA, translated into Spanish by a MAEC-accredited translator.
The one honest limit
Here is where we are straight with you, the way we are with every nationality. The vast majority of Philippine official documents come in English, and that is our lane. But occasionally a document exists only in Filipino/Tagalog — a local notarial deed, a regional certificate, an old record. We do not offer the Filipino → Spanish pair. If your file contains one of those, we will tell you plainly and point you elsewhere, rather than pretend we can handle it. In practice this is rare, precisely because the Philippine state defaults to English.
Why Textualia fits this route
A Filipino relocation file is, almost by design, an English → Spanish job — and that is the core of what we do. Your PSA certificates, NBI Clearance, PRC licence and employment documents arrive on our desk already in the language we translate from, apostilled and ready. We check the file before we start: if the apostille is missing, a certificate is about to expire, or a name is spelled differently across two documents, we flag it before you pay. Translations are delivered as an electronically signed PDF by a translator accredited by the MAEC — which is precisely what Spanish registries, consulates and immigration offices require.
In short
If you are Filipino and moving to Spain, your roadmap is cleaner than most: your documents are in English, the DFA apostilles them, and the only translation you need is English → Spanish, sworn. Gather the PSA certificates, the NBI Clearance and — depending on your route — your work, income and academic papers. Then send them our way. For the full catalogue of documents we translate, see our document hub. Asking first costs nothing, and it usually saves a second trip to the registry.