If you are Filipino and applying for a Spanish visa or residence permit, one document appears in almost every file: a criminal record certificate from the Philippines. That document is the NBI Clearance, issued by the National Bureau of Investigation. Good news to start with — it comes in English. Bad news, or at least a common surprise: being in English does not exempt it from anything. Spain still wants two more steps on top of it. This guide walks through both, in the right order.
What the NBI Clearance is
The NBI Clearance is the Philippines' national criminal record certificate. There is no regional or provincial equivalent that Spanish authorities will accept in its place — the NBI is the single, centralised proof that a person has (or has not) a record on file across the whole country. Spanish consulates and immigration offices treat it as the Philippine "certificate of no criminal record" for foreigner files.
You will be asked for it in practically any Spanish procedure that screens your background: the Digital Nomad Visa, the non-lucrative residence visa, work and highly-qualified professional permits, arraigo (roots-based residence), and Spanish citizenship by residence.
One practical detail from the start: when you apply, choose the purpose that signals use abroad (often labelled "Travel Abroad" or multi-purpose). This is the version meant to leave the country, and it is the one you will hand to the DFA for the next step.
The apostille: since 14 May 2019, the DFA
Here is where the Philippines changed, and where a lot of outdated advice online still trips people up.
The Philippines acceded to the Hague Apostille Convention, and it entered into force for the country on 14 May 2019. Since that date, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) no longer issues the old "red ribbon" authentication. Instead, it affixes an apostille to the document — a single certificate that any other Convention country, Spain included, recognises without further consular legalisation.
Before May 2019, a Filipino document bound for Spain had to be legalised through the Spanish consulate. That route is gone. Today the flow is simpler: you take your NBI Clearance to the DFA, they apostille it, and Spain accepts that apostille on its face. Both the Philippines and Spain are parties to the Convention, so the chain closes cleanly.
If you want to see where the Philippines sits among the countries whose documents reach Spain by apostille rather than consular legalisation, we keep a running reference: Hague apostille by country, 2026.
Why a sworn translation, if it is already in English
This is the question we get most from Filipino applicants, and it is a fair one. The NBI Clearance is in English. So is the apostille the DFA prints on it, more or less. So why translate?
Because Spanish administrations work in Spanish. A document in English — however clear — is not something a Spanish immigration officer is obliged to read or accept as-is. What Spain requires is a sworn translation (traducción jurada) into Spanish, produced by a translator habilitado por el MAEC (authorised by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs). That translation carries the translator's stamp and signature and has official status; a courtesy translation, a notarised translation from Manila, or your own version will not do the job.
And it is not only the certificate body that gets translated. The apostille travels with the document and is translated together with it. That is why you apostille first and translate last: if the sworn translation is done before the DFA stamps the apostille, the apostille will be missing from the translated set, and you may be asked to redo it. Same logic we apply to criminal records from the US, UK and France — the order of operations is what saves you a second round.
The right order, start to finish
- Request the NBI Clearance in its version for use abroad (multi-purpose / travel).
- Apostille it at the DFA. This is the step that makes it valid in Spain without consular legalisation.
- Sworn translation into Spanish of the certificate and its apostille, by a MAEC-authorised translator.
- Submit to the consulate or immigration office.
Skip a step or reverse two, and the file bounces back.
Timing: keep it fresh
The NBI Clearance itself and its apostille do not carry a fixed Spanish expiry in law, but consulates and immigration offices routinely want a recent certificate — commonly issued within the last 3 to 6 months at the time you submit. Some receiving offices accept up to a year; others are stricter. The safe move is to get the NBI close to your appointment date, apostille it, translate it, and file — all within a tight window, so the certificate is still "fresh" when it lands on the desk.
A fair word on precision: exact requirements are set by each consulate and each organism, and they can differ on validity windows and formats. This guide covers the part that is constant for everyone — document, apostille, translation. For the last-mile detail, check your specific consulate's page.
Where Textualia fits
The sworn translation is the step we handle. And there is a nice fit here: Textualia works English → Spanish every day, which is exactly the pair a Philippine NBI Clearance needs. Your document already arrives in English; we turn it — apostille included — into a Spanish sworn translation with the MAEC-authorised stamp Spain expects, delivered as a digitally signed PDF.
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