If you are going to work or volunteer in regular contact with minors in Spain —a school, a sports club, a language academy, a summer camp, an after-school centre—, the law asks you for one thing before you start: to prove that you have no convictions for offences of a sexual nature. For someone who has always lived in Spain, this takes five minutes and is free. For someone coming from abroad, or who has lived abroad, there is one extra step. Let us go through it.
What the law says
The rule is Organic Law 8/2021 (LOPIVI). Its Article 57 establishes that, to access and carry out any profession, trade or activity involving habitual contact with minors, a person must not have been convicted by final judgment of offences against sexual freedom and integrity, or of human trafficking. Two points that often surprise people:
- It covers both paid and unpaid activities. Volunteering counts exactly the same as employment.
- The law expressly prohibits companies and organisations from employing anyone with such a record in these activities.
This is proven with the negative certification from the Central Register of Sex Offenders and Human Trafficking Offenders, managed by the Ministry of Justice. A Spanish citizen requests it online or at a Territorial Office, it is free, and in most cases it is issued immediately. It is the only document Spain issues for this purpose.
The extra step for foreigners
Here is the part that concerns us. The Spanish Register only knows what has happened in Spain. If you were born, have lived, or hold the nationality of another country, that Register cannot certify your record beyond Spanish borders. That is why the Register's regulation (Royal Decree 1110/2015, amended by Royal Decree 407/2024) distinguishes two situations:
- EU citizens: they do not have to provide their home-country certificate. The Register itself obtains, through the European criminal-records exchange (ECRIS), any information held in the country of nationality and adds it to the Spanish certification. For this reason, in these cases issuance can take up to 30 days.
- Non-EU foreigners: in addition to the Spanish certificate, they must present a negative certificate of convictions issued by the authorities of their country of origin or of the country of which they are nationals, evidencing the absence of this type of offence.
In practice, anyone who grew up or worked outside Spain for years —returning Spanish nationals included— ends up needing that home-country document: it is the only way to cover the stretch of life the Spanish Register cannot see.
How that document reaches Spain: apostille and sworn translation
A criminal-record certificate issued by a foreign authority is a public document of another State. For it to take effect before a Spanish employer or authority, presenting it as is will not do: it needs two things.
- Legalisation or the Hague Apostille, which authenticates the signature and seal of the foreign authority. In Hague Convention countries the apostille is enough; outside it, legalisation through diplomatic channels.
- Sworn translation into Spanish, produced by a translator accredited by the MAEC. Whoever receives the certificate needs to read it in Spanish and trust that it says exactly what the original says —the name, the dates, the "no record" wording—. An informal translation does not qualify.
Order matters: apostille the original first, then translate, so that the apostille forms part of what is translated. It is the same principle we explain for criminal records in general.
Which document each country issues
The name and the issuer change from country to country. In the United States it is usually the FBI Identity History Summary; in the United Kingdom, an ACRO Police Certificate; in France, the Bulletin no. 3 (B3); and so on. Each has its own circuit, its own timescales and its own nuances about which offences it reflects, so not all of them are equally suited to evidencing the "absence of sexual offences". We break it down country by country in our FBI, ACRO and B3 comparison.
A note of caution
This article explains the document and its translation; it does not replace the law or what each employer asks of you. The procedural details —which issuance date they accept, whether they require an apostille in your particular case, whether the Register resolves it through ECRIS— are set by the regulation and by the entity that hires you or takes you on as a volunteer. And if the same certificate also serves another procedure, such as Spanish citizenship, it is worth coordinating so you do not request the same thing twice.
In short
Spanish law protects minors by requiring everyone who works or collaborates with them to have a record clear of sexual offences. For the long-standing resident it is a free, automatic certificate. For the foreigner, or for anyone who has lived abroad, you must add the home-country certificate, apostilled and translated. At Textualia we translate that certificate into Spanish with MAEC-accredited translators and deliver it as an electronically signed PDF, ready to present to the school, the club or the organisation asking for it.