Almost everybody does these three steps in this order: request the certificate, then find out an apostille is needed, then look for someone to translate it. And almost everybody loses a week or two by doing it that way.
The right order is different, and the reason is specific: there is a box on the application form which, if you leave it unticked, forces you into a second procedure.
The mistake you cannot undo: not naming the destination country
The Ministry of Justice's e-filing portal puts it plainly: when the certificate is to take effect abroad it needs to be legalised, and for that you have to select the apostille option in the application for the certificate itself. The form asks which country it will take effect in, and the Ministry issues it already apostilled or legalised as appropriate for that country.
If you request a plain certificate and then discover you need it apostilled, it cannot be fixed on the document you already hold: you face a separate apostille procedure, with its own application and its own wait.
| Order | Step | Who decides |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ask the destination body what format it accepts and how recent it must be | The destination body |
| 2 | Apply for the certificate naming the destination country and ticking the apostille | Ministry of Justice portal |
| 3 | Receive it already apostilled or legalised | The Ministry |
| 4 | Sworn translation of the certificate and of the apostille | Us |
Step 1 looks skippable and is the one that saves the most money. Steps 2 and 3 cannot be reordered.
The real timings, and the 30 days nobody expects
The portal says that as a general rule the certificate is issued on the spot; if that is not possible it will be available 24 hours after the application, and the administration's legal deadline for issuing it is 10 working days.
There is an exception that catches people out: if you hold the nationality of another European Union member state, records are also gathered from your country of nationality through the European exchange system, and the maximum period becomes 30 calendar days. A month, not a day. If you are, say, Romanian or Italian resident in Spain and a visa requires Spanish records, that month has to go into the calendar from the start.
What we cannot tell you is how much longer it takes when you also request the apostille, because the portal publishes no separate timing for that case. Leave yourself margin.
The translation: what exactly gets translated
Two things get translated, and this is the most frequent misunderstanding about the quote: the certificate and the apostille. The apostille is a separate document, with its own text and its own fields, and it is priced as what it is. The whole story is in the apostille is translated and charged separately.
What you must not do is translate before apostilling. If the apostille arrives after the translation, the translation does not cover it and you come back round again.
A note on format: the Spanish electronic certificate carries a secure verification code that lets anyone check its authenticity on the Ministry's portal. If you hand it in on paper in another country, that code is still there and still works; the translation should reproduce it exactly, without altering a single character. We cover this alongside the choice between PDF and paper in PDF or paper.
Canada: the destination that asks for it most, and writes it down
Canada's IRCC has a page specifically for Spain. It names the document exactly — Criminal Record Certificate (Certificado de Antecedentes Penales) — points you to form Model 790 and the Ministry of Justice's instructions, and says what it requires it for: permanent residence, citizenship and some temporary residence programmes.
What that page does not say is anything about translation or validity. Those come from your specific application package, which is where to look. As for the translation standard itself, IRCC accepts accredited translators outside Canada, with a nuance that matters and that we work through in whether a Spanish sworn translation is valid abroad.
If the destination is in the EU, ask before you pay for anything
Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 expressly covers the absence of a criminal record and provides a multilingual standard form for that fact, which travels attached to the certificate and makes translation unnecessary between member states. We explain it in public documents without translation in the EU.
That said, we should be honest about the limit of what we know: we have not managed to confirm that the Ministry of Justice attaches that form to the criminal record certificate through the online route. The page for the procedure does not mention it. Before assuming you have saved yourself a translation, ask the Ministry directly, and if the answer is yes, you do not need us for that errand.
The expiry that does not exist in Spain and does at the destination
The Spanish certificate records what is on file on the date it is issued. It carries no expiry date because, in Spanish terms, it has none.
The destination country does set one, and that is where the calendar risk sits: three to six months is typical, and the clock runs from issue, not from when you submit it. Add the time for the apostille, the time for the translation and the time the receiving body takes to review it, and you will see why requesting it "in advance, to have it ready" is rarely wise.
What to ask, and who to ask
Three questions to the destination body, before step 2:
| Question | What it settles |
|---|---|
| How recent does it have to be? | Decides when to request it, not whether |
| Do you require an apostille? | This is the box that cannot be ticked later |
| Do you accept an electronically signed PDF? | Decides the deadline and whether anything ships |
Keep the answer in writing. It outranks any general guide, this one included: every consulate and every immigration office changes its requirements on its own schedule, and what we publish today may not be what they ask you for in six months.
Tell us where it is going and what they have asked for, and we will tell you in what order to do it. If it turns out the European form means you do not need us, we will say that too.