When you apply for a Spanish visa application, you are typically required to submit a criminal record check certificate. For those applying from the United Kingdom, an ACRO certificate is the type of criminal record check preferred by the Spanish visa authorities.
The period of time that the record check needs to cover (typically between 2 and 5 years) can vary depending on the type of visa, so it is important to check the requirements directly with the competent Spanish authority. For residents in the United Kingdom, this would usually be the Spanish consulates in London, Manchester or Edinburgh (depending on the applicant’s exact place of residence). They will also specify how old the certificate can be (they usually need to have been issued within the last 6 months).
The ACRO certificate will normally need to be translated into Spanish by an official sworn translator. This is where we can help. You can apply for the translation of your certificate by emailing us at info@spanishvisatranslations.co.uk or using the contact form on our Home page.
A criminal record check issued in the UK will also need to be legalised with the ‘Hague apostille’, which is a stamp issued by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). More about this below.
Why an ACRO certificate for your Spanish visa application?
The type of criminal record check usually preferred by the Spanish authorities is an ACRO police certificate because this bears an official signature and can be apostilled as it is. You can obtain an ACRO police certificate through the ACRO Criminal Records Office website.
Another type of criminal record check issued in the UK is a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) certificate. Although equally official, a DBS certificate does not bear a signature from an issuing officer and can therefore not be apostilled in the same way as an ACRO, so the Spanish authorities may not accept it for a visa application.*
*To apostille a DBS certificate, it first needs to be certified by a notary public; the apostille would confirm the authenticity of the notary’s signature. The Spanish authorities are not keen on this type of ‘secondary’ legalisation and prefer a direct apostille, so an ACRO certificate is often the safer or only choice for a visa application.
You can get the apostille for your ACRO certificate by sending it directly to the FCDO o using a legalisation service. You can find the official government information about apostilles and legalisation here.
Note this information has been written especially for those who need to submit a UK criminal record check to the Spanish authorities for a visa application. However, we can also translate UK criminal record checks for other purposes as well as non-UK certificates if they have been issued in English. For those, the legalisation/apostille or other requirements may be different to those specified above. It is always important that you check the specific requirements with the requesting authority, bearing mind that visa and other procedures and requirements can change from time to time.
Has this answered all your questions about your criminal record certificate (ACRO) for Spanish visa? If you have any additional questions, email us at info@spanishvisatranslations.co.uk or use the contact form on our Home page.
We hope you have found this information about ACRO certificates useful. On our blog, you will find more posts about other documents related to Spanish visa applications, such as medical certificates, birth certificates, sponsorship letters, or about the legalisation or apostille procedure.