Moving to Spain From the US: The Checklist, in the Right Order

Moving to Spain from the US starts with documents that only U.S. offices can produce, and several of them run on a clock. The consulate judges each dated document against the day you submit your application, so a check ordered too early is worth nothing, and one ordered too late holds up the whole file. The Washington consulate is explicit that it only admits complete applications. This checklist follows the order that holds: what to start first, what to leave for last, and what gets much harder once you have left the country. This article is for informational purposes only and is not immigration, tax or medical advice; verify current requirements with the relevant Spanish authority or a licensed professional.

Which documents expire before your consulate appointment?

At the Washington consulate, two documents run on a clock counted back from the day you submit: the FBI check must be issued within the 6 months before submission, and the medical certificate within the 90 days before it. The FBI clock starts on the date the FBI issued the check, not on the date of the apostille or the translation, so every week spent waiting for the apostille comes out of your six months.

The medical certificate has to say, in substance, that you do not suffer from any disease that could have serious public health consequences under the 2005 International Health Regulations. Order it last, once your appointment date is fixed, because it has the shorter window.

Each Spanish consulate in the U.S. covers its own list of states and publishes its own requirements. Washington, for instance, covers D.C., Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina, and asks for a U.S. driver’s license or state ID as proof that you live there. The rules in this guide are Washington’s, current for 2026. Read the page of the consulate that covers your state before you order anything.

The order that holds, counted back from your appointment

The Washington consulate asks you to have every document in hand before you schedule your appointment at BLS, its application center, while the 6-month and 90-day clocks both run to the day you submit. The working method is to check how far out appointments are, then time each document so it is still valid on that day.

The FBI check has the longest chain, and each link adds its own delay.

1. Apply to the FBI online, pay the $18 fee, then give your fingerprints electronically at a participating U.S. Post Office. The FBI quotes results within 48 hours of that visit, and about 10 days after it receives a fingerprint card sent by mail. You cannot pay extra for faster service.
2. Send the result to the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Authentications for the apostille, and say that the document will be used in Spain. The apostille must certify the signature of the FBI official on the check itself.
3. Have the check translated into Spanish by a sworn or certified translator.
4. Keep the original intact. The consulate refuses a check that has been altered or damaged, including by removing staples, and wants the original plus an unnotarized photocopy of the check, the apostille and the translation.

The apostille adds its own processing time on top of the FBI’s. Find out the current turnaround from the Office of Authentications before you order the FBI check, because your six months start the day the FBI issues the document.

If you would rather see these dates worked out against your own appointment than against a generic table, the Spain Navigator builds the sequence from your answers.

Do these while you are still in the U.S.

U.S. embassies and consulates abroad do not take fingerprints, according to the State Department, and the FBI’s approved channelers only process requests for people located in the U.S. From Spain, the FBI route means a fingerprint card sent by mail, with mail time on top of the FBI’s own delay and then the apostille.

State-issued records take a different path. The State Department sends you to your state’s Secretary of State to authenticate them, and that is where birth and marriage certificates get their apostille. Family members applying with you need those records to prove the relationship, apostilled and translated, so order them for everyone at once.

Keep your U.S. driver’s license or state ID valid until after your appointment: at Washington, it is the document that proves you live in the consulate’s jurisdiction.

Money: what to set up before the move

For a non-lucrative visa, the Washington consulate asks for proof that you can live for the first year without working, set at 400 percent of IPREM: 28,800 euros for a single applicant in 2026, and 7,200 euros more for each dependent. It wants four kinds of proof:

• bank statements for the last 3 months from every checking, savings and investment account, which need no translation;
• a certificate from each bank with the account details, the opening date, the balance on December 31 of the previous year and the average balance over the last 12 months, with a sworn translation;
• for a pension or Social Security, a recent document showing the current amount and that it will continue for at least the next 12 months, translated;
• your latest tax return, which needs no translation.

Ask each bank for that certificate early. It is not a standard U.S. statement, and it still has to be translated once you have it.

Before you change the address on a U.S. brokerage account to a Spanish one, ask the firm in writing what it allows clients living abroad to hold or trade. And once your Spanish account is open, it counts toward your U.S. reporting; the thresholds are covered in the mistakes that cost Americans the most after a move to Spain.

Health insurance the consulate accepts

The Washington consulate accepts only a policy from an insurer authorized to operate in Spain that covers every risk Spain’s public health system covers, with no deductible, copayment or coverage limit. The policy must show its start and end dates, run for 1 year and stay in force for your whole stay, and be in Spanish or come with a translation.

Two shortcuts fail at the counter: travel insurance with medical cover is refused, and an insurance card is not accepted as proof of coverage. Bring the policy itself.

Three details that send files back

The Washington consulate spells out three refusals that catch U.S. applicants: a state or local police check instead of the FBI’s, an apostille on a notary’s signature instead of the FBI’s, and an insurance card instead of the policy.

The notary problem is the least obvious. If a local notary stamps the FBI check and the apostille then certifies that notary, the consulate refuses it: the apostille has to certify the FBI signature. None of these can be fixed at the window, because the consulate only admits complete applications.

Before you book the flight

Today, find the consulate that covers your state, read its list, and check your passport against it; then order the FBI check.

A single applicant with one income source can run this list alone. Couples and families multiply every document by the number of applicants, and each person’s FBI check and medical certificate carries its own clock, which is where most of the coordination work sits. Once you land, a new clock starts: your first month in Spain covers the one-month deadline for the residence card.

The Spain Navigator puts this checklist and everything after it, from the visa to settling in, into one ordered plan.