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

Your move to Spain starts in a few American offices, since several papers the consulate asks for can only be produced in the U.S., and some begin to age on the day they are issued. Every dated document is measured against the day you hand in your file, and the Washington consulate is clear that it accepts complete applications only. Below, you will find the steps in an order where nothing runs out too early. 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?

Two papers on the Washington consulate’s list carry a clock: your FBI check must have been issued in the 6 months before you submit, and your medical certificate in the 90 days before. Those six months count from the date the FBI issued the check. Neither the apostille (the international certificate confirming that a signature is genuine) nor the translation restarts the clock, so any week spent waiting for the apostille comes out of your window.

Your medical certificate is a brief statement from a doctor. In substance, it confirms that you have no disease that could have serious public health consequences under the 2005 International Health Regulations. Because its window is the tighter one, you ask for it last, once your appointment date is fixed.

Each Spanish consulate in the U.S. serves its own group of states and publishes its own requirements. The Washington district covers D.C., Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina, and you show that you live there with your U.S. driver’s license or state ID. This guide follows Washington’s rules for 2026, so before you order any document, pull up the page of the consulate that serves your state.

The order that holds, counted back from your appointment

At the Washington consulate, you should already hold every document when you book your appointment at BLS, the center that takes in applications for the consulate. From October 1, 2026, its place of submission page sends every visa application from the district to BLS, and both the 6-month and the 90-day windows run up to the day you submit. The easiest approach is to check how far out appointments are being offered, then time each paper so it is still valid on that day.

Your FBI check is the paper that travels furthest, and each stop along its way adds its own wait.

1. You apply and pay the $18 fee online on the FBI website, then have your fingerprints taken electronically at a participating U.S. Post Office. According to the FBI, results arrive within 48 hours of that visit, or about 10 days after it receives a fingerprint card by mail, and no paid option makes it faster.
2. The result then goes to the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Authentications for its apostille, with a note saying it will be used in Spain. That apostille must certify the signature of the FBI official on the check itself.
3. After that, a sworn or certified translator renders the check into Spanish.
4. From start to finish, the original stays exactly as it came. The consulate refuses a check that has been altered or damaged, even by removing staples, and asks for the original plus an unnotarized photocopy of the check, the apostille and the translation.

The apostille has its own processing time, which comes on top of the FBI’s. Before you order the FBI check, ask the Office of Authentications how long it is currently taking, because your six months start counting on the day the FBI issues the check.

If you would like these dates set against your own appointment rather than a general table, the Spain Navigator builds the sequence from your answers.

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

Some of this can only be done while you are on American soil. As the State Department explains, U.S. embassies and consulates abroad do not take fingerprints, and the FBI’s approved channelers, private companies allowed to pass requests on to the FBI, only serve people located in the U.S. Under the FBI’s 2019 channeler policy, they cannot handle a request that needs an apostille either, so your check for Spain goes directly to the FBI. Once you live in Spain, that leaves a fingerprint card sent by mail, with postal time added to the FBI’s own wait and the apostille still ahead of you.

State-issued records follow a different path. For birth and marriage certificates, the State Department sends you to your state’s Secretary of State, which is where they get their apostille. Every family member applying with you will need these records, apostilled and translated, to prove the family tie, so ask for everyone’s at the same time.

Keep your U.S. driver’s license or state ID valid until your appointment is over, since at Washington it is the card that proves you live in the district.

Money: what to set up before the move

For the non-lucrative visa, you show that you can support yourself through the first year without working. The Washington consulate puts that at 400 percent of IPREM, the public index Spain uses for income thresholds of this kind. In 2026, a single applicant needs 28,800 euros, and each dependent adds another 7,200 euros. The consulate asks for four kinds of proof:

• your 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 stating the current amount and confirming it will continue for at least the next 12 months, translated;
• your latest tax return, which goes in untranslated.

Ask for that bank certificate early. It differs from a regular U.S. statement, and once it reaches you, it still needs a translator. If your income is a pension or Social Security, retiring in Spain as an American covers the income proof, healthcare and taxes.

Who the non-lucrative visa suits, and the residence condition checked at each renewal, are explained in the non-lucrative visa guide. If you are moving to study, the money test is lower and the FBI check only applies to programs over 180 days, as the Spain student visa guide sets out.

Before you give a U.S. brokerage your Spanish address, ask the firm in writing what clients living abroad may hold or trade there. Your new Spanish account will also count toward your U.S. reporting, and the mistakes that cost Americans the most after a move to Spain explains the thresholds.

Health insurance the consulate accepts

Your policy must come from an insurer authorized to operate in Spain, the Washington consulate says, and cover every risk Spain’s public health system covers, with no deductible, no copayment and no coverage limit. On the policy document, look for a start date and an end date, a term of 1 year that covers your whole stay, and wording in Spanish or a translation.

Two shortcuts are turned away. Travel insurance with medical cover is refused, and so is an insurance card presented as proof; what belongs in your folder is the full policy.

Three details that send files back

The Washington consulate lists three mistakes that get U.S. applicants refused: 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 mistake is the one most easily missed. If a local notary stamps your FBI check and the apostille then certifies the notary, the consulate rejects it, because the apostille has to certify the FBI signature. Since only complete applications are accepted, none of these can be fixed at the window, so go through your folder calmly at home before your appointment.

Before you book the flight

For today, one small sequence is enough: find the consulate that serves your state, read its list, check your passport against it, then order your FBI check.

If you are applying alone with one source of income, you can work through this list without help. For couples and families, each applicant needs every document, and each person’s FBI check and medical certificate runs on its own clock, which is where the juggling comes in. Once you land, a new clock starts, and your first month in Spain explains the one-month deadline for your residence card. If you have not chosen a city yet, the best places to live in Spain for Americans compares cities on official data.

When you feel ready, the Spain Navigator brings this checklist and everything after it, from the visa to settling in, into one plan in the right order.