UK Documents for a Spain Visa: ACRO, Apostille and Translation

UK documents for a Spain visa follow one chain: you obtain each certificate, have its signature apostilled by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), then have it translated by a translator sworn by Spain’s foreign ministry. The Spanish consulate in London sets the clocks: a police certificate no older than 6 months and a medical certificate issued within 3 months before you file. ACRO, the UK office that issues police certificates, can take up to 30 working days, and a paper apostille usually up to 25 more. This article is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice; verify current requirements with the relevant Spanish authority or a licensed professional.

Which UK document will the consulate send back?

The rules below come from the London consulate’s page on the non-lucrative visa, dated July 6, 2026 and read on October 3, 2026. That page addresses anyone who lives in the London consular district and applies for a visa now. It says nothing about residence documents under the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement, held by Britons covered by the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement, and the visa pages of the Manchester and Edinburgh consulates and the other visa types at London were not part of this review. If your file goes elsewhere, the consulate guide for Britons shows which office takes it.

Six faults turn a UK document into a rejected one.

• The wrong police check. The consulate asks for the ACRO certificate for UK criminal records. A basic DBS check is for working in England and Wales, and Disclosure Scotland handles employment disclosures.
• A certificate that has aged out. The criminal record certificate cannot be older than 6 months unless it states a longer expiry, and the medical certificate must be issued within 3 months before the application date.
• Missing years abroad. Adults file the certificates of every country they lived in during the past 5 years, each with the original and a copy. A Briton who spent two of those years in another country needs that country’s certificate as well.
• An apostille on the wrong signature. The consulate wants the apostille to cover the signature of the doctor or police officer who issued the certificate, not that of a notary or solicitor who did not issue it.
• No sworn translation. Every foreign document goes in with an official translation into Spanish, which in Spain means a translator holding the foreign ministry’s sworn title.
• A medical certificate from a third country. The London page refuses medical certificates issued anywhere other than the UK or Spain, so a Briton who had the medical exam abroad, in France for example, before moving back to the UK cannot use that certificate.

Each document: where it comes from, what it costs, how long it takes

Each row cites its own page. Where a cell says the official pages do not state it, none of the pages read gives a figure.

For one adult, the fees the pages do state add up to £160 before courier costs: £70 for the ACRO certificate and two paper apostilles at £45, one for the police certificate and one for the medical certificate. The doctor’s fee and the translator’s fee come on top, and neither appears on an official page.

The criminal record certificate: ACRO, not DBS

GOV.UK says you can contact ACRO for a police certificate, which you may need when you apply for a visa or emigrate to some countries; for Spain, the London consulate names it. ACRO’s own page describes the Police Certificate as the document for people who want to emigrate, need a visa to live or work abroad, or seek residency or citizenship in another country.

What the application asks for

ACRO asks for your address history for the last 10 years. ACRO’s standard post comes without a tracking number. ACRO also says it is your responsibility to check with the requesting authority that its certificate is acceptable; for Spain, the London consulate’s page names the ACRO certificate, which settles that question for the non-lucrative visa filed there.

If you want spare originals, order them at the same time: they cost £7.75 each with the application against £15 each if you order them later, up to six months after you receive the certificate. The consulate asks for the original and a copy of each certificate; its page does not say whether the copy must be an ACRO-issued one.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

A subject access request to ACRO, the free personal copy of your record, covers records held on the Police National Computer by the forces of England, Wales, Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man and by the British Transport Police; GOV.UK points to separate processes for Scotland and Northern Ireland. For a visa, though, Scottish residents are sent back to ACRO: Police Scotland says ACRO provides police certificates for people who emigrate or need a visa, and mygov.scot says the process differs when the request is for a visa.

No official Northern Ireland page could be read for this guide: the PSNI page refused scripted reads and the AccessNI page was not found. If you live in Northern Ireland, ask ACRO and the consulate which certificate covers you before you pay for one.

Apostilles from the FCDO Legalisation Office

The Legalisation Office checks the signature, stamp or seal on a UK document against its records and, if they match, attaches an apostille, a stamped official certificate. It legalises documents issued by a court, by a public registry such as a birth or marriage certificate, by a government department, or by a registered doctor, such as a signed medical certificate. It cannot apostille a document issued outside the UK; that goes to the country that issued it.

Paper or electronic

GOV.UK offers two forms. The paper apostille costs £45 per document and usually takes up to 25 working days, plus courier or postage; return courier costs £32 per 1.5kg to most European countries and £6 within the UK. The e-Apostille costs £35 and takes up to 2 working days, but you upload PDFs electronically signed by a UK notary or solicitor. The £40 next-day and £100 urgent services are for registered businesses only.

Three limits push a visa file toward paper:

1. GOV.UK excludes from the e-Apostille certificates of the General Register Office, ACRO police certificates for England and Wales, DBS certificates, and disclosure certificates for Scotland and Northern Ireland.
2. The London consulate wants the apostille on the signature of the doctor or police officer who issued the certificate, not a notary or solicitor who did not issue it, while the e-Apostille works on a notary’s or solicitor’s electronic signature.
3. None of the Spanish pages read says whether the consulate accepts a UK e-Apostille, and GOV.UK warns that the person asking for the document may want a paper one.

Plan on paper apostilles for every document in the file and budget the 25 working days.

The medical certificate and the sworn translation

The wording the London consulate prescribes

A registered medical practitioner issues the certificate within 3 months before the application date. When it is issued in the UK, the consulate prescribes the wording: the certificate states that the applicant “does not suffer from any of the diseases that may have serious public health repercussions in accordance with what is stipulated by the International Health Regulations of 2005”. Give your doctor that sentence with your full name in it. The certificate then needs a Hague apostille on the doctor’s signature and, being in English, a sworn translation into Spanish. A certificate issued in Spain uses the Spanish wording on the same page and needs no apostille.

Who translates, and what gets translated

Translations into Spanish are official when made by a holder of the Traductor/a-Intérprete Jurado/a title (sworn translator and interpreter) granted by Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation. The translator certifies the translation with a signature and seal in the ministry’s set formula, and may sign electronically. The ministry publishes the list and leaves the choice to you; its language office neither acts as intermediary nor makes private sworn translations. The London consulate’s visa page also points applicants to its own web section listing sworn translators-interpreters; that section was not located for this guide. The Spain-side guide to apostilles and sworn translation explains how offices inside Spain treat these translations.

The apostille itself needs no translation when Spanish is one of the languages it is issued in, the consulate says.

Family certificates

When a spouse or child relies on your means, the consulate asks for birth or marriage certificates, or proof of an unmarried partnership, legalised or apostilled and translated. Each family member who applies with you also files their own medical certificate and, if an adult, their own criminal record certificate (sections 1 to 4 and 6 to 10 of the London page apply to each), so each adult adds another £70 ACRO certificate and two £45 apostilles. The General Register Office issues certificates for England and Wales; its page does not say which format to order for use abroad. The certificate pages for Scotland and Northern Ireland were not read. A UK citizen whose birth was registered abroad orders a recent registration through the FCDO Overseas Registration Unit, because the GRO cannot supply a copy until the November of the following year; after that the GRO issues it.

If you already receive a UK State Pension

The London page accepts a receipt of S1 registration on the website of Spain’s Social Security as medical insurance for the non-lucrative visa. The S1 and State Pension guide for Britons explains who receives an S1.

Start with ACRO, then count back from your filing day

The ACRO certificate is the first thing to order, because it is the slowest step and the start of the 6 month window. This is our suggested schedule, not a deadline set by any authority. Count back from the date of your consulate appointment:

1. About 16 weeks before filing: apply to ACRO with your 10 year address history, adding spare copies at £7.75 each if you want them. Order GRO certificates for family members the same week.
2. When the ACRO certificate arrives: send it, with the GRO certificates, to the FCDO Legalisation Office for paper apostilles, and allow up to 25 working days plus courier.
3. Within 3 months before filing: see a registered medical practitioner with the consulate’s wording, then send the medical certificate for its own apostille. Booking this step for the start of the 3 months leaves room for the 25 working days of the apostille.
4. After each apostille comes back: pass the documents to a sworn translator from the ministry’s list.
5. On the filing day: check that the ACRO certificate is under 6 months old and the medical certificate under 3 months, and bring originals with copies.

ACRO plus apostille can usually take up to 55 working days, about 11 weeks, before post and translation. If you have lived in another country during the past 5 years, start that country’s certificate at step 1 too.

You can apply to ACRO, the General Register Office and the Legalisation Office yourself, without an intermediary. Get help when your file has a gap the pages above do not cover, such as a Northern Ireland record, a certificate from a third country, or a visa route other than the non-lucrative one, and confirm with your consulate before you pay for documents that may not fit.

The Spain Navigator puts every step of your move to Spain in order, from the visa to settling in.