Libbie Stevens | Visa Advisor, Wilmer Health | Published: 12 May 2026
This guide is for informational purposes only and reflects requirements as understood in 2026. Visa requirements can vary by consulate and are subject to change. Always confirm specific requirements with the Spanish consulate or immigration authority handling your application. For specific advice about your individual application, contact us at hello@wilmerhealth.com.
If you’re applying for a Spanish visa from the UK and your application involves your UK degree — for a Student Visa, Work Visa, Digital Nomad Visa, or any application where Spanish authorities need to verify your qualifications — your degree certificate needs to be apostilled before a Spanish consulate or ministry will accept it.
This guide explains the full UK process: why a degree apostille is more complex than apostilling a birth certificate, the solicitor verification step you can’t skip, costs and timelines, and where Wilmer Health can help.
A note on terminology: UK applicants often search “diploma apostille” but UK universities actually issue “degree certificates” — the terms are used interchangeably in this guide and refer to the same document.
For the broader picture on UK apostilles and Spanish visas, see our complete UK apostille guide for Spanish visas.
Yes — if your visa application requires you to evidence your UK qualifications. Spanish consulates and ministries need verified proof that your degree is genuine before they’ll accept it as part of an application.
UK degrees most commonly need apostilling for:
If you’re unsure whether your specific visa type requires a degree apostille, check your consulate’s published document checklist or get in touch with a visa specialist before starting the process.
This is the most important thing to understand: a UK degree apostille is a two-step process, not a one-step process. Unlike a birth or marriage certificate (which the FCDO can apostille directly because it’s signed by a UK government official), a UK degree certificate is signed by a university — not a UK public official whose signature is on the FCDO’s records.
That means the FCDO cannot apostille your degree directly. Before the apostille can be added, your degree needs to go through this step:
A UK solicitor or notary public verifies the degree with the issuing university and signs an official certification statement confirming it’s genuine.
What the verification step typically involves:
Cost and timing for the verification step: Typically £30-£60 for the solicitor or notary fee, plus 1-4 weeks depending on how quickly your university’s records office responds. Some universities respond same-day; others take weeks. This is the part of the process that’s hardest to predict.
You’ll need to organise this step yourself or through a solicitor/notary service. Wilmer Health doesn’t handle the verification step — we handle the FCDO apostille step that comes after — but we’ll explain exactly where to send the certified document once that step is done.
Once your degree has been verified and certified by a UK solicitor or notary, it’s ready for the FCDO apostille. There are two routes.
Post the certified document to the UK Legalisation Office.
A specialist apostille service can deliver the apostille step in days rather than weeks because they have direct counter access at the FCDO Legalisation Office in Milton Keynes — submitting and collecting documents in person rather than queueing through the postal system.
If your consulate appointment is less than a month away, the FCDO’s standard postal service rarely leaves enough buffer — particularly when you’ve already used time on the solicitor verification step. The counter access route is usually the safer call.
Yes. A UK degree certificate is issued in English, and Spanish consulates and ministries require non-Spanish documents to be translated by a sworn translator appointed by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAEC) — not a UK-only certified translator.
The practical sequence for most applicants:
The trap UK applicants need to know about: Spanish consulates only accept translations from MAEC-appointed translators. Translations from CIOL or ITI accredited UK translators — which UK authorities accept — are rejected by Spanish consulates. The language used by UK translation agencies (“certified translation”) sounds like the right thing, but isn’t.
A note on homologación: if you need full Spanish recognition of your degree as equivalent to a Spanish qualification, that’s a separate process handled by Spain’s Ministry of Education, not the consulate. The apostille and sworn translation we describe here are the prerequisites — homologación itself comes after, with its own application process and fees.
For the full detail on sworn translation — including translators, costs, and the UK-specific traps to avoid — see our complete Spanish sworn translation guide for UK visa applicants.
Wilmer Health handles the FCDO apostille step for UK degree certificates that have already been certified by a UK solicitor or notary public. We don’t handle the solicitor verification step itself — that’s something you’ll need to organise separately or through a solicitor service — but once your degree has been certified, we can apostille it quickly through our direct counter access at the FCDO Legalisation Office in Milton Keynes.
What’s included:
If you’ve already got your degree certified by a UK solicitor or notary, we can apostille it fast and bundle the sworn translation. If you’re at the start of the process and haven’t yet organised the solicitor verification step, get in touch and we’ll talk you through what you need and how the steps fit together.