Expedited federal apostille for your FBI Background Check. Consulate-ready for Spanish visa applications.
Also need Spanish sworn translation? Add it to your order at checkout.
“I was in the process of getting all my documents together for my NLV for Spain, and it was quite overwhelming. But the Wilmer Health process was easy, the pricing was incredible, and I just filled out the forms with the information they needed. I received my documents very quickly in the physical mail. It was absolutely perfect. I would recommend it to everybody.”
If you’re applying for a Spanish long-stay visa from the USA, the Spanish consulate requires you to submit an FBI Background Check as part of your application. Before it can be accepted, the document needs a federal apostille issued by the US Department of State. This requirement applies to most Spanish long-stay visas, including the Non-Lucrative Visa (NLV), Student Visa, Work Visa, Digital Nomad Visa, and NALCAP.
An apostille is the official seal that confirms a public document is genuine. Without one, Spanish authorities have no way to verify that your FBI Background Check is an authentic US government document.
At Wilmer Health, we handle the apostille step for you. We hand-deliver your FBI Background Check to the Federal Authentications Office in Washington DC, where the apostille is issued, then ship the apostilled original to your address. The whole process typically takes 10 business days. We also offer a Spanish sworn translation as part of the same order, available at checkout as an add-on, so your documents are consulate-ready in one place.
Getting your FBI Background Check apostilled doesn’t need to be complicated. We handle the process from upload to delivery.
Complete checkout and upload the PDF version of your FBI Background Check. If you also need a Spanish sworn translation, you can add it to your order at this stage. The whole process takes a few minutes.
We hand-deliver your FBI Background Check to the Federal Authentications Office in Washington DC, where the apostille is issued by the US Department of State. We keep you updated by email throughout.
Your apostilled FBI Background Check is shipped to your address by tracked courier, ready for submission with your Spanish visa application. Typical turnaround is 10 business days from order to delivery.
To order your FBI Background Check apostille, you’ll need:
At Wilmer Health, we handle your personal information securely and responsibly, in line with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), applicable US state privacy laws, and EU GDPR.
“When we first launched Wilmer Health, our focus was visa medical certificates for Spanish visa applicants. We helped people get this part of their application right, with the correct wording, signed by a licensed doctor, and accepted by Spanish consulates across the United States.
Over time, the people we worked with started asking us about everything else on their list. The FBI Background Check apostille. The Spanish sworn translation that needed to sit alongside it. It became clear that what people really wanted was a single, trusted provider who understood the whole Spanish visa process, not just one piece of it.
So we expanded. We built direct in-person access to the Federal Authentications Office in Washington DC for FBI Background Check apostilles, and added Spanish sworn translators to our team, all recognized by the Spanish government. Today, we help applicants across the United States prepare their consulate-ready documents, all handled in one place.
The goal hasn’t changed. We want to make the process clearer, more predictable, and far less stressful, so you can focus on the move ahead rather than the paperwork”.
Dr Andrew Smith, Director at Wilmer Health
When you apply for a Spanish long-stay visa from the USA, the Spanish consulate needs to confirm that you don’t have a criminal history that would affect your application. The standard document used for this is the FBI Background Check (officially called the FBI Identity History Summary), issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The check is required for most long-stay visas, including the Non-Lucrative Visa (NLV), Student Visa, Work Visa, Digital Nomad Visa, and NALCAP. The Spanish consulate uses it to make sure applicants moving to Spain don’t have criminal records that would disqualify them from a long-term stay.
For the Spanish consulate to accept your FBI Background Check, it needs two extra steps after the FBI issues it. First, a federal apostille from the US Department of State, which confirms the document is genuine. Second, a Spanish sworn translation, which makes the contents readable for Spanish authorities. Without both, the consulate will not accept the document.
If you’re applying for a Spanish long-stay visa at any Spanish consulate in the US, you’ll need an FBI Background Check with a federal apostille.
Spain operates an Embassy in Washington DC and nine Consulates General across the country: New York, Boston, Chicago, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Juan (Puerto Rico). You’ll apply at the consulate that covers your state of residence.
The requirement is the same at every consulate: apostilled FBI Background Check, plus a Spanish sworn translation.
This is one of the most common mistakes US applicants make when preparing documents for a Spanish visa. The FBI Background Check is a federal document, issued by the FBI, so the apostille has to come from the federal government too. That means the US Department of State in Washington DC.
State apostilles are different. They’re issued by individual states (by the Secretary of State in each state) and only work for documents issued by that state, like birth certificates and marriage certificates. They don’t work on federal documents like the FBI Background Check. If you submit a state apostille on your FBI Background Check, the Spanish consulate will reject it.
There’s only one place that issues federal apostilles: the US Department of State’s Office of Authentications in Washington DC. If you get the wrong type of apostille, or no apostille at all, you’ll need to start the process over.
For most Spanish long-stay visa applications, your FBI Background Check needs to have been issued within the last 6 months when you submit your visa application. This is the standard for the Non-Lucrative Visa, Student Visa, Work Visa, and NALCAP, among others.
Some consulates or visa types use shorter timeframes (sometimes 90 days), so it’s worth checking with your specific consulate before you submit.
The clock starts when the FBI issues your document, not when you order it or when your fingerprints are taken. After that, you still need to add the federal apostille and the Spanish sworn translation before submitting, so plan to start the process at least 6-8 weeks before your consulate appointment.
If your FBI Background Check expires before your appointment, you’ll need to order a new one and start the apostille and translation over.
Yes. The FBI now issues most Background Checks as electronic PDFs, and that’s the version most applicants use. The PDF issued directly by the FBI or through an FBI-approved channeler counts as the official document and is accepted at every stage of the process.
The PDF and the printed version work the same way. When the apostille is added, the PDF gets printed out and the apostille is attached to the printed copy, which is what you submit to the Spanish consulate.
If you only have a paper copy of your FBI Background Check, that’s fine too, though the PDF version is usually quicker to process. Either way, the document needs the federal apostille before you can submit it to the consulate.
Yes. For Spanish long-stay visa applications, a Spanish sworn translation for your FBI Background Check (traducción jurada) must be submitted, completed by a translator officially recognized by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A sworn translation has legal weight in Spain and includes the translator’s signature, stamp, and a certification statement. It is accepted at every Spanish consulate in the US.
No. The FBI Background Check should not be notarized before getting a federal apostille. The apostille authenticates the FBI signature on the document, so any additional notarization, stamps, or marks will invalidate it. If your FBI Background Check has been notarized, the US Department of State will reject the apostille request and return the document unprocessed.
You can order an FBI Background Check directly from the FBI or through an FBI-approved channeler. The digital PDF version is usually the fastest option, often processed within a few days using Live Scan fingerprinting at a participating location. Once you have your FBI Background Check, you can upload it as a PDF when you place your order with Wilmer Health for the federal apostille.
No. Spanish consulates require a federal FBI Background Check for long-stay visa applications. State or local police background checks, including state-issued criminal record certificates, are not accepted. The FBI Identity History Summary is the only criminal record document recognised by Spanish authorities for US applicants.
No. The Spanish sworn translation is a separate service from the federal apostille. Both are required for Spanish visa applications, but they involve different processes and different official bodies. You can add a Spanish sworn translation to your order at checkout, so both documents are handled in one place.
They are all the same document. The FBI’s official name for it is the Identity History Summary (IdHS), but it is commonly called an FBI Background Check or an FBI Rap Sheet. All three terms refer to the federal criminal record check issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is the document required by Spanish consulates for long-stay visa applications.
The apostille is a separate certificate that is permanently attached to your FBI Background Check. It is not a stamp on the original document. The federal apostille is a single-page certificate issued by the US Department of State, with its own signature, seal, and reference number, which is bound to the FBI Background Check.
10 business days is the standard turnaround when the FBI Background Check is hand-delivered to the Federal Authentications Office in Washington DC. Same-day federal apostilles are only available in documented life-or-death emergencies and must be approved in advance by the US Department of State. Standard mail-in requests typically take 6-8 weeks or longer.
Yes. We ship apostilled FBI Background Checks worldwide by tracked courier. International shipping is available at checkout, with costs calculated based on the destination. If you are applying for your Spanish visa from outside the US, we can ship directly to your address abroad.
Yes. We handle your FBI Background Check and personal details securely, in line with US and EU data protection standards. Your documents are processed only by the authorised team handling your order and the federal authorities involved in issuing the apostille. We do not share your personal information with third parties outside of the apostille and translation process you have ordered.
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