ACRO police certificate: sworn translation for your Spanish visa

This is the catalogue price for a criminal record certificate: there is no surcharge for the UK or for same-day delivery. Payment is by card in pounds or euros through Stripe, or through Wise, once you approve the quote in writing.

The ACRO Police Certificate is the UK criminal record check issued for visa and immigration purposes by the ACRO Criminal Records Office, from the data held on the Police National Computer; for most applicants the result reads "no trace". It is not the same as a DBS check, which is for employers. You apply online and the certificate arrives by post; scan every page.

Before translation, the certificate needs an apostille from the FCDO Legalisation Office. The apostille certifies the signature on the certificate so the document is valid in Spain; the sworn translation is the next step and is done on the apostilled document.

Most consulates and immigration offices want the certificate to be less than three months old on the application date, so order the ACRO once your appointment is close and leave the translation for last. The sworn translation itself does not expire.

Whether the apostille page must be translated depends on the authority: some consulates want every page in Spanish, others only the certificate. Check the checklist of your consulate (London, Edinburgh or Manchester) or of your immigration office in Spain, or send it to me and I will tell you. For financial thresholds, fees and processing times, go to your consulate's official page or to an immigration lawyer: on this page I keep to the document and the translation.

Since the UK left the European Union, British citizens apply for the same long-stay visas as other non-EU nationals, and anyone who has lived in the UK in recent years is asked for the ACRO certificate. It appears in these files:

• Non-lucrative visa: together with the medical certificate, proof of funds and health insurance.
• Digital nomad visa: with the employer letter or contracts and the company certificate.
• Student visa for stays over six months, and work visas.
• Residence and citizenship from within Spain: the immigration office and the civil registry ask anyone who has lived in the UK for the apostilled, translated ACRO.

If you are translating several documents at once, the Spain Visa Pack covers the ACRO certificate with the medical certificate and a birth or marriage certificate for one fixed price.

In the UK a certified translation is a translation with a signed statement of accuracy, and any translator or agency can issue one. In Spain a sworn translation (traducción jurada) is signed and stamped by a translator appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and that is what Spanish law requires for foreign documents before a Spanish authority. Consulates accept sworn translations without question, and once you are in Spain, the immigration office that issues your residence card (TIE), the town hall and the civil registry accept nothing else, so one translation covers the visa and everything after it.

My translation reproduces the whole document: the ACRO letterhead, the holder's details, the result, the seal, the signature block and, if the authority requires it, the apostille, each element labelled so the officer can match it to the original. It carries my certification, signature and stamp on every page and the qualified electronic signature on the PDF.