Applying for a Spanish Non-Lucrative Visa, Digital Nomad Visa, student visa, or residency permit means navigating one of the most document-heavy processes in Spanish bureaucracy — and your FBI or RCMP background check sits at the center of it. Get the apostille, the translation, or the timing wrong, and you’re not looking at a minor delay. You’re looking at a resubmission, a missed appointment window, or a rejection from Extranjería.
If you’ve searched for background check and apostille services for Spain, you’ve almost certainly come across large international providers, which operate across multiple countries.
Big, multi-country platforms like that have their place. But Tu Apostilla was built around a different idea: instead of serving every country in the world, we work in exactly two — Spain and Portugal — handling U.S. and Canadian documents into those countries and nothing else. We do it from an office in Girona, inside the system our clients are trying to navigate.
Here’s an honest look at what that difference actually means for you — starting with the number most applicants actually care about: from the moment you’re fingerprinted, Tu Apostilla returns your FBI or RCMP background check results in 20 calendar days, excluding U.S. federal holidays.
1. One Corridor vs. a Global Network
Tu Apostilla doesn’t try to compete on that breadth. We work in only two destination countries — Spain and Portugal — handling U.S. and Canadian documents into each. That’s it. That focus means:
- We track Extranjería (and the equivalent Portuguese authorities’) changes to background check validity windows (the 90-day rule that trips up so many applicants), apostille formatting, and sworn translation requirements — because it’s the only rule set we work with.
- Our team is based in Spain, not routing your case through a call center in a different time zone from the countries actually reviewing your paperwork.
Neither model is objectively “better” for every applicant — but specialization also shows up in something concrete: speed. From the moment we take your fingerprints, Tu Apostilla returns your FBI or RCMP background check results in 20 calendar days, excluding U.S. federal holidays. That’s a number we can commit to precisely because we’re not managing dozens of country-specific pipelines at once — this corridor is the only one we run.
2. MAEC-Authorized Sworn Translation, Not a Generic Add-On
Spanish authorities don’t accept just any translation of your background check — it has to come from a traductor jurado authorized by Spain’s Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, Unión Europea y Cooperación (MAEC). This is a specific, checkable credential, not a marketing claim.
At Tu Apostilla, sworn translation is built into the core service, not outsourced or bolted on afterward. Your FBI or RCMP check, its apostille, and its MAEC-certified Spanish translation are handled as one coordinated file — which matters because Spanish universities, notaries, courts, and immigration offices are the ones ultimately deciding whether your paperwork gets accepted.
3. What Real Clients Say
Rather than ask you to take our word for it, here’s what shows up in our verified Google reviews:
One recent client described working with our team member Gabriel as reassuring — they felt comfortable handing over responsibility for their background check and said the process felt efficient, with real people involved at every step rather than an automated pipeline. Another client, going through the fingerprinting process, specifically called out Gabriel and Alexandro by name for keeping the process organized and said they’d recommend the company for exactly that reason.
That’s the kind of specific, attributable feedback that’s easy to verify — and it’s a better trust signal than any tagline.
4. What the FBI/RCMP-to-Spain Process Actually Involves
If you’re early in this process, here’s the general shape of it, regardless of which provider you use:
- Order your background check. For FBI checks, this typically means going through an FBI-approved channeler or submitting fingerprints directly. RCMP checks follow a parallel process through Canadian channels. Working through Tu Apostilla, results are back within 20 calendar days of fingerprinting, excluding U.S. federal holidays.
- Obtain the apostille. Once your background check results are in hand, they need an apostille from the relevant U.S. state or federal authority (or the Canadian equivalent) — standard U.S. Department of State processing commonly runs several weeks on top of that, with expedited options available in limited cases.
- Get a sworn Spanish translation. This must come from a MAEC-authorized traductor jurado — a standard translation, even a good one, will not be accepted.
- Submit within the validity window. Spanish authorities generally require the background check to be dated within 90 days (sometimes longer, depending on the office and visa type) of submission — so timing your apostille and translation steps matters as much as getting them right.
Missing any one of these steps, or getting the sequencing wrong, is the single most common reason applications get sent back.
5. Choosing What Fits Your Situation
If you need apostille or background check services across multiple countries at once, a global network is a reasonable choice. If your paperwork is specifically U.S. or Canadian documents headed into Spain or Portugal, working with a team that handles nothing else — and is physically based where your documents will ultimately be reviewed — is worth weighing.
Have questions about your specific visa timeline or document type? Reach out to Tu Apostilla and we’ll walk you through exactly what your application needs.
