Documents from Mexico for a Spanish nationality file: criminal record, birth certificate, apostille and validity

Where each document comes from, who issues the apostille, how long each one stays valid and what Spain's own texts say about legalisation and translation, with a source under every line. Free.

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Last checked: 19 October 2026. Check the official page: sede.mjusticia.gob.es.

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• Criminal record
• Birth and marriage
• Apostille
• Translation
• Consulates
• Order
• Validity clock

1. Criminal record certificate

The Mexican Government's page for the Constancia de Antecedentes Penales Federales (CAPF) lists the Órgano Administrativo Desconcentrado Prevención y Reinserción Social as its dependencia (agency)^[1] and describes it as a certificate you obtain and download online.^[2]

Criminal record certificate from Mexico: who issues it and how long it stays valid

2. Birth certificate, and marriage certificate if you are married

The national civil registry platform on gob.mx describes the online birth record as the official digital copy that certifies a person's birth.^[1] Among its requirements it lists the CURP or the data of the birth record (full name, date and place of birth) of the registered person.^[2] It lists the cost as different in each federal entity^[3] and the validity as "Sin vigencia" (no validity period).^[4]

The same platform has a page for the online marriage certificate, which it describes as a digital document showing legally that a couple is married.^[5]

The Barcelona consulate says consulates can issue certified copies of birth, marriage, divorce or death records originally issued by a Registro Civil office in Mexico or by a Mexican embassy or consulate abroad.^[6] It says this service is carried out only at the Consulate of Mexico in Barcelona or at the consular section of the Mexican Embassy in Spain.^[7]

Spain asks for the birth certificate of the country of origin, legalised and translated where needed.^[13] If you are married, it also asks for the marriage certificate of the country where the marriage took place.^[14] The order says only "certificado de nacimiento"; we found no official Spanish text for this route saying whether it wants an extract or a literal copy: ask the registry.

3. Apostille and legalisation

The HCCH status table lists Mexico with an accession dated 1 December 1994 and entry into force on 14 August 1995.^[1] The HCCH page lists the Dirección de Coordinación Política con los Poderes de la Unión as the apostille authority for federal documents^[2] and says 32 competent authorities are designated to issue apostilles for state documents.^[3] The same HCCH page prints a price of $1,878.39 MXN per document,^[4] which is not the fee printed on the Secretaría's procedure sheet (below): the two pages differ, so check the live page.

The Secretaría de Gobernación's information page (dated 15 November 2016) says it apostilles original documents issued in Mexico by, among others, bodies of the federal public administration.^[5] It lists birth, divorce and marriage records among the documents it does not apostille,^[6] and says these must be apostilled at the Secretaría de Gobierno of the state where they were issued.^[7] The Barcelona consulate says the same for any document issued by a state authority.^[8]

For the CAPF, the Barcelona consulate says that for it to have legal validity for procedures in Spain you must obtain the apostille from the Secretaría de Gobernación in Mexico City.^[9] The Secretaría's procedure sheet on gob.mx describes an online route that applies only to the apostille of federal criminal record certificates issued by the Secretaría de Seguridad y Protección Ciudadana,^[10] through the portal https://apostillaylegalizacionmexico.segob.gob.mx/apostilla.^[11] For a state criminal record certificate, the Barcelona consulate says it must also bear the apostille to take effect in Spain.^[12]

The same procedure sheet says that on the online route you pay by a line of capture at a bank counter or in online banking, and that the payment is credited within a maximum of 72 hours after the deposit,^[14] and that you receive the apostille by email and print it in colour.^[15] It prints a fee of $2,126.14 MXN^[16] and a response time of 4 working days ("días hábiles"),^[17] printed once for the procedure without naming a route. In its part on delivery time it gives, for electronic means, 72 working hours after the deposit and once the tax authority (SAT) validates the payment.^[18] We found no Spanish page saying whether a printed digital apostille is accepted in a nationality file: ask the registry.

The Barcelona consulate says Mexican embassies and consulates abroad do not apostille documents.^[19]

Spain's Foreign Ministry says documents from countries that signed the Apostille Convention are not legalised.^[20] It also says legalisation has no expiry date but, if the document has a validity period, legalisation does not extend it.^[21] That sentence sits in the page's description of legalisation by the Ministry and does not mention the apostille.

4. Translation into Spanish

We found no official Mexican or Spanish page saying, for a nationality file, that a document already in Spanish needs, or does not need, a translation. Spain's order says "traducido en su caso" for the birth certificate and "traducido" for the criminal record.^[1][2]

The Spanish Ministry of Justice warning says translation is done or checked at Spanish consulates abroad or at the consular offices in Spain of the document's country of origin, and that the documents must then be legalised. It adds that a sworn translator-interpreter named by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can do the translation or check.^[3][4]

5. Consulates in Spain

The Barcelona consulate's page on certified copies says that service is carried out only at the Consulate of Mexico in Barcelona or at the consular section of the Mexican Embassy in Spain.^[1] The Barcelona consulate's contact page gives its address as Paseo de la Bonanova, 55, 08017 Barcelona,^[2] and the Madrid request form gives the consular section's address as Carrera de San Jerónimo 46, 28014 Madrid.^[3]

The Barcelona page lists the autonomous communities each office covers: for Barcelona, Aragón, Cataluña, Islas Baleares and Valencia,^[4] and for the Embassy's consular section, Andalucía, Asturias, Canarias, Cantabria, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Galicia, La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia, Navarra, el País Vasco, Ceuta and Melilla.^[5] The Embassy's directory of Mexican consular offices in Spain names the Embassy's consular section and the Barcelona consulate as the consular representations the Mexican Government has to serve the Mexican community and provide procedures and services in Spain.^[6]

6. Order of requests and validity

Spain's order says that all documents must be in force when you apply.^[1] For certificates, the validity stated on the certificate itself counts,^[2] and a criminal record certificate with no stated validity counts for six months from the day it was issued.^[3]

Legalisation does not make a document last longer. Spain's Foreign Ministry says legalisation has no expiry date but that, if the document has a validity period, legalisation does not extend it.^[4]

When you create the online application you have two months to complete and file it, or it is deleted.^[5]

1. Find out what validity, if any, each issuer prints on its certificate (the sections above say what we found).
2. Request first the documents that need an apostille and a sworn translation, since those steps come after issue.
3. Request the criminal record certificate when you can still finish its apostille and translation inside its validity.
4. Type its issue date in the clock below and file before the "valid until" date it shows.
5. Create the online application only when you are close to filing: from creation you have two months.

Next steps

The nationality file, step by step

Your file silent after a year

Years to Spanish nationality by country

Criminal record certificate from Mexico: who issues it and how long it stays valid

Where is my Spanish nationality file? The official ways to check it

The Spanish nationality oath (jura): what to bring and where to do it

Years, exams and fee for Spanish nationality by country of origin: open data

Explanation written with AI from the official source cited on this page.

CiviqPass is an independent service. Built from the texts linked beside each line; procedures change, so confirm on the official pages.