Criminal Records in Spain: Certificates and Expungement in Spain

An uncancelled record affects employment, professional licences, firearms and security authorisations, and any activity involving minors. For non-EU nationals it has a direct effect on immigration: applications for residence, renewals and applications for Spanish nationality all require a clean record, and article 31 of the Immigration Act allows renewal to be refused where there are convictions.

Convictions are also exchanged between EU member states through the ECRIS system, so a Spanish conviction is visible to the authorities of other member states and vice versa. Where a record has already caused an adverse immigration decision, the cancellation of the record is frequently the precondition for reversing it, and the two applications should be planned together rather than in sequence.

Criminal convictions in Spain are recorded in the Registro Central de Penados, held by the Ministry of Justice. The criminal record certificate reflects only final convictions, and it must be distinguished from police intelligence records, which follow separate rules. For most everyday purposes, such as employment or residence procedures, it is this certificate that is requested.

A conviction does not remain on the certificate forever. The Criminal Code provides for the cancellation of records once certain periods have elapsed, so that a person who has served the sentence and not reoffended can obtain a clean certificate. Understanding which entries appear, and when they can be removed, is often as important as the original proceedings.

For foreign nationals in particular, an outstanding criminal record can affect residence and work authorisations, the renewal of permits, access to certain regulated professions and, in some cases, travel. An entry that should already have been cancelled can therefore cause real and avoidable harm.

Because the consequences reach well beyond the criminal court, we assess the certificate together with the client’s wider situation, so that the timing of an application to cancel is aligned with any pending immigration or professional procedure.

It is important to distinguish three different registers. The Registro Central de Penados records final convictions and is the basis of the ordinary criminal record certificate. Police intelligence files are separate and follow their own rules. And the Central Register of Sex Offenders holds specific entries that are required, for example, for work involving regular contact with minors.

Because each register serves a different purpose and has different cancellation rules, the correct question is not simply whether a person “has a record”, but which register is involved and what it will show for the specific procedure at hand.

The moment at which a cancellation is requested can matter as much as the request itself. Where a residence renewal, a work authorisation or a professional registration is pending, we align the timing of the application so that the certificate presented to the relevant authority is already clean.

This coordination avoids the common situation in which an entry that should have been removed causes the refusal or delay of an unrelated but important procedure.