Obtain a national criminal-record check, apostilled and translated into Spanish — must be issued within 90 days of applying, so allow several weeks (US: an FBI-approved channeler speeds it up)

Spain asks long-stay applicants for a clean criminal record from the country (or countries) where you've recently lived — apostilled, and translated into Spanish by a sworn translator. Validity windows are short and the issuing bureaucracy is slow, so this is a timing puzzle: order it late enough to stay valid, early enough to arrive. The title's 90-day validity and the US channeler shortcut come straight from consular practice — check your consulate's exact wording.