If anyone still needs help with applying for a Spanish Criminal Certificate from India, these are the steps I followed:
1. Obtain a certified copy of your passport (Hague Apostille) - I got this done through BLS International. It's mostly painless, but you may need to follow up and it can take a few days.
2. Download the Form 790 006 from the Spanish Ministry of Justice website. If you need help with filling this form, an English translation is available here:
http://www.expatsinspain.eu/PDF Files/Criminal Record Certificate (Form 790).pdf
You won't be able to fill in the CCC (Client Account Code) for where the funds are being sent from since Indian bank accounts don't have IBANs.
3. Find an appropriate means to pay the fee for the certificate to the Ministry of Justice account. The fee is EUR 3.82 just now, and a lot of banks/organisations will not transfer such a small amount. I was able to organise a transfer through HDFC Bank. You will need to include the confirmation of payment with your application - I attached the Swift Payment Advice for my application.
4. Obtain a prepaid return label from correos.es (
https://www.correos.es/es/es/particulares/enviar/enviar-al-extranjero/paquetes-al-extranjero). I used the international priority option to have my certificate sent back to India. Stick this on an envelope for them to return your certificate to you.
5. I don't know if these steps are necessary
- I included a cover letter stating the period that I lived in Spain, and the passport and NIE numbers that I traveled under. I asked a friend to translate this to Spanish. I included both English and Spanish letters in my application package.
- I included a photocopy of my expired passport (bio/address pages) and NIE (without any legalisation) which I used in Spain, as well as all expired passports that I had since that time.
6. Send all the documents to the Ministry of Justice - it turns out that my documents were not delivered to the address listed on the MoJ website (Calle Bolsa 8), but instead were somehow redirected to San Bernardo 45. I have seen this address listed on the Embassy of Spain in Ireland's website. You will need to confirm the correct address that your application needs to be sent to since I may have got lucky.
I received the certificate after about 3 weeks - the tracking info didn't update for about 2 weeks until it arrived in India. The certificate is in black and white with the Ministry of Justice legalisation on the back.
Extra:
I ended up sending a second application for the certificate since my first certificate was stuck with Correos. I thought it would be easier to have this sent to a friend in Spain, so I included a prepaid envelope for delivery in Spain, as well as an authorisation to send the certificate by email to me and to send the certificate to my friend in Spain. After approximately 2 weeks, I have not received an email, nor have I seen any updates to the tracking of the prepaid envelope. The issues with this application could either be with the delivery address (FedEx couldn't deliver to Calle Bolsa 8) or with the authorisation, so please check with others if you plan to try getting the letter sent to friends in Spain.
