It doesn't expire on its own. Somebody has to ask.
A spent conviction stays on the Spanish register until it is cancelled — and while it sits there it blocks residence applications, renewals and citizenship. Under article 136 of the Código Penal, cancellation is a right once the period has run. We work out whether yours has, and file it.
Most people discover the problem when a renewal is refused. By then the record has usually been cancellable for years.
Four steps, one of which is just arithmetic
And the arithmetic is where applications get refused: the period runs from the sentence being served, not from the judgment.
Establishing what is actually on the register
People are often wrong about their own record — either because a case ended without a conviction and they assume it left a mark, or because they served a sentence years ago and assume it has quietly disappeared. It has not: entries in the Registro Central de Penados remain until they are cancelled. The first step is obtaining the certificate and reading precisely what is recorded and when it became final.
Working out when the clock finishes
Article 136 of the Código Penal sets the periods, counted from the day the sentence was served or extinguished: six months for minor offences, two years for sentences not exceeding twelve months, three years for other less serious penalties, five years for serious penalties up to five years, and ten years for the gravest. The date the period starts from is the part people get wrong, and it is the part that decides whether the application succeeds or is simply refused as premature.
Filing the cancellation
Cancellation is applied for before the Ministerio de Justicia, with proof that the sentence has been served or extinguished and that the period has elapsed, and that civil liability has been satisfied or declared unenforceable. It is a right once the conditions are met, not a discretionary favour — but it is not automatic either. Nobody cancels it for you, and the record sits there indefinitely until somebody asks.
Unblocking whatever it was blocking
For most of our clients this is not an end in itself. A live record is what refused the residence application, held up the renewal, or stopped the citizenship file. Once the cancellation comes through we go straight back to that application with a clean certificate — and where the refusal was recent, sometimes the better route is to attack the refusal and the record in parallel.
Cancellation of criminal records is governed by article 136 of the Código Penal. The applicable period and its starting date are confirmed against your own sentence and certificate, never assumed.
From the certificate to the permit it was blocking
Pull the certificate
We obtain your certificado de antecedentes penales and the sentence details, so that we are working from the register rather than from memory. This alone resolves a surprising number of cases, in both directions.
Calculate the date
We fix the day the qualifying period began — completion or extinction of the sentence, not the date of the offence and not the date of the judgment — and tell you whether you can apply now or exactly when you can.
File it, with the proof attached
The application goes to the Ministerio de Justicia with the evidence that the sentence is served, the period has run and civil liability is dealt with. Incomplete applications are the usual cause of refusal, and they cost months.
Then the file it was blocking
With a clean certificate we return to the residence, renewal or citizenship application that stalled — either re-filing it properly or, where a refusal is still within its deadline, appealing it with the new fact in hand.
The questions behind the refusal letter
Does a Spanish criminal record really stop me getting residence or citizenship?
It can, and it routinely does. A clean criminal record is required across large parts of Spanish immigration law — residence applications, many renewals and, notably, citizenship by residence, where the requirement of good civic conduct is assessed and a live entry weighs heavily against you. That is why cancellation is usually not a tidying-up exercise but the thing standing between an applicant and the permit they have otherwise earned.
How long do I have to wait before I can cancel it?
It depends on the penalty, and the periods are set by article 136 of the Código Penal: six months for minor offences (penas leves), two years for sentences not exceeding twelve months, three years for the remaining less serious penalties, five years for serious penalties of up to five years, and ten years for those above. The critical detail is that the clock runs from the day the sentence was served or otherwise extinguished, not from the date of the offence or the judgment — which is why people so often apply a year too early and are refused.
Does it not cancel itself automatically after the period?
No, and this is the misunderstanding that costs the most. The entry stays on the Registro Central de Penados until cancellation is applied for and granted. There are people walking around with records that became cancellable a decade ago, discovering the fact only when a residence renewal is refused. If the period has run, you are entitled to it — but somebody has to ask.
I have a conviction from my home country, not from Spain. Is that the same thing?
No, and the routes are entirely different. This page is about entries in the Spanish register. A foreign conviction is dealt with through your own country's system, and what Spain generally requires for immigration purposes is a certificate of criminal record from the countries where you have lived, legalised or apostilled and officially translated. If your problem is a foreign record affecting a Spanish application, tell us — the strategy is different, and it is worth ten minutes to work out which situation you are actually in.
My case ended without a conviction. Is there anything to cancel?
Probably not, and that is worth checking rather than assuming in either direction. An acquittal, a dismissal or a case that never reached judgment does not produce an entry in the criminal record register in the way a conviction does. People nevertheless carry the anxiety for years and, more practically, sometimes discover that a separate record exists which they had confused with the criminal one. Pulling the certificate settles it in days.
Can you do this if I no longer live in Spain?
Yes. The application is documentary and we run it by power of attorney for clients who have left, which is a common situation: people move on, and then years later a return, a visa application or a citizenship file runs into a record nobody dealt with. You do not need to fly back to Spain to have it cancelled.
Reviewed by a lawyer
Reviewed by Alberto García López
Immigration lawyer · ICA Málaga, reg. no. 11.441
We check every page against current Spanish law. This is general information, not advice on your individual case.
Globalium is an independent law firm, not a government agency, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any public administration. Visas, permits and identification numbers are granted solely by the Spanish authorities, and you are free to apply to them directly yourself. Our fees pay for legal advice and representation, and are separate from any official fee or tax.
Tell us the sentence and the date. We'll do the arithmetic.
If the period has run we file it. If it has not, we tell you the exact date it does — so you can plan the residence or citizenship application around a real deadline instead of a guess.
+34 667 77 02 19 · infoglobalextranjeria@gmail.com
P.S. — if you are about to file for citizenship, pull the certificate first. Finding out from the Ministry is considerably more expensive than finding out from us.