How long degree recognition takes in Spain
The legal deadline is six months from the day your application enters the electronic register. What decides your real experience is not that number: it is how many times they have to ask you for something missing.
Updated: 2026-08-22
The legal deadline: six months, and where it comes from
Article 18.3 of Royal Decree 889/2022 is explicit: the decision must be issued and notified within a maximum of six months from the date the application entered the electronic register. That is the commitment the rule imposes on the administration, and it is the only deadline with legal backing that anyone can quote at you.
It is worth looking closely at the starting point, because that is where most of the confusion creeps in. The clock starts when your application is filed, not on the day you decided to get your degree recognised. Everything before that — obtaining the academic transcript from your university, apostilling, translating — is your own time, happens before the file exists and does not count towards the deadline. In many cases that preparatory phase lasts as long as the procedure itself, and it is, as it happens, the only phase entirely in your hands.
Why we will not give you a «real timeline» figure
We could put an attractive number here. We will not, for a simple reason: the Ministry does not publish official average decision times for these files. Any specific figure circulating on forums and blogs is an extrapolation from a handful of cases, with no control over the sample, no distinction between procedures or countries of origin, and usually no date attached.
That kind of data is worse than no data, because it gets used for expensive decisions: accepting or turning down a job offer, booking a move, counting on a salary from a given month. We would rather tell you what is verified — the legal deadline — and be precise about what makes it vary. Qualitatively, applicants' experience points to processing longer than the legal deadline depending on the authority's caseload and the complexity of the file; that is all anyone can honestly assert.
The practical consequence is about planning: treat the legal deadline as the best reasonable scenario, not as a delivery date, and do not commit anything irreversible against it.
If a website promises recognition «in X weeks», it is selling you a timeline neither the law nor the Ministry backs. Nobody can speed up the administrative decision; the only thing that can be accelerated is everything that happens before filing.
What genuinely delays a file
Almost all the time lost in these procedures is lost for the same five reasons. None is mysterious and nearly all are avoidable before filing.
What you do control
The preparatory phase decides whether your file runs clean or stutters. Asking your university for a transcript with explicit workload, apostilling before translating — not the other way round, since the apostille gets translated too — commissioning the sworn translation from an authorised translator, and checking the exact fee amount before transferring: four decisions that cost no extra time if taken in the right order and that prevent most requests for correction.
The second factor under your control is monitoring. Requests are notified electronically and carry a response deadline; a notification you miss is pure dead time. That is exactly what we do: we assemble the file so there is nothing left to ask you for, and we watch its status so we can answer the same day if something arrives.
And the third is almost psychological: do not restart the procedure out of impatience. Withdrawing and refiling resets the clock and triggers the fee again. A correct file in progress always beats a brand-new one.
Other destinations do not work like this
The six-month framework is specifically Spanish. Other destinations we handle run on different logics and timelines, and if your decision depends on the calendar it is worth comparing before choosing a country. On each destination page we set out the competent authority, the documents and the timeline that authority does publish.
What people ask us most
Exactly how long does degree recognition take in Spain?
The legal decision deadline is six months from the entry of the application in the electronic register, under article 18.3 of RD 889/2022. The Ministry publishes no real average times, so any other figure you find has no official backing.
When do the six months start counting?
From the date the application enters the electronic register. The preparation beforehand — transcript, apostille, sworn translation — does not count, even though in practice it is often a substantial part of the total calendar.
Can the procedure be sped up by paying more?
There is no fast track and no premium fee for the decision. The only phase that can be accelerated is the preparation: getting documents sooner and filing them without errors so no correction is requested.
What happens if I am asked to correct documents?
The file waits for your response and that time adds to the total. That is why the goal when filing is to leave nothing to correct: it is the only real lever on the calendar.
Can I check the status of my file?
Yes, through the Ministry's electronic office using your application details. Notifications are electronic and carry response deadlines, so it is worth checking regularly.
Verified against official sources
- RD 889/2022, art. 18.3 — decision deadline (BOE-A-2022-17045)
- Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities
- Electronic office of the Ministry of Education
Informational guide. It does not replace the legal text or the instructions issued by the competent authority.
The other guides in this series
Your case doesn't quite fit?
Every file has its nuance: where you studied, your curriculum, whether your profession is regulated. We review your case and tell you which procedure applies before you pay anything.