Last Updated on April 18, 2026 by Bruno Bianchi
Question
Can you please advise if you have applied through the Los Angeles Consulate more recently? I got my live fingerprint scan, and it was sent digitally to the DOJ. CA I read somewhere that they only accept an FBI check and not the CA one for the Spain non lucrative visa. Does this mean the live scan I did is useless?
Answers
These are the answers of Spainguru’s Facebook group members:
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Start the Moving to Spain Hub →“Yes, it has to be an FBI check, they won’t accept a state check.”
“Contact the live scan place to see why they sent it to the wrong place and if they can send it to the correct place for free. We just did our live scan two days ago and are waiting for the background checks from FBI to come back.”
“Also be prepared for when you do receive the results that it will likely end up in your junk mail. That’s where I found mine and it had been sent the same day that I actually had my fingerprints done. So don’t delete your junk mail until you check it.”
“We did our scans at a local mailbox.inc that advertised fingerprint scanning. Took less than 6 hours to get email confirmation that we were clear. We used overnight delivery to send for the apostille and contacted our US representative by email to ask if they could follow up on the apostille. They did, we got the apostille back in about 2 weeks.”
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Explore Cities →“The FBI fingerprints are done at the post office. They send the result directly to the FBI, then you get the result in a day or two. Then you submit the result to the State Dept for apostille. Or you use a private apostille service.”
“Our FBI fingerprints took about 4 hours. The Apostille took about a month. All federal. I heard of people paying for a service to get the Apostille some but they took as long as just doing it yourself. Some took longer.”
“We did our fingerprints at our local police department. Cost $10 per person rather than $100 at the post office.
Only difference is you have to mail your prints to the FBI rather than have them sent electronically. Probably added an extra week or so, but if you have time and want to save about $90 per person, that’s an option.”
Conclusion
According to Spainguru’s Facebook group members, the LA Consulate does not accept California state background checks and requires an FBI check.
Many applicants recommend using live scan services that send results directly to the FBI and ensuring that the results do not end up in junk mail.
Some have used local police departments to complete fingerprinting at a lower cost, though this may add extra time for mailing.
Apostille processing times vary, with some managing to expedite the process through congressional representatives.
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