Here’s how to homologate a high school diploma in Spain: you ask the Ministry of Education to declare your foreign diploma equal to the Spanish título de Bachiller. Its full name is the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports (Ministerio de Educación, Formación Profesional y Deportes). You apply on the ministry’s official e-portal, then file the application at an official registry with your documents apostilled and translated. The fee is €49.76, and the legal deadline for a decision is three months.
You may have read online that homologation is no longer necessary. That’s only true in some cases, and only for getting into a Spanish university. There’s also a detail almost no one mentions. Since 2024, your homologation certificate shows your grade average. If your transcripts are incomplete, it shows a 5.00 out of 10.
Below you’ll find when it’s required and when it isn’t, what you need, the steps and the fee, the timeline, and the mistakes that cause the most delays.
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In 30 Seconds
- What it is: high school diploma homologation is Spain’s official declaration that your foreign diploma equals the Spanish título de Bachiller.
- When you can skip it: to enter a Spanish university with an EU diploma, the European Baccalaureate, the IB Diploma, or, from Colombia, the Saber 11 exam.
- The process: apply online, file at a registry and pay fee 079. That’s how to homologate a high school diploma in Spain.
- Timeline: three months from a complete file. Meanwhile, the conditional enrollment slip lets you register for classes.
What Homologation Is (and What It Isn’t)
Homologation is Spain’s official declaration that a secondary school diploma earned in a foreign education system is equivalent to the Spanish título de Bachiller. The Ministry of Education or the competent regional government decides it. You prove it with a homologation certificate (credencial), which has the same legal effect as the Spanish diploma.
It isn’t course validation (convalidación), which recognizes individual school years so you can keep studying at a Spanish school. It isn’t the recognition of university degrees, which is a separate procedure. And it isn’t the UNEDasiss accreditation, the document from Spain’s national distance-learning university (UNED) that you use to apply for a university place. If you’re still planning your move, start with our guide to the requirements for studying in Spain as a foreigner.
When You Need to Homologate Your Diploma, and When You Don’t
It depends on where your diploma is from and what you need it for: universities have exceptions, but vocational training and public-sector jobs still require homologation.
| Your situation | Do you need homologation? |
|---|---|
| University, with a diploma from an EU country, the European Baccalaureate or the IB Diploma | No. You apply for UNEDasiss accreditation |
| University, from Colombia with a diploma de bachiller and Saber 11 results | No, if you use the 2023 agreement |
| University, with a diploma from any other country (United States, Venezuela, Mexico, Morocco…) | Yes. UNEDasiss requires it; you can start with the conditional slip |
| Advanced vocational training (ciclo de grado superior) | Yes, unless you qualify another way, such as the entrance exam at age 19 |
| Civil service exams (subgroup C1) or a job that requires the título de Bachiller | Yes |
| Enrolling in primary or lower secondary school (ESO) | No. The school places you by age |
Is It True You No Longer Need to Homologate Your Diploma?
Only partly, and only for university. Royal Decree 534/2024, in force since June 2024, exempts students from EU education systems, from countries with a reciprocity agreement, and from the European or International Baccalaureate. That’s where the social media claim comes from, but it’s been stretched too far. If your diploma is from another country, or you want vocational training, a civil service job or a job that requires the diploma, the requirement still applies.
Colombia: The 2023 Agreement and the Saber 11 Exam
The agreement between Spain and Colombia, signed on May 4, 2023, lets students enter Spanish universities with their diploma de bachiller and Saber 11 results. You submit both to UNED, legalized and apostilled in Colombia, and UNED converts your score using the formulas in the agreement.
In practical terms: if you’re homologating a Colombian diploma only to get into university, the agreement saves you the process. For advanced vocational training or civil service exams, it doesn’t. It doesn’t guarantee a place either; admission still depends on your grade. If you’re planning the move, see how to emigrate to Spain from Colombia and, if you’re coming to study, the student visa for Spain.
Requirements for Homologating a High School Diploma in Spain
For the homologation of high school diplomas, the ministry requires your studies to be official, fully passed and equal in level, length and content to the Spanish Bachillerato.
- Official status: your studies and diploma must be official in your country. If you studied at a foreign school located in Spain, it must be authorized.
- Completed studies: every year passed, including earlier ones. Individual subjects can’t be homologated.
- Sufficient equivalence: in academic level, length and content.
- No chained recognition: a diploma obtained by homologating another country’s diploma doesn’t qualify.
- No Spanish diploma already: you can’t homologate what you already earned in Spain.
You’ll need transcripts for at least your last three years, showing subjects, grades and school years.
One point worth knowing early: not every school system lasts as long as Spain’s, so the ministry uses equivalence tables by country. The United States, for example, has its own specific rules. In Peru, the five years of secondary school are homologated to the título de Bachiller. The Spanish Embassy in Lima asks for the full 1st-to-5th-year certificate, not just the last three years. Check your country’s table before you gather documents.
Documents, Apostille and Sworn Translation
You’ll need to prove your identity, show you paid the fee, and submit your diploma and transcripts, legalized where needed and officially translated into Spanish.
- The application, printed and signed, with the conditional enrollment slip if you’ll use it.
- Your ID: passport, NIE (Foreigner Identification Number) or another identity document.
- Proof of payment of fee 079.
- A verified copy of your diploma, or of the official certificate showing you passed your final exams.
- A verified copy of your transcripts for each year, with subjects, grades and dates.
- Your Spanish academic record, if you completed any earlier year in Spain.
Legalization depends on where the document was issued:
| Where it was issued | What it needs |
|---|---|
| EU, European Economic Area or Switzerland | No legalization |
| Hague Apostille Convention countries (United States, Colombia, Mexico, Peru…) | An apostille from that country |
| All other countries | Diplomatic legalization: the country’s education and foreign affairs ministries, then the Spanish consulate |
Four options count as an official translation: a sworn translator authorized in Spain, a Spanish embassy or consulate, your country’s embassy or consulate in Spain, or an official translator in your country with a legalized signature.
Watch the order: first the original is apostilled or legalized, then the copies and translations are made. Legalization certifies the signature of the education authority that issued the document, not the signature on a copy.
How to Homologate a High School Diploma in Spain, Step by Step
You fill out the form online, then file it with your documents at an official registry.
- Gather and apostille your diploma and transcripts in your home country.
- Translate into Spanish anything that isn’t already in Spanish.
- Pay fee 079 using Form 790, in cash, at an authorized bank in Spain.
- Fill out the application on the Ministry of Education’s official e-portal and download the conditional enrollment slip.
- File everything at an official registry, where staff verify your copies against the originals and stamp your slip.
- Track your file on the e-portal and download your certificate once it’s decided.
Summary of the Steps
- Apostille your diploma and transcripts.
- Get an official translation.
- Pay fee 079 with Form 790.
- Fill out the application and slip online.
- File everything at an official registry.
- Track your file and download the certificate.
A tip that saves weeks: you don’t need an appointment at the Government Delegation. Any official registry works, including your local town hall’s. Just check whether that office requires an appointment to file documents.
How Much Does Homologation Cost?
The fee is €49.76, according to information from the Ministry of Education and the Spanish Embassy in Lima reviewed in September 2026. Law 53/2002 sets a base amount that Spain’s budget laws have updated over time, which is why different figures circulate online. Check the amount on Form 790 before paying: if you underpay, you’ll be asked to fix it, and if you don’t, your application will be considered withdrawn. Apostilles and translations cost extra.
Where Do You Apply If You Live in Catalonia, Galicia or the Basque Country?
With your regional government, not the ministry. If you live in one of these regions, the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Xunta de Galicia or the Basque Government handles your file under its own rules. In Barcelona, for instance, you apply to the Generalitat: the application is online, the fee is theirs, and residence is proven with your municipal registration (empadronamiento). Academic documents are filed in person, and if you don’t submit them within three months, the file is closed.
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Timeline, Conditional Enrollment Slip and GPA
The authorities have three months to decide from the date your file is complete, and in the meantime the slip lets you enroll.
How Long Does Homologation Take?
Three months from the date your file is complete, under Article 11 of Royal Decree 104/1988. If you’re asked for a document, the clock doesn’t start until you provide it. If three months pass with no answer, the application counts as denied by administrative silence. That lets you appeal, but the authorities must still issue a formal decision.
The conditional enrollment slip (volante de inscripción condicional) is a form you sign with your application and the registry stamps. With it, a school can enroll you, or you can register for official exams, on a conditional basis and for the period it states. It doesn’t predict the outcome: if you don’t get what you applied for, the enrollment and any exam results obtained with it are void.
Since a resolution dated July 3, 2024, the certificate shows your average grade. It covers the two years equal to Spain’s Bachillerato (roughly 11th and 12th grade), on Spain’s 0-10 scale. If you don’t provide what’s needed to calculate it, it shows a 5.00. If you have an older certificate without an average, you can request one that includes it.
Here’s an example with numbers. At Madrid’s public universities, for 2026-2027, the admission grade with a homologated diploma is 0.2 × your average + 4. Each of up to four passed Specific Competence Tests (PCE) adds 0.1 times its score. With an 8.50 average and no PCE, you get 5.70 and can only apply in the second-round (extraordinary) admissions. With four PCE scores of 8, you reach 8.90.
Mistakes That Delay or Derail Homologation
The easiest mistakes to avoid are in your paperwork and your timing.
- Apostilling the copy instead of the original: the apostille goes on the original; copies come after.
- Using a translator who isn’t official: you’ll have to redo the translation.
- Submitting only the diploma: without transcripts for each year you’ll be asked to complete your file, and your average may end up at 5.00.
- Paying an outdated fee amount: a figure from a two-year-old forum post may not be current.
- Believing it’s “no longer needed”: that applies to university in the cases above, not to vocational training or civil service exams.
- Leaving the apostille for last: it depends on your home country’s authorities and can take weeks.
- Applying to the ministry if you live in Catalonia, Galicia or the Basque Country.
Relocating Families: When to Start
If a company is relocating an employee to Spain with children who are finishing high school abroad, it pays to start homologation before the move.
Immigration offices don’t handle it, so it’s easy to miss in the moving plan. Yet it decides whether your child starts school on time. Apostilles are far easier to get while the family is still at home. And the stamped slip lets you secure a school place while the certificate is pending. In an employee relocation to Spain, it’s worth coordinating it with the employee’s permits and each child’s residence status, whether through the relocation itself or through family reunification.
Homologating a diploma is paperwork with calendar consequences. It decides whether you start on time, what grade you compete with, and whether you can apply for certain jobs. So the first question isn’t how to apply, but whether you need it at all, and for what.
At ILLAY Legal, as immigration advisors in Spain, we look at your whole situation, from your diploma to your visa or your family’s move. Then we tell you what you need and in what order. Our immigration lawyers in Spain review your documents with you, 100% online and in your language. Tell us where your diploma is from, what you want to do in Spain and where your paperwork stands. We’ll tell you whether you need homologation and how to file it to avoid requests for more documents.
Keep reading:
Frequently Asked Questions About High School Diploma Homologation in Spain
What is the equivalent of a high school diploma in Spain?
The título de Bachiller. Spanish students complete six years of primary school, four of compulsory secondary education (ESO) and two of Bachillerato, usually finishing at 17 or 18. A US high school diploma is compared with that final two-year stage, not with the ESO. If your studies don’t match its level, length or content, the ministry may instead recognize a lower stage, such as the ESO certificate. That’s why the equivalence table for your country matters as much as the diploma itself.
What is a high school diploma called in Spain?
Título de Bachiller. Bachillerato is the name of the two-year stage, and Bachiller is the diploma you earn when you finish it. Don’t confuse it with the university entrance exam, commonly called selectividad and now officially the PAU, which is separate and optional depending on your route. The lower-secondary certificate is the Graduado en Educación Secundaria Obligatoria. When a Spanish form or job listing asks for “Bachiller,” it means the full high school diploma or its homologated equivalent.
Can I apply for homologation from outside Spain?
Yes. You fill out the application on the e-portal from any country and file it, with your documents, at the registry of a Spanish embassy or consulate. The fee is then paid by bank transfer to the Spanish Treasury account at the Bank of Spain listed by the ministry. Bank charges are your responsibility and can’t reduce the amount received. Starting from home has a practical advantage: you get the apostilles there and arrive in Spain with your stamped slip.
What happens if my homologation is denied?
You can appeal. The decision ends the administrative stage, and you can file a request for reconsideration with the same authority or go straight to the courts (contentious-administrative appeal); the notice tells you the deadline. First, read the reason carefully. If your studies fall short in length or content, another route may fit better, such as course validation or homologation to the ESO certificate. If the problem was a document, weigh whether to appeal or file a new, complete application.
Should I use a specialized firm or handle homologation on my own?
You can do it yourself: the procedure is designed for individuals and doesn’t require a lawyer. Professional help pays off when several pieces must fit together: a student visa with fixed dates, a country with its own rules, name mismatches, or a family move with several children. A firm can’t speed up the government. What it adds is filing a complete file, in the right order, from day one, which is what prevents requests for more documents.
Can I speed up the homologation process?
Only in some cases. The ministry doesn’t list an expedited procedure on its official page, so its benchmark is three months. In Catalonia, however, the Generalitat allows expedited processing for applications filed since March 4, 2025. You can request it with a firm job offer, a public-sector recruitment process or the need to continue university studies. Anywhere in Spain, what really speeds things up is filing a complete, properly apostilled file from the start.
I’m a US student. Do I need to homologate my diploma to study in Spain?
Usually yes, if you’re applying to a Spanish public university, because the US system isn’t among those exempted by Royal Decree 534/2024, and UNEDasiss generally requires homologation or at least your application for it. The student visa itself doesn’t ask for the certificate: Royal Decree 1155/2024 requires admission to a recognized higher education institution. The catch is that admission usually depends on homologation. Plan both together with our complete guide to the student visa in Spain.
