Almost every page on this subject gives you one number per country. We went to the consulates to check those numbers and found the premise is wrong: these windows are published per post, and posts within the same country disagree with each other about whether the document is even required.

Every source we have read

The three mistakes that cost people appointments

Counting from the apostille date. The window runs from the day the FBI issued the report. Getting it apostilled in month five does not buy you six more months.

Counting to the wrong end date. Spanish consulates word it as issued within six months prior to submission. Not to your appointment confirmation, and not to the decision.

Trusting a national number. There is no national number. Your jurisdiction is decided by where you live and you cannot choose a different consulate because you prefer its rules.

Where the 90 days actually comes from

Portugal. We held this page open for a while because we would not publish a number we had not read, and the second-hand sources contradicted each other. Then we found the Portuguese Embassy in Washington’s own D7 checklist, which says the FBI certificate must be issued less than 90 days before the application is submitted.

So 90 days is real, and it is Portugal’s. It then got copied onto Spain, where all four consulates we read say six months. One number, two countries, correct for one of them. If you are applying to Spain on a 90-day assumption you are rushing for no reason; if you are applying to Portugal on a six-month assumption you have a serious problem.

Working backwards

Fingerprints, then the FBI report, which arrives electronically and can be printed. Then the federal apostille: about two weeks in person, five or more by mail. Then a translation if your post needs one. Three to four weeks end to end through a courier is realistic. A six-month window is comfortable; a 90-day window is not, which is exactly why the wrong number sells so much rush service.