Trámite veterans, I need your advice.

[steveinbsas]

[quote name='Don'tMindMe'] I mean, my passport has a zillion stamps. One look and they will know how much time I spent there. The last thing I wanted was for them to at the last minute say, oh by the way, we need a background check. So I figured better safe than sorry. [/QUOTE]

And the last, last thing you want is to be turned down for the visa for not being forthcoming in the first place.

 

[DontMindMe]

Update (prices and information from April 4-5, 2012):

Got it done with minimal hassle. In the end the Spanish consulate at home told me that getting the certificado legalized by the Spanish consulate in BA would be good enough for them, but when I took it to the consulate in BA they told me they didn't do that and sent me to get the apostilla de la haya (apostille of the Hague).

Getting the certificado took less than a day because I went 30 minutes before the Registro Nacional de Reincidencia by Tribunales opened and paid for the six-hour option, which cost 80 pesos. I got to skip some of the line because I had made a turno online for 7:30 a.m. and showed the printout to the guard at the door. I got to the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores in the Plaza San Martín by 9:30 a.m. the next day and was out of there by 11:15 (the apostille cost 39 pesos).

Thus concludes my BA trámite odyssey, which luckily wasn't much of an odyssey at all in the end. Just kind of expensive because I needed two originals of everything, for a total of 238 pesos.